Blooms from my Buddies

Please click on each picture for a clearer image.

Caveat: it gets sweet to the extent of being cloying!

Imagine an infant in layered ditsy floral dress stretching out her hands, little fingers splayed, in supplication to be lifted up. Months later she toddles around in a shirred top and skirt: bouncing, staggering, and falling, as if she's got no bones in her, only to get up and run as fast as her feet can carry her. Well, it's a delight to watch them grow!

I felt the same way to witness this plant growing, on my LCD screen only, as it belongs to a friend a couple of continents away. Months back the little one with green glossy leaves just had two bright hibiscus flowers on it like twinsies, and then four at a time, bouncing to six at one go! How lovely, isn't it? I'm sure, with his utmost care, the tiny tot will flourish in coming months!

These maroon-yellow petunias of stark contrast mark the beginning of the flowering season, and as the months progress a play of dramatic colours unfold in his garden. 

It gets bedecked with exotic blooms of tulips and orchids soon after.

These hanging pots belong to him too. Along with the bright tulips and a veggie patch, these pots bring out the colour of the lovely family during spring and onset of summer!

That's not all. Quite a colourful person himself, he tends bright fish in his cherished koi pond. Needless to mention, these lovely lilies and their blushing buds by that pond match up to the intense colours of their fine finny neighbours as the months roll.

The kois and carps are hardly ever alone!

                                       Koi pond 

This uber-fashionable lily dominates the area by koi-pond, flaunting her violet vibrance all day. Sometimes, she lets her petal down perfunctorily and flashes the stark yellow inside, sponging up every bit of soft summer sunshine.

A closer look

What else can complement that burst of colours other than these snow-white lilies? 

And this cluster of peonies looks straight out of a page of some romantic story, innocent, untouched, like a princess yet to meet her love.

Can his spectacular collection of colours be complete without roses? As summer hands the baton over to fall, these blooms hurry up to wrap the year by putting up an extravagant show.

Hello there! Look at you dashing and flashing in a brilliant yellow nestled perfectly within the verdure! You certainly look quite dapper, don't you?

Nobody's going to be drawn, hung, and quartered for swooning over his beauties, simpering in the setting sun.

Magic mirror on the wall, who's the most beautiful of 'em all?

Why, of course, you are in your peach-green colour-blocked chic gown!

With the onset of fall, perfect pink petals hurriedly unfurl before the hoary winter supplants their beauty with its dreary trance, albeit with her own intrinsic charm.

Is it any wonder then that he'll lavish his lovely roses as gift on a dear friend's birthday?

A year's journey with these lovely flowers is thus annulled till his petunias and tulips herald yet another bright and beautiful floral-year!

As if these bright ones aren't enough, another friend set my screen ablaze with raving orange beauties. The only thing I've ever seen closest to these is a picture in a Russian book called 'The Little Scarlet Flower'. It was a book I cherished in my childhood, an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, and this flower in the Beast's garden was what had caught my imagination then.

Her outdoor is on fire with these hollyhocks, and inside is serene with sinewy greens. A white Colonial window in the backdrop endows the setting with an air of freshness. Looks right out of the magazine, can't be my friend's home!

Her flowers know she is a perfectionist. Little wonder they aligned their petals carefully, not a single one needs her quelling look to appear disciplined. Prettier still is the momentary gleam of water drops on the vivid violet.

This not-so-plump friend has a healthy plum tree in the garden she dotes on. Look at this clump of plums clamoring to be devoured. 'Piquant Plums, here I come!'

The bluish purple agapanthus in their full glory offset the exaggerated vibrance of the lovely lilies while the paling fence stands behind them like a silent sentinel.

Perhaps the most satisfied Buddha is the one resting in her garden; who wouldn't feel meditative ensconced in this paradise?

Finally, here's the grand finale, an effulgent spray of colours, a variegated summary of her captivating leafy world! Thrive, flourish, paint the world with your petals!

A toddler can be quite a handful; what if you are surrounded by a cacophony of them, say in a crèche! It can be noisy, but fun too! That's what exactly another friend's terrace garden sounds like. It's a large canvas with a generous splash of green dotted with bright pink here, orange there, peppered by yellow, speckled by white, blue, and red. Her gamut of floral collection is spellbinding. The velvety cockscombs, dark blue aparajitas, fragrant frangipani, purple petunias and passion flowers, smiling sunflowers, brilliant bougainvillea bracts, red star-clusters, white fringed colourful dianthus, fragile nasturtiums, fresh chanpas - she has them all thriving with her passionate care.

 

Her garden simply can't stop getting more colourful by the day! Even the seasons, apparently, have no power to subdue the colours.

When water droplets gently touch the petals of her treasured flowers, they embody freshness and purity that beggars parallel!

I'll wrap up her garden-show with these crowning glories that include variegated gazania, verbena, calendula, roses, and dahlia - brace up for the feast!

What can be more pristine than rain bathing the leaves? This green tapestry from a friend's balcony conjures several rain soaked scenes from one of my favourite movies: 1942 A Love Story! A few strokes of vibrant red can't be admired any lesser!

