Brugmansia aurea (Angel trumpets)

The plant in the Stutong Park is blooming with the yellow trumpet flowers. 
Most of the angel  flowers I had seen were hanging, but many of these flowers here were facing upwards!

Ants migration

Look like it is going to rain, a stream of black ants flow along the footpath of the Park. You can break the flow for a while by disturbing, but soon it will back in line! Where is the Commander and how they follow this strict order?

Terminalia mantaly tricolor

These tropical trees are gaining popular among the Kuching residents. You can see many trees are planted in front of the houses. The feature and colour are certainly unique compared to many other trees, pagoda-like and in multi-storeys. These plants have some medicinal values.

Roystonea regia ( Cuba royal palm)

These tall palms are grown in most new Parks of Kuching. Along the highway near my house, there are many of such palms standing majestically in a row. The trees can grow to 30m high with straight trunks thicken in the middle.The 6m fronds comprise of numerous narrow,deep green leaflets. Another unique feature is a vertical pole-like structure on the tree top is first formed before turning into the leaves.

Platycerium superbum (Staghorn fern)

The epihytic ferns normally thrive well on a ranforest tree, but it can grow well in the garden, except that it is only half the size. The central basin can collect dead organic matter and debris for which roots will grow into the debris to get nutrients.

Oxalis triangularis (stealth jet fighter Plant)

A healthy plant normally looks like this, like a lot of butterflies flying around. 

Monstera deliciosa (Fruit salad plant, split-leaf philodendron)

It has large, broad, perforated and deeply cut leaves and grow from thick stems with aerial roots and often attach to the wall, spoiling the smoothness of the wall.

Deep dark brown skipper (Panrnara guttata)

This specialised type of moth rested on the car park in my house and refused to move. I had to catch its wings and threw into the air. Only then, it started to fly into the neighbouring wasteland. 

Centaurea (basket flowers)

This light violet thistle-like flower is unique as the petals are narrow and numerous 
The flower was taken sometime ago and I could not remember where I took it, perhaps in the wild.

Callistemon (Bottle brush tree)

The native Australian plant adapts well in tropical climate, but hot June is not the time of maximum flowering. Bees are not seen either.

Tecoma stans

This tree blooms about every two months and the yellow bell- shaped flowers are opening up again. The flowers will not last long, but they are beautiful.

My Ugly Dog

Since letting him out of the house two months ago, he is now becoming thinner and the fur seems to be rough and having skin disease. That is the price of freedom and fooling around with the wild dogs!

Bed of orange-yellow Canna Flowers

This is the view of blooming Canna flowers but I do not feel spectacular, in fact a bit disorder. Why? 

Day light Moon

Waoh, the moon is so clear in the sunny blue sky that even the craters can be seen by the zooming camera! But why the moon appears to have white clouds surrounding it? What are those white stuffs actually?

Ravenala Madagascarensis (Traveller Palm)

The Friendship Park recently planted this new plant belonging to Bird-of-paradise family (NOT the palm family). It is spectacular with with its fan shape and large dark green leaves resembling the banana leaves.

Bed of Spider Lily

The uneven heights of the plants and distribution of flowers make the landscape unattractive. But looking at individual is pleasing due to its unique shape.

Pink Bougainvillea

Strong bloom of the bracts and flowers turn this woody plant top into brilliant pink under the hot sun. This plant is located in the Kuching Friendship Park.
Although the flowers are small, they are also distinctly exhibited among the pink bracts.

Orange Crossandra pungens

These low height plants are growing well in my garden. At least twenty of them are bearing the orange flowers and becoming conspicuous. 
The only yellow coloured variety had been  taken to the farm. 

Heliconia rostrata (Fishtail heliconia)

The inflorescence is striking with pendulous cascade of alternating bracts of red and yellow colour. The large leaves are quite similar to the banana leaves.

Cats in Love

In Kuching, Cats can also be very romantic in the Park!

Bluish Grey Toad

You appear sleepy, sorry to disturb you, but it is now daylight!
This nocturnal amphibian looks ugly with bumpy skin and short limbs.

Zephyr lily

The flowers in the Friendship Park appear to be very white compared to the slightly yellowish flowers in my garden.

Long tailed Monkeys in the Kuching Stutong Forest Park

Quite surprise to see a number of monkeys appearing in this forest park. There was no monkey in the last fifteen years! 
I do not see fruit trees in the park and wonder what foods are they going to eat.

White Fish in the Friendship Park Pond

It shyly swam near the surface for a while and disappeared into the deeper water. Well done, at least it can still survive in the poorly circulated greenish water!

Pink Alpinia purpurata (Red Ginger)

It has a tall stem with broad green leaves, quite similar to Canna leaves. It produces long pink inflorescence of flower bracts on the terminal and the actual flowers are small and white in colour.

