I have not been very active lately with my gardening – I just spend my time weeding and watering, trimming and getting rid of some of the things that are growing a bit too old and are not flourishing.
My butterfly pea flower is doing all right, all along the fence in my backyard. Every morning, I would go and pluck all the flowers and give to my neighbour – she wants to dry them and keep for her daughters who are living elsewhere, not in Sibu. I was doing that myself once and I managed to collect one bottle full. In the end, I gave it to Melissa’s coursemate who is currently teaching in Sibu. I also gave him some seedlings and some seeds that I had collected.
Well, the other day, he shared with me this photograph…
…on Facebook. He said something about it not doing too well initially but it looked like it managed to pull through and should be flourishing from now on. It’s not difficult to plant, not at all and that makes me wonder why those people in the nasi kerabu and Malay kuih businesses would not plant for their own use – instead, they choose to use artificial colouring.
I’ve seen photographs in food blogs and online recipes where they use the flowers for the colouring and I noticed that they used the dried ones. As far as I know, they do not come cheap – I saw it once at a supermarket, RM13.50 for 300 gm! In my neighbour’s words, good things do not come easy and only when we do it ourselves, we would not know how difficult it is. We dry a lot and end up with just a little. I wonder how much she has managed to collect so far. It certainly is a lot easier to plant one’s own and use the fresh flowers.
Going back to Melissa’s coursemate, in his post, he was discussing with his friends, complaining about how their kunyit (turmeric) and serai (lemon grass) never flowered. I’ve yet to see my serai doing that but my kunyit flowers…
…all the time, one after another, sometimes two or three at one go. They say I am very lucky because it is not something that happens so easily and frequently.
For want of something to do during this pandemic that does not look like it is ever going to end, the ladies in the house have started planting vegetables and flowers. I, for one, will not bother to grow anything that is not edible. We’ve yet to get to eat any of the vegetables but I must say that the flowers do look rather pretty.
My girl planted some succulents that do not need much watering and attention and they started flowering…
…in no time at all…
The mum planted this…
…that looks like a daisy but the plant looks kind of different from anything I’ve seen before.
Well, I don’t have to plant any – just like the papaya trees that popped out of nowhere, time and again, there will be plants appearing out of the blue and the other day, I spotted these lovely flowers…
…by the fence. Truly, God works in mysterious ways…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
The flowers are beautiful. Are the first two called Japanese roses or kau tiam hua (9 o’clock flower)?
I think my girl did say something like that and yes, they do not bloom early in the morning. The cleaners in her school gave to her, said easy to plant, no need for much attention.
Beautiful succulents. I love looking at those tiny flowers.
My lemongrass grows like crazy next to my pandans. Luckily the gardeners will help to trim them otherwise they will be out of control. Lol.
Lucky you! I do it myself and the leaves are such sharp blades, cut my arms…and cause an allergy. Thankfully, it is not itchy. I put up with it as we can get fresh serai for our use anytime. Otherwise, I would have got rid of it. I replanted my pandan recently – still small, not flourishing but still alive! Trimming the plants also causes an allergy but like with the serai, not itchy, not painful so I just bear with it.
I also have this blue pea plant behind my house… oh, not planted by me but my neighbour… I only like to plant that are edible.. now I have 7 pots of okra! hahahaa… Cos I like to eat okra!
Wowwww!!! The ladies planted okra too but yet to bear fruit. Once I planted 10 and we had to eat the harvest non-stop till I really got fed up of it – did not care if I would never eat another one again! Think after all this time, I should be fine with it. LOL!!!
Papaya trees that popped out of nowhere? Guess must be the doings of birds of enjoy hanging around your place. 😀
Yes, I think so too. Can’t remember scattering the seeds of the fruits we ate.
These are some gorgeous flowers! Hubby grow stuff we can eat and I grow stuff to look at!
Feel free to share at My Corner of the World
It takes two to tango, eh? Looks like my family and I fall into these two categories too.
Btw, thanks for dropping by and commenting. Welcome, all the way from New Zealand. Do stick around, always glad to have company.
Oh, it’s so nice to have flowers blooming!
Food for the soul!