Dasara - DurgaPuja

Its that time of the year; holidays, long weekends and discount sales. Happy Dasara to all!

While looking at some flickr photos, I came across this gorgeous picture of a Durga Idol at the Ulsoor Bengali Association, Bangalore. ( Copyright Ayashok )

The most amazing thing ofcourse was that Keshav and I had been to that very Pandal that year, it did not look quite as beautiful as the perspective in this picture. Or perhaps it was the golguppas that distracted us!

I liked it so much that after visiting the picture over and over again on weekends, I finally decided that I wanted one just like it. Ayashok was kind enough to allow me permission to use this picture as a reference for my attempt at creating a goddess.

Created on regular Artist's Paper with Staedler Pencil ( 4B ) - This is such a wonderful pencil; well worth (Rs.35 each) the price. Took me around 5 days.
It's not as striking as the original, and I did take some creative liberties with Her. I made her a tad less chubby, and tilted the face slightly upwards.

"In the beginning, man created God"

:)

source : http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/272979

Purslane Family

The Purslane is a common plant; usually considered a weed. When it first appeared in my garden, I mistook it for the wingpod purslane which I had seen flowering in my office garden. I waited for the characteristic cup like flowers to emerge, and was very disappointed to see a tiny yellow flower quite unlike what I had expected.

A chance visit to a nursery led to me acquiring two of these (incase one did not survive my "care" ). I was pleasantly surprised when it not only survived but thrived and yielded two different varieties - the WingPod Purslane ( this is the common one ) and the Portulaca Allglow ( a specially created hybrid ).

Research on Wikipedia and the FlowersOfIndia site for this blog revealed that they are all related to the same Portulaca Family. Even the Moss Rose is a close relative.

Varieties:
Common Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is widely considered an edible plant, and in some areas an invasive type of weed. (also known as Verdolaga, Pigweed, Little Hogweed or Pusley)

Portulaca Allglow : Portulaca spp.
This was a surprise find and it is not very common, the nursery in Jeevan Bhima Nagar has it. The inner flower which is a bright pink has a different texture and feel than the outer petals. It is a specially created hybrid and not naturally occurring.

WingPod Purslane : Portulaca umbraticola



This plant I have seen in two colours, yellow and pink-ish peach. It has lovely cup like flowers which open in the sun-shine and close by sunset. They need the sun to open, I find that on cloudy days they wont bloom at all.

Care and Growing
No Care is needed. (why else do you think I have this?) Sun and occasional watering is welcome. It is not completely pest resistant, I have seen it under attack from aphids. I have sprayed it with mild detergent water and prayed (hard). This seems to be working.

Grown easily in pots, it can be propagated easily through cuttings ( Ive tried it, it works). Chop them up, make millions. Grows rather easily. Currently though, the allglow has stopped flowering, it may be entering a rest phase, or it may be mad at me because I forgot to water it last week.



History and Research:
Portulacaceae is a family of flowering plants, comprising about 20 genera with about 500 species, ranging from herbaceous plants to shrubs. It is also known as the purslane family; it has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the highest diversity in semi-arid regions of the Southern Hemisphere in Africa, Australia, and South America, but with a few species also extending north into Arctic regions.

Can I eat it?
Purslane can be eaten raw or cooked, and lends itself to stir fry dishes. Some say it has a slight lemon-like taste and mushroom-like texture. It is relatively easy to grow in more northern climates, including the New England area in the United States.
It is apparently a good source of vitamin C.

Sources:
Portulaca All Glow @ FlowersOfIndia.net
WingPod Purslane @ FlowersOfIndia.net
Wikipedia

Skyblue Clustervine

I love the star shape that forms

I first saw this adorable little creeper at a nursery on the way back from Manchinbele. On impulse I bought it and set it on our fence. As it grew, we liked it so much we got it a friend and set it on the other side of the terrace. ( Nothing like a little competition to speed things up, I thought ).

Sure enough, the two actively compete in terms of flowers and height. Among one of the happiest plants I have seen, it is common in most software parks and let loose on fences. It is not invasive. Its a twining vine with stems to 6 feet or more in length. It is a rapid grower, mine has reached nearly 5 ft (in 3-4 months).

