Pedilanthus tithymaloides variegatus or Devil's Backbone

I've had this plant for over a year now but didn't take much notice since I just thought it was a common landscaping plant. It has interesting zig-zag stems and the leaves' colors give a nice accent to any garden spot.

Well today, I saw tiny red flowers that looked like little red birds.

Thanks to Joe and Karyn at the GardenWeb (gardenweb.com), I was able to identify this plant as Pedilanthus tithymaloides variegatus.

The plant goes by the following common names: Devil's Backbone, Christmas Candle, Jacob's Ladder, Japanese Poinsettia, Redbird Cactus, Slipper's Spurge, Zigzag Plant.

Jatropha podagrica or Buddha Belly Plant

A couple of years ago, a friend gave my wife a small potted plant. The friend specifically said the plant was Ginseng and had medicinal properties. After hearing the word "medicinal", images of myself quietly sipping piping hot Ginseng tea in our garden quickly flashed my mind. =) I was a bit surprised and interested as I've never seen a living Ginseng plant. So I asked my wife to take care of it as it may help relieve our ailments, imagined or real, in the future.

The plant has since grown and a few weeks ago the plant bloomed and the flower was strange yet beautiful! (Click on the image below to enlarge.)

Evolvulus glomeratus or Blue Daze

Over a month ago, DH and I went to Los Banos, Laguna to accompany our daughter Karen to her UPCAT review at Brain Train. As the review was scheduled from morning til afternoon, DH and I went to the gardens in LB for a look-see. We bought a couple of forget-me-not's and a couple of small plants with blue flowers that the vendor could not definitely identify. When we got home, DH set them at a side of the garden.

Here are the "mother" plants.

Pereskia Bleo aka Rose Cactus or Wax Rose

Finally, I was able to positively identify this beautiful yet potentially harmful plant growing in our front yard. All I knew was that the plant grew from a cutting that came from Davao. Thanx to the kind folks at the forums of gardenweb.com, I learned that the plant is of the genus Pereskia (leafy cactus). From that lead, I searched the web and found the plant to be Pereskia Bleo, also known by esoteric names such as Rose Cactus or Wax Rose.


Saying it's "potentially harmful" is a bit of an understatement, however. "Vicious" as one blogger described it is more apt.

The plant itself is unremarkable except for the needle-like vicious thorns that line the vertical shaft of the stem. It's almost impossible to handle the plant without getting pricked. Just look at one thorn jutting out under the flower in the photo above.

The plant is very easy to propagate with cuttings. Here's an entry from desert-gardens.com:

Pereskia bleo

Scientific Name: Pereskia bleo (Kunth) DC.

Synonym: Pereskia cruenta, Pereskia panamensis, Rhodocactus corrugatus, Pereskia corrugata, Rhodocactus bleo, Cactus bleo

Family: Cactaceae

Minimum Avg. Temperature: 50°F (10°C)

Sun Exposure: Morning sun or bright shade

Origin: Panama and Colombia

Watering Needs: Enjoy some humidity in the air. They need good drainage, but the soil should stay moist in summer. Keep drier in winter.

Propagation: Contrary to other cacti, this plant is not succulent, and the cuttings should be planted in a moist soil mixture immediately instead of being left to dry out a couple of days.

Below is a closeup of the flower with a bug caught savoring the nectar.


Anyway, when we have visitors at home, I can now say without hesitation that it's a Rose Cactus and no longer "a plant from Davao".



The Rose Cactus exhibits flower color changes due to change in temperature.
Note: NONE of the photos above were digitally enhanced.

A Green Thumb - DH's Special Gift

One of the things that truly amazes me about DH is her ability to nurture nature. By nature, I'm specifically referring to flora - plants, trees, shrubs, vines, etc. Most folks would probably refer to it as having a "green thumb" or that special ability to make plants grow. But to me, it's a gift.

DH has demonstrated this numerous times. She's fond of taking cuttings from plants (mostly flowering) that catches her fancy in gardens of places we visit. And I would jokingly threaten her to stop or else I call the guard in the premises.

When we went on a road trip this summer for Visita Iglesia, we had lunch in a place called Cafe Casa Rap in San Jose Batangas. In that place's garden, most of us in the road trip were simply awed by these flowers.

Here's a picture of the flower from Wikipedia. I later found that this plant is called "Thunbergia Mysorensis" although it's also known as "Clock Vine", "Ladies Slippers", "Doll Shoes" and "Brick and Butter" Vine.

Cypress Vine or Ipomoea Quamoclit

One of the ornamental vines that we considered planting to cover our blank wall is the Cypress Vine. Simply having just the Millionaires Vine up there sort of looks bland.

Anyway, DH was able to get some seeds from a mature fruit on a robust plant that she saw near the kids' school. I've not personally seen this plant but DH says it has pretty tiny red flowers. Here's a pic from uniprot.org.

Millionaire's Vine for the New Wall

In our neighborhood, I've seen some houses with a plant that hereabouts is called the Millionaire's Vine. I don't know how it got the name though. Maybe some Pinoy planted it, won the Lotto and thereupon baptized it as "Millionaire's Vine". Elsewhere in the web, however, it's known as Princess Vine or Curtain Ivy (Cissus Sicyoides). Here's a definition:

Princess vine or Curtain Ivy belongs to Vitaceae (Grapevine family). It is an evergreen perennial vine that is native to Florida, south Texas, Mexico south to Central America and Caribbean. This vine occurs in brushy areas and rainforests, and produces a dense mantle that covers other vegetation. Mature stems have swollen nodes and thin peeling bark. Long reddish aerial roots droop down from the axils. Leaves are broadly rounded or ovate, and entire. Yellow-green flowers are seen in the cymes that extend from the axils.

Anyway, these neighbors would have these vines above a pergola. They look nice with the hanging threads that have pinkish tips. The house below has a thick bushy vine on top of a pergola.

Creeping Fig (Ficus Pumila) on our Old Wall

In a previous entry, I wrote about a literal blank wall I'm having and how to add color to this wall to complement the front garden.

When we had the old house, we had the "climbing fig" vine on this wall. Don't know what that is? The climbing fig is also known as Ficus Pumila. Here's how it looks like on a wall.