In love with Daisies

These are double daisies. Look at this white one, I love the powdery white color with the subtle shades of pink.

This one is another favourite, pink and white have beautifully merged together. And the yellow in the center is also perfect to the complete appearance of the flower. I used this picture today to design the header of my new gardening site Greens and Blooms.

Jasmine

This is one of the first to appear in my small deck garden last year. A very common flower in India called Juhi in Hindi, Jai in Marathi. Its a type of Jasmine.

For all the flower lovers this is very convenient to grow and makes a good fragrant indoor plant. Beautiful shade of white, it grows in bunches throughout the year.

It is also considered sacred and offered in prayers, or also worn in the hair by many women during marriages, auspicious functions.

Sakura.. Cherry Blossom

These are some of the beautiful cherry blossom pics taken during the Spring of 2004. My memoirs of Japan will not be complete if it does not mention Sakura.

Being a flower lover to the core, I was spell-bound by the beauty of a cherry blossom tree fully laden with the blossoms.

The colors range from redish pink to completely white. If visiting Japan one must plan it for Spring time.

Bunch of Cherry blossoms

Sakura in the rain

Yokohama City...

The view of Yokohama city, Japan from the Osambashi Pier. This photo was taken after a lot of trial and error with the night setting and it has captured the essence of Yokohama.

This picture reminds me of the lazy Saturday evenings, it had become a routine for our group of around 20-25 Indians to gather at the pier during weekend.

We simply enjoyed the beautiful view.

Bramha Kamal... a rare lotus

The Bramha Kamal is a rare lotus named after lord Brahma, the creator in Indian Mythology.

It is considered very lucky to see it bloom and blooms around midnight. The night it blooms the buds emit a strong fragrance. The buds then start blooming as the night falls and by midnight the flowers are completely blooming. It survives only for a single night.

Its botanical name is Saussurea Obvallata

It is believed that this flowers blooms once in 14 years which is not true. Being a flower loving family my Mom had planted a few in her small garden.

The first time the plants bloomed was a few years back on Krishna Janmashtami, lord Krishna’s birthday. When we returned at midnight from the temple, we were met with a nice fragrance and were wondering where it was coming from.

Then, on investigation we saw the flowers blooming. Since then every year the same group of plant keeps blooming around the same time or even within 6 months.

Once we had four flowers blooming at the same time. And by then we were experienced to exactly know the day it would bloom I was ready with my camera. And I just couldn’t get enough of them. Here are some shots of the rare flower.
The buds are starting to bloom.

Around midnight when it is opening up completely.

A fully bloomed Bramha Kamal, a rare sight.