Water lily Pond

I took the picture in the evening, most of the flowers were closed. 
The floating near-circular leaves are clear and attractive, unlike Monet's painting, which shows obscured leaves. I do not know why there are bright yellow leaves too. His visualisation was totally different from what I saw. 
But the painting costed almost US$80 millions a year ago really perplexed me!

Multi-coloured Plant

The leaves turn white and pink leaves are hardly seen now. It means the plant stops growing. Why ? Is it too hot and insufficient water? I had not sprayed water on this plant for a few weeks.

Miserable Aglaonema hybrid

The red plant looked so pitiful a month ago after leaving directly underneath the sunlight. The leaves not bleached, curled, melted and rusted!

Ruellia humilis

This variety of ruellia has many leaves and slender greenish stalks. The height is about 0.3m. Quite often, the leaves are too heavy that the stalk grows sideways. The flower is light violet.

Violet Ruellia Simplex Flower

This tall variety of evergreen perennial is about 0.9m height. The branches have fewer leaves and appear slender. They are dark purple in colour. The flowers are light violet but occasionally darker violet is seen, perhaps due to ageing.

Oxalis regnelli (Stealth Plant)

The flowers are small, simple, pinkish white, but pretty.

Red Aglaonema hybrid

This plant cannot be placed under the direct sunshine, or else the leaves will curl up, slowly die and turn brown. 
I shifted the plant to a cooler place under the red palm after all the leaves were dying. The new leaves and flower bud soon came out. 
The flower seems to be a white spathe but let's wait and see what type of flower this plant produces!

Yellow Oleander

Compared to the pink Oleander plant, the yellow Oleander branches are more broadly distributed but the flowers are sparsely produced.

June's Full Moon

Indeed, the hot weather results very clear night sky (provided that there is no open burning).  The full moon adds nicer scenery to the tropical night. But is it perfectly circular ? The top left seems to be a bit distorted ? Optical illusion?

Ruellia rosea

These flowers are more attractive than the violet varieties due to the red colour.

White Ruellia Flower

Ruellia flowers are mostly light violet and red in colour. This flower is white.

Orangey Red Defective Grown Hibiscus Flower

I often seek for defective grown flowers as they provide rare shapes of such flowers. They can be quite attractive too.
This flower is semi-opened and looks like a inverted bell.

Cute Little Cats

The two little cats are still so attached to the mother, but curious enough to watch and learn something.

Delonix Regia (Flame tree)



June/July of the year is generally the hottest period in

Sarawak. This tree senses it and sheds most of its 

leaves to face the drought. Bad Sign though! 

Normally, the leaves drop during August/September. This 
year seems to be two months earlier.

Mimosa pudica L (shy grass)

Its world is small and not noticeable. Its thorns are sharp and hurtful. But when you zoom in its pinkish flower, you will find the beauty of this spherical structure.

Pinus flexilis

This plant is native to cooler North-Western USA, but is available also in tropical Kuching. By placing underneath the shade, it has been growing well. The leaves are needle shape and whitish green in colour, quite attractive as house plant.

Murraya paniculata

"Wake up, wake up" It is hot "summer" now. 
The flowers seem to bloom during the hot season and produce nice fragrant odour for a distance. It is also called "nine mile fragrance".

Pilea Cardieri (Aluminium plant)

These dark green oval leaves with irregular bands of white mid-ribs can form good ground cover in the garden. These herbaceous plants seldom grow beyond 30cm height. But they need shed to give fresh colours. The can propagate by cuttings.

Cosmos Flowers

I used to buy a lot of imported  perennial flower seeds from supermarket. Cosmos plant was one of them. These seeds do produce nice and beautiful flowers. But most of them only survived for a few years and then became extinct. 
Nowadays, I do not buy seeds but plants from markets which can survive longer.

Spotted Dracaena surculosa

This plant is too small and sparse to be noticed among the huge lush of leaves and colourful flowers in the garden. 
Unless the plant is hung indoor, probably you will find the spotted leaves attractive. The spots are initially yellow in colour and turn white as the leaves get older. Very old leaves have fewer white spots.

Lagerstroemic speciosa (Crape myrtle, Pride of India)

This small tree is the only plant with terminal inflorescences blooming profusely in Sibu Lake Garden. You can see the pinkish top far away.
This plant is popular in India as can be deduced from the name, Pride of India. It is also promoted in Philippine for its medicinal values.

Alligator Tears Coleus

My garden used to have a lot of this plant, but this is the only one left now. Perhaps, green and white leaves are not colourful enough.  

Allamanda Carthatica

This shrub is normally grown and maintains at less than 1.2m height to give best blooming yellow appearance. However, if it is grown near another tall tree, it will climb up the tree and reach more than 5m height. The yellow flowers are still outstanding at high level.