Lets go to Floria 2014

This weekend sees the opening of Malaysia's much awaited yearly flower and garden festival, Floria 2014 in a new location at Precinct 4, Putrajaya. This year's theme plant are Begonias, with the show title being  'Mesmerizing Colours' (can someone please tell Floria not to use both US English and UK English spelling in one sentence!). Another new thing introduced this year, besides the new venue, are entrance fees of RM3 per adult and RM1 for a child aged 7-12.

Floria 2014 will run from 14th June to 22nd June 2014, with opening hours from 9am - 10.30pm on Mondays to Thursdays and from 9am - 12midnight on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. There are several thematic 'gardens' within the show grounds, including Wedding Garden, Showcase Garden, Royal Garden, Tea Party Garden and so on, not forgetting the air-conditioned, indoor Floral Pavilion.

The new showground for Floria 2014 near the Seri Saujana Bridge, Precinct 4, Putrajaya.

As with previous Floria, the nights will see Tourism Malaysia's Magic of the Night parade of illuminated boats cruising on Putrajaya Lake and fireworks show. If you are going on the first two days, do expect a large crowd as it is the end of the school holidays, and parents are likely to take their kids there.

UPDATE:  Some notes for people going to Floria 2014 and the Magic of the Night

1. You need to know Putrajaya well enough to find the new site as signage are hopeless and more confusing than before since Floria and Magic of the Night are at two separate locations. The Waze app thingy they posted will lead you in circles (friends have experienced it) so don't bother.
2. Floria 2014 site is very hot due to weather and probably the terrain plus the lack of mature trees so bring an umbrella or hat if you are going during the day.
3. A lot of the flower displays are facing the hot afternoon sun directly and fading fast. Even those in the indoor pavilion are wilting. I suspect teething problems with cooling, misting etc is making the plants go fast.
4. The major food and beverage area is across the road. Do keep your tickets if you go out so that you can come in again and not pay a second time. Also food choices is worst than last year's Floria.
5. The expo site is now spread across a wider, so expect a lot of walking.
6. Plant choices at the bazaar is nothing much to shout about, unless you have just started gardening and are wowed by any or every plant.
7. Magic of the Night is at Putrajaya Marina, Precinct 5, beside Pullman Putrajaya Hotel. Fireworks only on the 14th, 20th, 21st and 22nd. A strange move since this is Visit Malaysia Year 2014.
8. Make sure you give yourself ample time to get to your car from Floria site, drive to Precinct 5 area, find parking and get to the stand. Lots of space though for people to sit.

Click here for more photos of Floria 2014 and Magic of the Night 2014 lighted flotilla.

Flowering Capsicum pubescens Cabe Gendot Dieng

My Capsicum pubescens plants have finally flowered. The flowers are a lovely purple colour, and together with the black/brown seeds, are diagnostic characteristics of this species. These plants are from seeds saved from this post Interesting Fruits from Dieng Plateau.

An eight-petaled flower of Capsicum pubescens 'Cabe Gendot Dieng'.

The stems of Capsicum pubescens are hairy and so are the buds.

Hopefully the flower can set fruit but I am not putting much hope since the weather is getting quite warm during the day. By the way, they are called Cabe Gendot by the locals i.e. fat/plump chilli as the fruits are plump (err fat) and short, unlike the thin and short Capsicum fructescens or the long Capsicum annuum. The name is also used for Capsicum chinense in Indonesia.

The half open bud. Flowers emerge singly or in doubles. Some of the double buds end up with one of them being aborted.

Some of the plants do not colour up with purple internodes or purplish stems but remains all green.

Calotropis gigantea - The Giant Milkweed

You know what people say, to relax you need to stop and smell the roses. So on a recent trip to Vientiane, I did just that, except that the flower I was trying to smell wasn't a rose, and had no scent. Nevertheless, this lovely shrub that I noticed whilst walking around Vientiane, Laos is Calotropis gigantea, also known as Giant milkweed or Crown flower.

This plant is a weed and a member of the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the Apocynaceae family. Asclepiadoideae (formerly Asclepiadaceae family), that contains plants that many of us are familiar with including milkweeds (Asclepias), Hoyas, Dischidias and succulents like the carrion or toad plant (Stapelia).

Calotropis gigantea or the Giant Milkweed. This plant was growing on a patch of soil by the road in Vientiane, Laos.

Calotropis gigantea can be found in exposed wastelands of India through to Indochina, southwards to Northern Australia and northwards to Southern China. The plants have sessile, alternate, gray-green rounded-ovate leaves and whitish stems that can grow up to 4 metres high. The plant is rather robust and branching occurs all over, including from just above the ground level.

White form of the Giant Milkweed - this was growing along the path on the park facing the Mekong River in Vientiane, Laos.

Breaking any part of the stem or leaves results in copious milky sap oozing from the wounds. The sap and the entire plant contain several toxic cardenolides. The sap also has uscharin and other unknown vesicant irritant, and coming in contact with the sap can result in skin or mucosal irritation.

The blusih flower is very striking against the gray-green leaves.

However, parts of this plant are used in Ayurvedic medicine, by itself or in combination with other herbs as treatment for various ailments. The plant also has religious significance to the Indian community, and here in Malaysia, is commonly planted for that purpose.

White buds of the white flower form of Caltropis gigantea.

The flowers come in white or tinted with a bluish-purple hue, and double petal forms exist in the nursery trade, particularly in Thailand. The flowers have gynostegium, a structure formed by the fusion of stigma and the androecium. Pollen of this flower are grouped into pollinia, and are attached to a glandular, adhesive disc that sticks to the feet of visiting bees.

The bladder-shaped fruit of Calotropis gigantea.

The fruit is an oddly shaped bladder-like pod that splits open when ripe, releasing lightweight brow seeds with a tuff of white hair attached at one end that allows wind dispersal of seeds.

The ripe fruit/pod splits, and reveals brown seeds with tuff of hairs that get carried away by the breeze.

The plants that I find on the streets and on grassy openings in Vientiane appear to be wild and both the bluish-tinged and white flower forms can be found there.