Planting the 'Golden Torch' in beds

Heliconia 'Golden Torch' planted in beds
Location : Heliconia Valley, Zone D

Heliconias belong to the Banana family-
Musaceae

 Try planting the Heliconia 'Golden Torch' in beds.  The pleasure is when they start to produce their colourful bracts.  Once established they will provide unlimited supply for daily cut flowers.  They add striking yellow colour to the landscape everyday.  It is necessary to remove or cut the aerial shoots that have flowered to encourage new shoots.  This gardening practice will result in healthy looking and clean beds.  The 'Golden Torch' have vigorous rhizomes and is easily propagated by division.  They love semi-shade or partial sun conditions.  Many birds are attracted to its inflorescences especially the sunbirds and spiderhunters.  To see how I use the Heliconia 'Golden Torch' in floral art Kambatik style , follow this link ...>>>http://dailycutflowers.blogspot.com/2009/06/hail-to-heliconias.html

Heliconias when grown in beds provide flowering shoots daily througout the year.
Location : Heliconia Valley, Zone D

Uprooting a beauty

Trench the surrounding and dig out the  base of the clump into a root ball

Close up of Sandak or chisel

 How do you uproot a beautiful palm and find home for it elsewhere, successfully?  At the park it done by simple manual method of trenching and  making the base of the palm like a ball.  By this method the root system is intact and the clump can be transplanted to its new home.  The main tool is the 'sandak' or chisel used for cutting the base of oil palm branches.  When the root ball is free it is a little effort to wedge it out of the trench.  The Sealing Wax Palm has been previously known as Cyrtostachys lakka but now it is called  Cyrtostachys renda.  It is native to Borneo, thus Sarawak, thus Bintulu.  The one that I removed today will be made as instant planting material for the Provinsi Lakka.  Today I saved RM 500, being the price of the palm this size at the current market value.

At this height , the palm will fetch RM 500 at any local nursery in Bintulu.

Epiphytic aroid suitable as shade plant

Scindapsus perakensis
Family : Araceae - Aroid family

 There are many old tall jungle trees at the park, mostly located at the Botanic Islands.  In their natural habitat the Scindapsus perakensis will climb tall trees to become lovely epiphytes that can be transplanted and made into house or shade plants.  Its spadix is creamish.  Among the Bidayuh people in Sarawak, a paste of the fresh leaves is used as poultice to treat swollen joints that are associated with rheumatism.  I have been collecting and transplanting many of them to be used as landscaping plants, especially for areas under heavy shade.

Reman Pasok (Bidayuh) - Scindapsus perakensis
Location : Botanic Island Two
Note the the epiphytic nature of this climbing aroid.

Leave the grasses alone

Zone B, view looking west

 Swathes of grass cover are important in many respects.  At the park, its is an integral part of the design philosophy.  Firstly, the low mass of thick green cover are an important hideout and safe passage for the Samba deers that visit the park during the night.  The grasses produce seeds that are an important source of food to birds e.g. the pipits.  The dried grass blades and stems are used by birds to build their nests.  The swampy areas where grasses thrive and remain uncut are nesting grounds for such lovely birds like the White-breasted water hen.  In terms of cultural practice management, the presence of grass reserves tremendously save time and resources in keeping them untouched rather than the costly practice of grasscutting them weekly or monthly or even killing them with weedicide.  The grass blades and stems provide perches for small insects like dragonflies and butterflies.  Finally in landscaping aesthetics, the bold wash of light greenery provides soft buffer or  transition to the ground floor.  This helps soften the eye view and enhance compositional perspectives as the eye moves from a richly textured column of leaves above to the even and finely cut lawn at the ground level, thus making the watching experience pleasurable.

Zone B, view looking south

Zone F, view looking south

Swathes of grass cover at the ground storey, oil palm trees at middle storey and exotic fruit trees at top storey in the landscape composition.

Broad leaves in the landscape

 Against the cool and soft green wash of the evergreen tropical forest, broad leaves are a refreshing variation to its profile.  Broad leaves of many plant species are planted to make the park more interesting to look at because big or broad leaves provide much drama, character, accent and scale to the overall landscape.  At the inset is a view of the park looking north-west at Zone D showing the interplay of broad and big leaves of the Traveler's tree and another jungle species.  Below are some more examples of broad leaves that I managed to photograph this morning.

Broad leaves of the Breadfruit (Artocapus altilis) or Sukun in Malay at left and Banana leaves at right.

Calathea crotalifera  - Rattle snake plant

Calathea lutea

Terap in Malay or Lumok in Bintulu Melanau (Artocarpus odoratissimus)

Shrubby dillenia or Simpoh air in Malay (Dillenia suffructicosa)

Pandanus dubius

Traveler's tree (Ravenala madagascariensis)

Agave sepecies

Flowering today at the park

 In my attempt to create a nature park I have resorted to planting more and more native plant species.  Here's three that caught my attention today.

The Senduduk  or Straits rhododendron (Melastoma malabathricum) ( See pic at inset) grows wild and natural at the park and is visited by many birds and insects.  They are a hardy pioneering species and are very attractive to wildlife.  The Asian rosebay (Tabernaemontana divaricata) is another hardy shrub that has slightly fragrant white flowers.  And then there's the once common but now more difficult to see local orchid called Bromheadia finlaysoniana.  This is a terrestrial orchid that grow into a small bush with white fragrant flowers held singly or in pairs on tall stalks.

 Tabernaemontana divaricata (Asean rosebay)

Syn : Ervatamia divaricata, E. coronaria)

Bromheadia finlaysoniana