Christ's cloak

 

A Christ's cloak plant taken on 1 April 2021

Life is so funny.  When you focus only on one thing, that thing will not turn out well at times.  But when you don't focus on that thing, it turned out that that thing will turn out well at times mostly.  Just like Mirabilis jalapa or Marvel of Peru.  When I started to plant it in the beginning, I keep waiting for flowers, wondering what kind of flowers or plant it would be like.  Since I only know that it is white, from my second uncle.  

Soon I was tired of waiting and watching it day after day.  I just leave it alone, just do my job of watering it everyday.  And one day I found buds!  I was so happy.  So for Christ's cloak, I did not expect anything.  I scatter the seeds and I even forgot that I had scattered any seeds.  I did not even count the days where it started to grow.  

I have two pots of Christ's cloak.  One is as shown above, just a plant, from a seed.  Another pot, several plants, from various seeds.  Some other name of Christ's cloak are Globe amaranth, Bachelor's button, Makhmali and Vadamlli.  Its scientific name is Gomphrena globosa.

Photograph showing some Christ's cloak growing from a pot

The above photograph shows another pot of Christ's cloak.  This is a much smaller pot with more plants growing in it.  The plants in this pot looked overcrowding at first and it was not that nice.  However one day, I saw buds growing and the plants suddenly look so nice to me.  That was so unexpected.  

Photograph of Christ's cloak taken on 1 March 2021

This is just so amazing.  From one seed, you can get such a bushy Christ's cloak and from many seeds, you can get a small pot of many plants, but able to flowers too with small plants.  My father loved this plant too.  

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Marvel of Peru

 

Marvel of Peru or False jalap or 4 o'clock flower

Mother gave me 5-8 seeds.  They were given by second uncle, my father's brother.  However he died on 28 February 2021, the last day of February.  When father was in hospital, he came to visit him.  When father was dead, he went to the wake.  On the last day, the funeral, he came also.  When father was sick, he brought the root of the above plant, to be boiled with meat. He said it will improve my father's kidney.  So I planted the seeds.  It took about 8 months for the flowers to bloom.  

Everyday I check the plant.  The first plant was grown to a very large size.  As it was quite hindering the passageway, I trim it, thinking that it will grow after that.  But I was wrong.  It did not grow after that.  So I throw away the whole plant later.  The smaller plant that was blocked initially by this plant was 'revealed' now.  This is the current plant as shown in the photograph above now.  Given enough sunlight and water, it has flourished so much.  

Everytime I water the plants, I see that the white flowers are not opened.  However, when I see them at night, the white flowers open more at night.  Recently I downloaded this app, known as Picture this, and it has helped to identify this plant as Four o'clock flower, Mirabilis jalapa, also known as Marvel of peru or False jalap.  

 Photograph of Marvel of Peru taken at 8.30pm on 1 April 2021

The photograph above shows what I saw mostly at night when I water the plants.  The Picture this app is very good.  It tells me information about this plant.  So this plant is a perennial, herbaceous plant cultivated for ornamental purposes.  It said that the bloom time, the flowers are closed most of the day and open between 4 and 8 o'clock.  Thus the given name of 4 o'clock flowers.  However, in Singapore, it is not so.  

Photograph of Marvel of Peru, Mirabilis jalapa taken on 3 April 2021 at 00.31am

Last night, I saw the Marvel of Peru opened fully at past midnight, 00.31am!  This was the first time I saw it fully opened.  Nice view!  Praise the Lord!

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