Red Jade Dilemma

Red Jade in full bloom three years ago.

Nature has not been kind to our two beautiful Red Jade vines.

The storms of last year toppled the structures where they were growing, breaking tender branches that would normally bear the beautiful, pendulous clusters of red flowers.

It is inevitable though that these structures will eventually crumble. After all they're just made of bamboos, which rot easily especially in a place where it's wet much of the year and humid all year round.

As a temporary solution, and creatively as well, my father decided to use the main trunks of living plants as posts for the arbors.

As you see from the picture on the right and below, one arbor is now supported by the trunks of three live palm trees on one side. On the other side are three sturdy logs serving as legs of the bamboo latticework.

This particular vine used to hang above the ruins of a long gone gazebo. A storm from last year flattened the bamboo pergola and damaged the plant, breaking most of its branches. Good thing it still survived.

Now it has a new and better home, just on the opposite side of where it used to climb. In a few months it will become lush and hopefully around this month next year it will start to bloom.

And if one vine is not enough, there are two new young Red Jades getting trained to climb into another arbor. One of the young vines is shown in the picture on the left and the other vine is seen on the right side of the picture above.

This new arbor is made of cable wires. These weaving tangle of wires are supported by three mahogany trees. For a storm to bring down this cable arbor, it needs to be strong enough to topple at least one of these trees. But then again, exactly three years ago, a powerful storm did manage to bring down a mighty Narra tree nearby (see picture above or below).

Installing the trellis made of cable wire.

The finished cable wire arbor/trellis.

These structures are just temporary, especially the one with the bamboo top. My wish, budget permitting, is to replace them with sturdier structures like the metal pergola across the pond.

I've been going back and forth, not sure whether to call these structures "arbor" or "pergola". While writing this article I was watching a replay episode of "Yard Crashers" on HGTV and like the host knew my dilemma, he said "if it's a passthrough it's an arbor, if it's a larger structure it's a pergola. There you go! These are pergolas!

I'm still passionately feeling blue...

Oh, but this has nothing to do with that hideous monstrosity in my previous post. I haven't gotten over that yet but we need to move on.

The Blue Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea) vines crawling up the four corners of the steel pergola are experiencing a growth spurt. There is an abundance of exotic flowers gracing the garden with an irresistable display of beauty.

The Blue Passion Flower vines are busy putting up a show.

And more are coming. In no time they too will unfurl their yet hidden beauties.

Aside from the flowers the vines too are creeping and crawling like crazy. And their spiraled tendrils are reaching out for the closest object to latch on to for support.

While they are busy flowering the vines are also busy filling in the spaces at the top of the pergola.

Soon the creeping vines will completely cover the top of the pergola. Eventually they will provide a completely shaded area underneath. This shady area will then be an ideal place to hang out at any time of the day, as long as it's not raining of course. This is what I'm aiming for, a cool place for an outdoor breakfast, lunch or dinner, a picnic area or just a place to relax and unwind.
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Passion for passion

Around late January 2011, the construction of the steel pipe pergola was finished. With that done, it was ready for some vines to climb over and hide the criss-crossing metal bars, an alternative to the more decorative rafters and purlins.

My plan was to use four Blue Passion Flower vine, one on each of the four corners of the pergola. Then I remembered about the unfortunate fate of our Blue Passion in the nursery, I thought it would be best to get some spare as well. That's when we decided to get seven. Four will be used, and the three will remain in the nursery as spare, just in case any of those in the pergola dies.

One of our Lavender Passion Flower vine is in bloom.

My idea of having a spare was based on our previous experience with the Blue Passion Flower. It was already growing well in the nursery when a storm came and snapped its main trunk just above the ground and it never grew back.

ABOVE: Two more flower buds of the Lavender Passion Flower vine. BELOW: A young Red Passion Flower vine. The Lavender and Red look almost the same when not in bloom, but the Red has notches on its leaf edge.

When my mother called the garden store to place an order, the store owner said they also have other colors of the Passion Flower vine, red and lavender. Mom relayed this info to me via text message. I already know how the red looks like so I was intrigued by the lavender. And so I had another change of plan. We got four of the "Blue", two "Lavender" and one "Red".

One of the four Blue Passion Flower vine crawling on top of the new pergola.

As to where the "Lavender" and "Red" will go, still remains unknown. They will have to slug it out in the nursery for the mean time. As for the "Blue" in the pergola, hopefully they all survive because there is no spare. But then again, the plant store is just a phone call away.
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Garden Structures: First Pergola

Several months ago in my "Gimme Shelter" post, I mentioned about my plans to resurrect an old gazebo long gone, but with a new twist. As it turned out, this project became more complicated after the passing of the October storm that brought devastation to the farm. I will delve on this topic deeper in one of my future posts.

All is not lost though. Somewhere near the shore of another fishpond was a remnant of another long gone gazebo. Since we could not build on the original planned site, I decided to build on this site instead. And on this location will rise a pergola.

Where the pergola will be located.

In my long distance phone conversation with my dear father, he suggested that we use a sturdy material for the pergola so that it won't easily rot and even a strong storm cannot blow it away. So instead of wood, we settled for steel pipes. The project was funded and the construction commenced.

Construction of the latticework.

Assembling the pergola.

Assembling the pergola as seen from another angle.

With the pergola complete, all it needs now is a plant to climb up and fill the spaces on top. For this, I decided to use the Blue Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea) vine which was growing passionately in the nursery. Then I was told that it was one of the storm casualties. The vine's main trunk broke at the very base and it never grew back.

Installing concrete pillars.

For now the pergola will have to wait for its permanent occupant. We ordered four pots of the Blue Passion from my mother's favorite garden store, which should be available by the latter part of this month.

But we are not done yet with this project. As you can see, the concrete floor of the old gazebo has cracked in several places. It needs a new coat of concrete to level the floor. I'm thinking of laying terracotta tiles on top of this concrete to lend a rustic look. Then we need to landscape the surrounding areas. So it means more plants are needed. Whew, and I thought this endeavor was supposedly simple.

It looks like one of the projects I mentioned in my "What's in store for 2011" entry on Fer's Garden Carnival is on its way to fruition.