[Hanging] Garden - 1
2021-10-12
I have a thing for creepers, first they're creepy in the sense they're more living than the normal plant. I lay supports to ease strain and next day I would find some random hook on it. now what're are the odds that these vines sense the change in environment and choose a different trajectory over night!
It's over 3 years now that I wanted a natural roof on the porch the idea of it felt like a fantasy cause the porch is over 12 feet from ground moreover it's not just straight up
Other than stopping by nusery, I'm convinced these weren't the plants I got initally. Reason was, family took care of them for most of first year and my memories got blur
Enough of context, these 2 plants have specific creepiness to them yet they complement other
Artabotrys hexapetalus
This is very interesting plant? tree? vine? you'll never know because this species decides for itself. I have heard multiple times from people seeing this as full blown tree.
Look how perfect those hooks are, they reach for the support and wither out after fixating on enough integrity, this might take few months to a year (longer the wait, less green-er the stem - starting to look like wood)
Now the flower, it does have 6 petals (inner trianglur ones enclosed by outer)
hence the name. They give a very ___ smell (I'm trying hard to come up with an
analogy) alright if weed is to dirt-damp-junk-dungeon this is polar opposite
with pure-fruitiful-pleasant yet weird smell
You could smell the flowers by going real close to them, but the fascinating part is during certain time of the day (an hour or two before dusk) they emit this strong scent which I could sense even while on ground
Fruits appear every 3 months in a cluster (sometimes I see lone rangers too) turns yellow when ripe but doesn't have any smell.
I don't think it is edible, tastes very bitter, controlled myself from puking though
Passiflora Soi Fah
This took way more time to ID, there were misinformation on the web labelling it as Passiflora Incarnata - the main difference 'P. Soi Fah' bears no fruit opposed to organgy passion fruit with edible jelly seeds inside
If this is the first time looking at passiflora xxx, high resolution pic make sure to digest the beauty (pattern on it goes 3,1,5,5,100? also notice the teeny tiny ant on bottom bud)
Flower itself doesn't bear any scent (subtle fruitness) but pluking it gives a stench - quite common for most passiflora, a defense mechanism. Opposed to hooks, P. Soi Fah has swigrily supporters
This leads the way for A. hexapetals, growing faster laterally but once A. hexa catches up, it eases strain and shoves on top of strong supports. A closer look near the flower at back will make this evident
give me more..
Quite a windy day,
Past & Aftermath
There were reasons why it took 3+ years, the first time vines mounded by roof it was just 3-4 feet (12 feet for reaching top plus this). Potted plants were under it so each time I water I have to bend over but the main problem was rain water getting stagnant on the floor. Mound supports were eventually moved from roof to sides and floor was painted with water phobic paint (peels off like rubber) all in all water still isn't draining properly at corners but got enough room for evaporation since roof is now over 6 feet and sides were exposed to sunlight more
This is the part that backfires on me, there were instances (3, no 4) where people walking on road lost their shite cause of sighting snake (close to outer wall). Though some were kind to inform politely others weren't; yesterday a rando riding bike on rain screamed after spotting one and asked for weepoon to beat the crap out of it - my family were okay with it, why? he claimed he IDed that snake as poisonous (sure he was born different with night vision eyes) btw, nothing happened to snake in fact no one couldn't spot after that.
Bollocks humans I was chilling because of rain, did I bother in anyway hardwired dummies
Today, some bushes were chopped and vines were trimmed exposing my hide out area, pecuiliar thing is no one in family actually spotted a snake inside the house expect for one time when I found shredded skin on the dead A. hexa's wood, that day I cleared all the vines from ground to afloat on supports not a comfy breading den I suppose. There's also word of mouth that snakes are attracted to smell of these flowers, I cannot validate this but one thing for sure it's not just snakes other insects, rodents, chipmunks (saw them eating dried buds) birds (a sparrow crew close to 20 rides every evening!) all are hanging out.
Right I have to emphasis these two vines are native to the land I live, not some exotic plants from nowhereland. People do overlook what they have at hands but under-appreciating, taking for granted is what makes me sick and I hope no further unfortunate trimming is required.
At this point I just want to see the roof complete before leaving.
There are few other native mini-climber+plants which I'm saving for another post.
Our long gone watch tower
only thing left WERE my memories
x----------x
yearing still? interesting links