by Elizabeth Shaheen
We continue our stroll through the garden to take in the tropicals that are in bloom.

In the morning, I was delighted to see snowflakes of white apple blossom adorn the apple trees.

This reminded me of my late parents’ garden and I felt overwhelmed with emotion. How I miss them both.

Baubles hang from the mango trees. It will be a bumper crop this year in spite of the heavy winds. Shaheen and I always ceremoniously share the first one plucked from the tree.

Keep in mind that in order to prevent the baby mangoes from falling, flood the trees’ roots occasionally and you will pre-empt their fall.

The figs are also forming. It is such a delightful tree and adds a touch of “the forbidden” to the garden scene.

The perfume that bounces off my mother’s double cerise-pink oleander is so swooningly-lovely. As too, is the scent that drifts from the pristine-white plumes of Buddleja paniculata.

Blue’s the colour of one of our nine ponds today. Remember, ponds take-up far less water than do gardens.

The marginal plant Pontederia cordorata – known as the pickerel weed – is a robust perennial that forms clumps of stems bearing smooth, narrowly-heart-shaped leaves coloured in an emerald green.

Its flower spikes compose of tiny, sapphire-blue flowers packed in so tightly that there’s no room for another.

Rich, purple water lilies dot the water’s surface offering large pads for the frogs to nestle upon and unwind.

The marginal plant Thalia dealbata has bold, long-stalked, slate-blue leaves blanketed in a white mealy coat. The spikes of flowers are carried high atop the leaves and each flower possesses two, Mickey mouse-like indigo-eyes and a soft mauve, drooping moustache.

Datura meteloide’s faultless, white trumpets open in the evening. The bees gather on the closed buds, trying to peel back the petals, impatient for opening time.

Their subtle scent floats in the air, at the same time releasing their previous night’s secrets, which the bees take away with them to share their depraved gossip.

The swirling purple skirts of Datura “Blackcurrant Swirl” are most revealing. Daturas self-sow at a drop of a hat.

Part of the foliage of Peltophorum pterocarpum is swathed in a rusty tomentum and shows off liquid-gold sprays of bloom. They are just as beautiful when in bud, for the tight-bronze buds and stems are whisker-stroked with gilt.

Sprays of lemon flowers swish from Cassia fistula. This small tree is an ideal choice for planting near a window, for it doesn’t obstruct the light.

The ox-blood-red frangipani looks just grand. I took a large, six-foot-long cutting in the autumn and just stuck it in the ground at flowering site. It is in bloom before its mother!

No Arabian garden should want for Henna (Lawsonia inermis). The nocturnal moths will guide you to their vanilla-coloured plums of sensuously-scented flowers.

Fire-coloured trumpets ping-open from the daylily (Hemerocallis) igniting the border. Although the flowers are one-day wonders, each flowering stem gives gifts of many blooms and each plant generates many stems, so the daylily’s flaunt goes on for weeks.

Strawberry-ice-coloured confetti is sprinkled heavily over one of our bougainvillaeas. It is one of the dwarf types but its bracts are large and blousy.

Reminiscent of English heather is a perennial statice (I’m afraid I don’t know which one) with erect sprays of porcelain-mauve. We have them mass-planted along the edge of a border and the diminutive, round leaves form a mound.

This plant looks particularly interesting when planted in a large pot, for it will multiply, filling out the pot with a hillock-like design – most becoming.

A cacophony erupts from the brassy-salmon-pink trumpets of Rhodophiala chilense, which occur atop tall, hollow, statuesque stems. This precious bulb is dotted about throughout the garden.

Gmelina philippensis dangles sausage-like tassels of never-ending chocolate-brown bracts. Appearing from the terminal is just-ever-two-at-a-time buttercup yellow sunhats.

Immaculately turned out is Crinum alba, with crisply-starched, snow-white trumpets. This bulbous plant forms fetching clumps.

The West Indian Holly (Turnera ulmifolia) behaves as a saltcellar in the garden, naughtily shaking its seed all over the garden. Its sun-drenched flowers glare so much that they tire themselves and close for the afternoon. We also enjoy a new comer from Thailand with cream petals and a rich, chocolaty heart. A purple thistle-like form is most agreeable, for it is far more well-bred and refined, germinating only a few of its seed.

The splayed, rich-mauve-bugle-shaped petals of Cryptostegia grandiflora are delivered at the terminals of climbing wiry stems. The leaves are a rich green and pencilled-white down the centre of their ribs.

A deluge of red and yellow blooms dress the Caesalpinia pulcherrima, which are then succeeded by pea-shaped pods.

Among one of the most creative of flowers is the perennial Gazania. It may be as red as the desert sun, sunrise pink or pale as sun-bleached sand – with bands black as night, sparkly specks, luminous-strips or carefree flares.

With unrestrained imagination, these flowers harmonize magenta with skeleton-beige or rich coffee-brown with pastel-pink or lay gallant black sprays over gold ingots. These luminous, galactic stars with their earth-hugging evergreen habit are one of the most resilient plants to dignify your garden.

Well, I hope that you have enjoyed our saunter through the garden and that I have succeeded in imparting some ideas for your own plantings.

Many of the plants mentioned here feature in my books Tropical Trees and Shrubs of Bahrain and Exotic Perennials & Annuals for Pots and Gardens in Bahrain.
Elizabeth Shaheen – GDN – 27 May, ’07