If she complained her garden was too green, the plants must have heard her and one fine day they presented their burst of potential with a pinky panache.

And then there is this rare bloom from a quiet one in our cohort. She condescends to spread her petals only in the dark hours of a single night, once a year! 

This one's unique in its own way: both in shape and hue, again from a childhood chum. 

Whoever thought of a potted mango tree or an ice pot? Here they are from a creative mum-son duo!

Famous for their fragrance, these cluster of flowers are maddening, one could be drawn to them and inebriated by their cloying scent. Thanks to an equally beautiful friend, we have the bunch here.

And thanks to technology, even the largest ocean couldn't keep me from relishing this lush patch of a garden-crazy buddy. Harsh winter covers her beloved yard with thick snow, but come summer, she manages to transmogrify the impoverished soil to a fertile field. *The young green leaves are light and happy again, dancing and swaying with the rhythm of breeze in soft slanting rays of sun. Her pictures bring to mind solace - a lyrical redolence of summer morning in a freshly watered garden. Why would anyone with such elaborate veggie patch pick packed organic vegetables from retail stores? 

Feast on these - her green thumb apparently worked wonders on these luxuriant roses and magnificent gladiolus as well!

When it comes to roses, it goes without saying that this one tops my list, so much so that it's been the wallpaper of my lock screen ever since she shared it. Her terrace garden is a wonder and nothing stopped her to go to such lengths as to experiment with even dragonfruit. Her knowledge and skills of identifying a plant is Google-defying! But this one in particular fills my heart with a thousand thoughts. 

Are the thirsty petals desperately trying to hold within their tender folds the last drops of mercurial lustre? 

Is the red imploring the pure pearl drops to hold on to it tightly, lest they slither and slide to fate's cruel call?

Is the rose imparting colour to the water or the water bestowing the rose with a coy-colour?

I say they are Romeo and Juliet - one incomplete without the other but bounded by a preordained destiny. 

What can best complement water? Fire, any doubt?

Here's the complementing rose with a candescent heart - the core is smouldering embers without the flimsy film of smoke. Needless to mention, this friend of mine is as beautiful, elegant, and gorgeous as her rose!

Beside the fiery petals have bloomed these frills of a pink flamenco dress.

A nearby rose gives the pink a race for its hue!

But that's not the last one to steal the show of her garden this winter! 

Red and white reminds me of many things - from love-and-peace to candy canes - a quintessence of Christmas. There's no denying that these dahlias from one of my schoolmates are sweeter!

Roses win hearts - you'll know why when you see this perfect will-you-be-my-valentine one from her congeries of greens. 

If roses talked to one another, this one's given a befitting reply by unfolding with the blush of a coy smile!

A red velvet cupcake can be effortlessly trounced by this rose of hers in full blossom!

They definitely declare emphatically her indefatigable ministrations that renders them with such splendour. Imagine the serendipity when a pair of red roses - an ultimate icon of love - arrested their hearts right on their wedding anniversary. Plants do listen and reciprocate - plant lovers can't defy that!

Otherwise why would this one present a bunch of beauties on the birthday of another of my pals?

While all these soft supple flowers put up a beautiful show in this post, this one from a statuesque friend couldn't have been possibly left behind. Doesn't it look like a fondant rose lifted off a cake - sweet, soft, and velvety?

And she isn't alone. Here's a glimpse of her terrace garden with a bright yellow dot that can surely claim to be the show stopper of the music of her flowers!

The tree-enfolded township I grew up in had clean roads flanked with large canopies. After our school days most of us left those childhood-memories smeared premises. One of the few who stayed back to grow and flourish there shared these wonderful blooms that I felt were must-haves in this article. Afterall, that soil is the one I have a filial connection with!

And finally presenting with pride, my own jade parure! They talk to me quite often - gesturing with droopy leaver to water them, appearing shrivelled to implore for repotting, and getting squishy to signal no-more-water-please. Just like a doctor, I can touch their leaves and tell they are gleeful or glum - that's the connection I treasure.

That's definitely not elaborate. But the boundary walls of my balcony certainly doesn't bound me. I've put together photos of roadside plants and trees captured at different times during my walk; enjoy the amazing exposition of exotic beauty at Collection from Constitutional.

I believe we're doing a wonderful job in these days when climate crisis is the issue front and centre! Uncontrollable bushfire, catastrophic flood, devastating earthquakes, cataclysmic lightning claim lives and living of many; we can't control that, but we can do our bit with our tiny steps, a step ahead of simply wringing hands. 

Time just flies, they grow so fast! Don't we always remark when we suddenly see a child, who we knew as a toddler, starts her high school? As it happens, the one that I started this post with, has truly grown up surreptitiously while I was working on this write-up for months. And here she is with ten blooms, a giant leap towards youth, and a wonderful one to wrap up with. 

Dona, Sydney, July '21

Consent to publish these photographs was endorsed by respective owners.

*Note the use of pathetic fallacy and personification in the same sentence. The former device attaches human emotions to inanimate objects while the latter attributes human nature or characteristics to them.