TRAVEL THEME: FLOWERS

I especially like Ailsa’s travel theme this week – Flowers.  I like taking pictures of flowers and I collected an album-ful of them during our Philippine trip.  How handy is it to have a reason to upload photos not simply for my own indulgence but also as a response to a challenge.  The latter removes the sting from being too self-indulgent. 😉

So, when I got back to our family home, I took pictures of the flowers in the garden.  There were not too many now – there were less flowering plants at home and the little that were available were either not in very good shape or had just flowered.   Then, I took liberties with the flowers that spilled over the neighbor’s fences and those that were in the wild.  You might think that I already have uploaded so much photos in this post, but really, I was feeling sad that I was not able to photograph all of the flowers that I saw.  I got too shy bothering our neighbors (who I knew would not really ind me taking pictures of their flowers since most of our neighbors were my relatives anyway and they would happily indulge this kin who they had not seen in a long time) and second, I got too shy asking my husband and children to stay and wait under the sun while I go off the road to shoot some wild flowers.

Anyway, I just felt a bit odd that I did not know half the names of the flowers that I saw because (1) the flowering plant is something I have never seen before, or (2) the plant is familiar but I did not bother to know its name.

This is another flower that I am not familiar with. It has elongated pointy leaves and a thorny stem.

Rosal, a.k.a., Gardenia. I could not get a good angle because the flower was above my head. Well, it does not take much for things to be above my head, if you must know. :-)) Anyway, in the Philippines, Gardenia plants grow into little trees. When I saw our tree, it was done flowering and had only a couple of blooms on it.

I found this flower of a groundcover quite pretty. It looks like Queen Elizabeth I to me (apologies to those who might take offense). 🙂 Well, doesn’t the heart-shaped petal look like the high stiff collar that Queen Bessy was so fond of?

Too bad, I don’t know the name of this wildflower. We used to ‘duel’ with it – like they were swords – when we were children. The one whose flower broke first won, errr, lost.

Bougainvilla.

Cadena de Amor, i.e., Chain of Love, literally. This grows in the wild. Its vines climb and cover trees and other growth.

I do its name. I found this flower in a Farm Resort in a nearby city. I was, at first, attracted to the big showy pink flower. When I got closer, I found that hiding inside each petal (or however you call it), was a little orchid-like flower.

I do not know the name of this flower. It is new to me. But since it looks like the Yellow Bell, I will call her Pink Bell, for now, until I find out its real name.

This is a flower of the tree that was growing in front of our house. My sister said that I was the one who planted it and that I liked it because the flowers had a nice smell. Funny, I no longer had recollection of such things. I did not realize that the nice little plant I put in the ground would turn into one. There was no flower when I arrived but after a heavy rain, the buds came out, just as my sister told me.

I have also uploaded some Philippine flower photos here and some here.

For great responses to the theme, please head over to Ailsa’s page.  Thank you.

Thank you for visiting.  Have a great day to you all.