July 10. 2012 morning fog followed by sunlight

Michelia alba, Yulan

Michelia alba is one of most fragrant flowers.  The flower is ivory in color.  My M. alba tree is finally growing this year after in the ground for 5 years.  It has put forth lots of new branches and leaves. It has started flowering in early June and we are picking around 10 flowers each day in July.  I bunched 4-6 flowers in a small cup with a few drops of water and they perfume the whole room, especially in late afternoon when it is warm.  The flowers usually last 2 to 3 days in the cup.

According to Wikipedia, M alba is a hybrid not found in the wild and cultivated for ornamental use. It is a hybrid of Magnolia champaca and Magnolia montana.  It is a subtropical plant and does not like cold weather at all.  It is really popular in Southeastern China and Taiwan when they grow well.  It was a common sight to see girls selling M. alba flowers as a pendant of 3 to 5 flowers in a basket along roadside when I grew up in Taiwan.  Lot of drivers bought a pendant and drapde it beneath the back mirror to enjoy the sweet fragrance.  There was a mature tree in Carmel valley that was about 20 feet tall.  In late summer, there must be thousands of flowers in the tree and fragrance can be smelled blocks away.  We used to walk by the house with the tree in the summer just to enjoy the heady perfume.  Then the house was sold in the winter and the new owner cut down the tree, not realizing how precious the mature tree is.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ornamental Kale (Brassica oleracea 'Acephala')

Image
This is the time the ornamental kale at its peak. I have a few ornamental kale started from a six-pack in the spring of 2005. Now they are about 4 feet tall. The colorful leaves are a kaleidoscope of purple, pink, and green or green yellow and white. They look like huge rose blossoms, but last a lot longer. They are also easy to propagate. Just cut a branch off from the plant and stick it to the ground when it is warm and it will root and grow right away. They also last a long time as cut flowers since they are actually colored leaves. Sometimes, the stem will even sprout roots in the vase. The rooted stem can then be planted in the ground. Ornamental kale is a perennial here in San Diego . It will flower in the early spring. The flowers are actually quite attractive. They are typical Brassia flowers, however, the color is a bright yellow and flower shoot is quite long with numerous 4-petal flowers. I have seen gardens beds with flower ornamental kales that w
Read more

Wax jambu revisited

Image
Wax jambu revisited I have written on Wax jambu in 2006 (see previous blog) .  However, ten years have passed and I feel there is a need for an update as I have learned a lot more about the tree. First at all, flowering of the Wax Jambu is totally unpredictable.  It flower sas early  in May in some years and as late in September in some years.  Last year, it actually bloomed twice (once in early May and again in late August) and produced two flushes of fruit.  I though the second crop must have less fruit or small size of the fruit.  It turned out that  the second crop is just as good as the first crop for both the number  and size of the fruit (see graph 1).  The only problem for the second crop is that some of fruit matured during a cold snap and the fruit tended to crack which attracted ants and fungus. Graph 1.Wax Jambu trees with lots of fruit. Secondly, Wax jambu is one of the most productive fruit trees.  It does not mind the clay soil and high mineral content of
Read more

Sugarcane

Image
What a beautiful, sweet plant! A friend had a few red sugar canes in his backyard. They were about 7-8 feet tall with reddish purple stem and a bunch of green leaves on top. They were really beautiful. I knew sugarcane was commercially grown to make sugar, but I did not realize that it was quite ornamental. I also did not know it would grow in San Diego. To me, sugarcane was also associated with tropical plantations in Hawaii, and Caribbean countries. My friend graciously gave me a few short stems with 2-3 nodes to me in May. I planted the stems horizontally, barely covered with soil. They all sprouted and have grown vigorously. One of the stem is now a clump of 7-8 feet canes. The stem was covered with leave sheath. I peeled the lower leaves to expose the beautiful purple stem. I cut a stem from the ground in October to see if it is ready for epicureans’ enjoyment. Well, it turned out it is a lot of work to get to the sweet pith. First, I had to peel off the tough purple s
Read more