Thread: What's in your garden?

My giant Cheese Plant has finally flowered after years of hibernation.

Looks a bit like a triffid

I dare not turn my back on it when I am out in the garden

But it it always keeps completely still when it knows I am looking

That is fantastic Loops, we keep monstera as house plants in the UK. I have never seen one in flower.

Originally Posted by Looper

My giant Cheese Plant has finally flowered after years of hibernation.

Impressive. I've never seen that before. Does it have any scent?

Originally Posted by Stumpy

^ Interesting brown color Mendy. All the ones we have up in our parts are green. Likely could be an adaptation to the surrounding vegetation.

Could be Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) which comes in various browns and greens. Brown is the second most common mantis colour after green, if I recall correctly.

I had a brown one hiding on the orchids recently, I didn't see it until after I had sprayed it.

That Giant Cheese plant is spectacular, something that would not look out of place at Kew Gardens!

I've done my best in the small space I am provided.



I would like to get a couple of cacti in soon.

Eventually the hoopoes decided to nest in the original, east facing nest box. Here is the male hoopoe perched on the new nest box keeping an eye on the box where his wife is sitting on their eggs.



While he was away foraging for food the female came out of the nest box and started posturing to a pigeon... it seemed to be winding her up.



Then another pigeon came along and the female hoopoe started doing this weird kind of dance and puffed all her feathers up.



The pigeons eventually departed, whether of not due to the female hoopoes threats I don't know, and she thought about popping back into the nest box.



And in a blur... in she popped.



And she resumed waiting for her husband to bring her some food.



He soon turned up with a big, fat, juicy, yellow caterpillar. He called a couple of times to alert her...



... and in a blur he delivered the meal to his wife.

^sweet, birds are fun to watch, they have some pretty quirky behavior.

^^ Some great shots Mendip and also one of my favourite birds.

Yeah. Cool pics Mendy and pretty bird

Mendip, am I losing the plot but are all the shots of the same nesting box?

The top shot is both boxes, the last but one is the left nestbox and all the rest are the right nestbox where the female is sitting on the eggs!

More big caterpillars that I am eradicating. Funny. Judy my Choco lab can smell them out and leads me right to them. I know what moths these particular caterpillars turn into.

Well that last 2 or 3 rains that blew through here killed a lot of the Mango tree flowers. Still have a few in the work.s

Originally Posted by Shutree

Impressive. I've never seen that before. Does it have any scent?

These are the fruits. They have a pungent rich aroma of pineapple, banana and coconut, and are possibly the most delicious fruit of any kind that I have ever tasted.

You have to be careful though as you must not eat under-ripe fruit as it can cause severe injury. It contains high levels of oxalic acid and also sharp crystals that injure your mouth. The crystals dissolve and the oxalic acid drops off when the fruit becomes ripe.

Each fruit ripens slowly from one end of the cob to the other over about a week. You can eat about 1 or 2 inches of fruit off each cob each day.

But I also want to grow some new Monsteras from the seeds. Seed extaction is a delicate process involving intercepting the flesh polyps before they ripen fully and squeezing out the seed. Only about 1 in 100 polyps contains a seed. So you have to forgo a significant quantity of the dreamy fruit in order to harvest a modest number of seeds which is a challenging test in the art of delayed gratification.

There are about 10 more cobs still on the plant and not ripened yet.

^ I've never seen or heard of anyone eating cheeseplant fruits Looper. You live and learn. Going by appearance alone I would have assumed they were poisonous... the fruit doesn't look very appetising.

We have a couple of pomegranate trees/bushes in the garden which are flowering at the moment. The daughter had a science project to draw a flower from the garden and label up all the parts and she chose one of the pomegranate flowers... she's doing plant reproduction at the moment which seems straightforward enough but next week she starts on animal reproduction so I'm bracing myself for some awkward questions.

Anyway... her project. She picked the flower and I cut it in half using my fish filleting knife... I'm posting this because I'm unashamedly proud of her drawing!



Now that the daughter is back at school after Chinese New Year I've spent the morning in the office trying to catch up on a ton of outstanding admin. The office window looks out onto two pine trees which were our Christmas trees back in 2007. They must be around 5 or6 metres tall now.

Also in the trees are a pair of Greater Coucals.

Originally Posted by Mendip

I'm posting this because I'm unashamedly proud of her drawing!

I think we all are, outstanding.

Originally Posted by Mendip

a pair of Greater Coucals.

I get there out the back of my house too and they seem to have a liking for shiny things as they are usually rustling around our bakery equipment.

Originally Posted by Mendip

she starts on animal reproduction so I'm bracing myself for some awkward questions.

Surely she's asked what Yogi is up to before?

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

they seem to have a liking for shiny things as they are usually rustling around our bakery equipment.

The seem like a Thai equivalent of magpies except not as cocky.

Originally Posted by Mendip

^ I've never seen or heard of anyone eating cheeseplant fruits Looper. You live and learn. Going by appearance alone I would have assumed they were poisonous... the fruit doesn't look very appetising.

It is not the easiest fruit to make look photogenic.

I had the idea of cutting of the blackened stem from previously eaten sections and that improves it slightly I think.

Originally Posted by Mendip

I'm posting this because I'm unashamedly proud of her drawing!

Brilliant sketching skills. She has some talent.


This mango seed was from the supermarket monster and has grown 3 separate shoots from a single seed. I good omen and I am expecting great things.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Eventually the hoopoes decided to nest in the original, east facing nest box. Here is the male hoopoe perched on the new nest box keeping an eye on the box where his wife is sitting on their eggs.



While he was away foraging for food the female came out of the nest box and started posturing to a pigeon... it seemed to be winding her up.



Then another pigeon came along and the female hoopoe started doing this weird kind of dance and puffed all her feathers up.



The pigeons eventually departed, whether of not due to the female hoopoes threats I don't know, and she thought about popping back into the nest box.



And in a blur... in she popped.



And she resumed waiting for her husband to bring her some food.



He soon turned up with a big, fat, juicy, yellow caterpillar. He called a couple of times to alert her...



... and in a blur he delivered the meal to his wife.

That hoopoe is a pretty interesting bird. I recall on your issan thread when you were building a jetty that hoopoe seemed quite interested in the project? And curiious

Mrs bld is a pretty keen gardener. I will post up her efforts later

Originally Posted by Stumpy

Well that last 2 or 3 rains that blew through here killed a lot of the Mango tree flowers. Still have a few in the work.s

i'll see your mangoes and raise you lychees, won't be many this year but its the first time its flowered so i'm intrigued.

My gardener seems to lack quite a few skills you would usually associate with the job and one of them is watering.

A benefit however of erratic watering is that it gives the birds a chance to nest in the orchid coconut shells.

I noticed this zebra dove today.



Closer inspection showed she has two chicks in her nest.

^Fugly but also cute

My umbrella tree just flowered. Never seen them flower before and had them for years.

Closer

Closerer

Closest

A Common iora. Maybe not quite up to the high standard of the bird photo thread, so I'll leave i here in 'my garden'. Attractive bird to see flitting about the place.

I'm sorry Shutree, and don't get me wrong - it's a great photo...

But where abouts is the Common Iora? Give us a clue!