Its a lovely bright green plant with small leaves in the shape of elongated hearts. The blue flowers stand up to face the sun, incase you are letting it loose on the ground. The Flowers come in clusters of buds and take turns flowering. The flower is the size of a 1 rupee coin. After flowering, the flowers fold up like an umbrella and drop off.


A closed flower, note the leaves

Details:
Common name: Skyblue Clustervine, Pentantha
Botanical name: Jacquemontia pentanthos
Family: Convolvulaceae (Morning glory family)
It is a perennial( blooms all year round) and is an introduced species in India.

Can I eat it?
No idea. But birds sure like it. Our friendly neighborhood sunbirds cant get enough of it. They visit twice a day ( morning 9:30am and afternoon 1:30pm )
Also seen eating the flowers are younger members of our Jungle Crow family, a group of 3 flower peckers and a whole bunch of jungle mynas ( we counted 5 ).


Purple Rumped Sunbird Female, they visit daily

Care and Growing:
It needs almost no care at all, though if you'd like more flowers, you may want to water it once in a while. :) It likes the sun, as much as you can provide. Its pretty little blue flowers open in the morning and close before sunset.

Experts recommend that we avoid watering the vine excessively, always leaving the soil dry for a few days between one watering and the other. This pretty much describes how I operate; watering once in a while, when guilt strikes.

It can be grown in containers or pots, I have placed it in ground on our terrace. Since it doesnt spread laterally, it can be easily grown in suspended baskets or left to climb over a balcony.

Till date, I haven't seen it being attacked by any bugs, so it would be safe to assume its a hardy little fellow. Insects seem to like it, I have seen butterflies, bees and a praying mantis on it.


Purple Rumped Sunbird Male, (see the purple flash on its tail, from which it gets its name)

Where did it come from?
Originating in Tropical America, it is Native to the Florida Keys. I was alarmed to see it marked as endangered in Florida.
This plant has been said to be natively growing in the following regions:
Punta Gorda, Florida
Coushatta, Louisiana


For the botanist:
herbaceous vine, slender; lvs ovate, acute at tips, bases subcordate, 2-5+ cm long; flrs axillary, densely cymose on peduncles longer than the lvs, usually only 1 to 2 open; corollas blue (may be white), 10-20 mm long and wide when open; capsule enclosed by sepals; seeds glabrous, bumpy; hammocks; Collier, Dade and Monroe [ incl. Keys] cos.


This one has been photoshopped a bit, to darken the white background

Making more Skyblue Vines
It can be propagated from cuttings ( softwood or semi-hardwood cuttings ). I haven't tried this myself. Its relatively cheap ( 10Rs ), so I just buy another one. I haven't the heart to watch a cutting die.

Where to buy
Easily available in most nurseries. Ive seen it in Jeevan Bhima Nagar and in those near Mancinbele.

Sources:
Flowers Of India
Plant Files
Florida Endangered Plants

The Moss Rose

The Moss Rose is supposed to be a rather common flower in Indian gardens, but I first saw it on the way to work, growing in the Circle near Bagmane TechPark. At the height of summer, the ground in which it stood was parched; but the flowers were all in bloom, a riot of bright magenta.

Then and there, I decided that I must have it. I acquired 2, from a gaadi wala. It had no flowers then, so I did not know what colours it would yield. I did not know the name either until Mom dropped by and called it "Table rose".

Interestingly only in India is it referred to it as Table Rose, the actual name according to Google-land, is Moss Rose. This, I found, after a hour of extensive googling.

I have two, and both turned out to be a candy floss pink, not the magenta I had seen. Here is a Bud, looking rather nice, growing in front of a tangle of weeds.



Some times, weeds can enhance the beauty of your garden; as in this case ( or so I like to convince myself) but only in Macro mode.

Details:

Scientific Name : Portulaca grandiflora

Family: Portulacaceae (purslane Family)

Where did it come from?
Originally from the hot, dry plains of southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina, moss rose is cultivated throughout the world as a favorite garden annual.


