Fruits and the Oyster Plant

The temperature seems to be soaring around this time of the year so I am making  sure  the plants get watered twice a day, no skipping.  Somehow the northern region of the Peninsular seems to be hotter and drier even as the southern region is experiencing heavier rainfall,  flooding  and cooler weather. In the evenings it is cool and nice with light breeze, but the afternoons are scorching hot. Some plants are shedding leaves, perhaps I have not watered enough or they are just feeling the stress from the hotter temperatures.

Each morning as I surveyed my mini garden, I cannot help but feel pleased with what I see.  The plant I am most delighted about is the pomegranate shrub (posted  3rd Jan 2011) .  There are fruits and I counted about 12, with more coming as more flowers are converting.  I am a bit worried  and anxious about  the thin branches  bearing the weight of the fruits as they ripen. I will have to monitor them closely.  The fruits seemed to be getting bigger each day.

Fruits......

A Small fruit

I like the crown at the base of the fruit

When we were away in Petaling Jaya, the carissa plant (posted 31st August 2010)   must have bloomed and as a result a small fruit appeared..... Now the tiny green fruit has grown much bigger and  this morning  I decided to take a picture.  The fruits I saw on the neighbor hood plants were reddish purple when ripe.  I like the shape of the fruit, not unlike a peach with the tip at its base, interesting .....

Cute looking fruit

A  closer shot

 The passion fruits are doing well, this time I counted about 10 fruits.  Although there were many flowers, most of the flowers did not convert.

 The fruits are nice to behold being light green with all the nice white spots.  Until they mature, I am keeping my fingers crossed. Some one told me these fruits are selling for RM 7 - 8 a kilo. I have not seen these fruits being sold at the local fruit stalls here. 

My sister collected these couple of  oyster plants (Tradescantia Spathacea) for me when she helped cleared my mother's garden.  Nope these oyster plants are non edible......!  Since these plants are rather attractive looking with the deep purple underside  of the lancet shaped leaves ( I cut off the leaves so to reduce the stress on the plant when I planted them), I can use them to add some color and a more tropical look to my garden. I planted them under the gardenia shrub and so far they are doing well.  These plants are easy to care for. The problem is they can grow very fast under conducive environments and turn invasive like they did in my mother's garden.   They make good ground cover plants and also as border plants. They do well under slightly shaded areas. This plant is robust and grows well under any condition as long as the soil does not get water logged.

Check out these small white flowers peeping out of the oyster shaped bracts growing from the trunk like stem between the leaves......Apparently these plants bloomed all year round ! Just watched out for the sap as they are considered toxic.  I like this plant for the contrast of dark green color on topside of the leaves and the intense purple on the undersides, very unusual sort of plant especially with the pure white three petal flowers peeping out mischievously like some naughty children playing tricks !