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.

Wall Support for Millionaire's Vine

After some thinking, I'll put up a Millionaire's Vine somehow on our blank wall. In the photo below, the top of the concrete blocks forms a ledge where the vine could rest. The ledge is around 11 to 12 feet high. Here's the ledge as seen from below.

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.

Blank Wall in the Garden

There are some parts of the garden in our new house that look nice such as this little mound by the front fence.


There's however this unpainted blank wall that's really boring. The builder just had the workers mortar the old wall.


Any ideas to spiff it up and add a little color? Inexpensive, of course. :)