Can you eat it?
The Purslane is a common weed, The related purslane (P. oleracea) is a bothersome weed (which I yank out every now and then) in warm climates, although it is widely cultivated for food and has been for more than 2000 years. In fact, purslane, which is used raw in salads and cooked like spinach as a potherb, is very high in vitamins A, B1 and C.

Growing:
Needs full sun to flower. Do not water with overhead irrigation ( Means dont give the plant a shower ); it damages the flowers.
Moss rose grows well in poor, sandy or gravelly soils. The soil must be very well-drained. ( This is according to a lot of non-Indian websites, but I think the joy of tropical climates is that you can chuck anything in the ground and it will grow well) Be fearless, grow it anywhere.

Propagation:
Apparently, the seeds are as tiny as dust ( this explains why I never saw any) So mix them with sand before sowing to make them easier to scatter. But lucky for us, in warm climates, moss rose usually self-seeds itself ( This is what Im counting on)



Photography Tip:
What to do when the background is distracting? ( the moss rose is growing in front of bushes of short marigolds or the wall of the garden is white ) I have both these problems. Mighty Mouse Pad to the rescue! Place behind the subject and adjust exposure accordingly.

Where can you buy these flowers and do your bit for society?
If you live in Bangalore, there is a nursery in Jeevan bheema nagar managed by The Association of People with Disability. They have a well trained staff who are extremely helpful. They also stock manure, gardening implements, pots, manure mixed mud and fertilizers and pesticides.

Sources:
http://www.floridata.com/ref/P/port_gra.cfm
More Pictures of Different Varities:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/6919/

The Cosmos Flower

It is now almost close a year since I acquired garden space. With Bangalore losing its green cover and turning increasingly into a concrete nightmare, I realize that I'm among a privileged few to have a few square feet of earth at my disposal - esp in an apartment building.


My Cosmos Skyscraper - photoshopped, see original below

I believe that Mother Nature is the best gardener and usually does fine on her own with a little occasional help from me. ( Ok, so I admit, I am a lazy gardener )

Given my non-intensive gardening intentions, I carefully selected hardy plants that flower, look good, propagate themselves and need little or no care (No care is preferred). I have in due course obtained from various sources around 20+ different plants (flowering and non-flowering)


Yellow Cosmos, one early morning

I am starting what I like to call the Lazy gardener series. Every post will feature a plant I have in the garden, and info I have on it collated from various sources with citations. In this feature, the Cosmos flower.

No doubt among the most cheerful flowers in our garden. I have 2 colors (yellow and orange) I began with 4 seeds from my Mom. I now have a small cosmos jungle ( self propagation - o joy! )

Orange variety

Original Photo

Some things you may not know about the Cosmos :

Scientific name: Cosmos sulphureus
Cosmos are native to Central America and Mexico.
They have brightly colored single or double flowers. Colours include white, pink, orange, yellow and scarlet.

So, they look good, but can you eat them? Yes! In Malay cuisine the leaves of this plant are used for ulam, a type of Malay salad.

Growing Cosmos:

Cosmos plants prefer full sun to partial shade. They will do well in both average and poor soils. They are tolerant to dry soil conditions.
They grow quickly to a height of 4-5 feet - the tallest among mine are just about a foot high.Taller plants may require staking. (this means they need support) Insects and disease problems are very rare for Cosmos - I can vouch for that!

Propagating:

They have long slender seeds about 1.5 cm long. They spring up rather rapidly and while they are small seedlings, look very similar to marigold plants.


Uncontrolled growth can lead to this :)


For various varieties: http://www.eseeds.com/search.aspx?SearchTerm=cosmos

Sources:
http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/flowers/cosmos/cosmos.html
http://www.gardenersnet.com/flower/cosmos.htm

Flower Photography:

While I had tried several times to photograph my plants, I usually was met with little (read no) success. I often gave up with a "No camera can capture the true beauty of my garden".
Until recently, I did a little reading up on flower photography and decided to try some simple steps. These yielded the photos seen here.

In particular I liked Marion Owen's tips : http://www.plantea.com/photoflowers.htm