Double Daffodil, Magnolia figo and Cobea Scandens

Today i will share with the some rare plants i happen to grow happily in my container garden in Lahore. These are Double Daffodil, Magnolia figo and Cobea Scandens.

Cobaea scandens with common name cup and saucer vine is perennial vine from mexico, actually it is grown mostly on high altitudes. It is easily grown from seeds and that is exactly what i did too. Its seeds are planted vertically so that less surface of seeds is exposed to soil moisture. This is a fast growing vine and mine flowered within 4 months. I sowed the seeds in October 2015 and these blooms appeared in February 2016. Actually at a very young age, the buds appear on the vine, but it takes some time for the buds to mature. This is a purple color variety (I have white one too) whose buds start as dull color but then turn to purple with time. I am not sure how good it will survive my hot summers and monsoon but I hope it will be a perennial for me and not just an annual.

Daffodils are my favorite bulbs because of three good reasons. First, they are perennial in my hot climate, they naturalize well and you can store them in summer too. Second, most of these are fragrant and third, they are beautiful. Now double varieties are not very common here, and it is a common notion that double varieties give less flowers. Well this variety called “Nick Wilden” is a local purchase and i got two buds for each bulb which is not bad, keeping in view the size of flower is large. Fragrance is neither that sweet or strong as the Narcissus paper white but still good fragrance. I will keep them in pots in summer and hopefully they will come back in fall.

I started growing Magnolias not by choice. I do not get lots of direct sun where i do my gardening and so i went for those plants which do well in semi shade. Gardenias and magnolias fall into this category. Well magnolias are shallow rooted slow growing plants, mostly trees and some shrubs. Most of them are wonderfully fragrant and have beautiful flowers. Now there are two types of magnolias, one is the evergreen ones and second is the deciduous ones. I have been growing only evergreen ones (Magnolia Figo, Magnolia alba, Magnolia Champaca) since now. I also bought two deciduous magnolias recently which are magnolia soulangeana and magnolia stellata all local purchase. Deciduous ones mostly require some winter chill to form buds which will be a challenge in my mild winter but lets see. Evergreen ones flower from spring till fall and do not have winter chill requirements, but they do need rest period in winter. Below is a picture of magnolia figo also called the banana shrub. It got its name due to strong banana fragrance its flowers emit. Fragrance is strong in morning and not much in evening. I am growing it in a pot on terrace. It needs filtered sun and does not like either full sun or full shade. All magnolias like the soil to be on acidic side. Here goes my banana shrub.

This post is included in the Garden Blogger’s bloom day which is a monthly online gardening event hosted by Carol at May Dream Gardens Please do visit her site to see more pics from garden bloggers from around the world.