January garden journal

our five mango trees are all growing new leaves. anybody who doesn't know better may think that's a good thing this time of year but it's not

instead they should be flowering. all around this area mango trees are flowering profusely but in all the five trees we have i have seen only 1 single flower cluster. new leaves means no flowers so there will be no mangoes this season. if they bloom later we may get a few in august but they are not so good in the monsoon and we won't be here.

at first glance i thought we had a four petaled frangipani flower. that would be rather unusual but after closer inspection i realized that 2 petals overlapped so much that they appeared to be one

late in December our night-blooming jasmine Cestrum nocturnum had an astounding number of flowers. it is affectionately known locally as Raat Rani, or night queen. the powerful fragrance wafted into our bedroom making our dreams blossom

but now the countless flowers have fallen along with many of the leaves. it was not looking well after such a heavy bloom.

so i pruned it way back

repaired the watering well that the monsoon rains washed away

and gave it a good root soak by filling the depression with water five times, allowing the water to sink down through the sand before refilling. hopefully it will be back in bloom when the hot weather sets in for good

the cashews are in full bloom. the flowers aren't much to look at but the buds aginst the the red red leaves can make for a nice photo.

ants like to nest in the leaves. they don't do much damage but they are aggressive and are quick to bite so we cut away the tip of the branch and remove them

in the late afternoon sun the leaves are slightly translucent and the underside reveals their complex structure.

ants like to nest in our mango trees as well. they are the same species of ants but it is interesting to see the difference in the nests of the different trees. this nest is newer than the one shown earlier in the cashew tree. messing with these ants will get you in trouble if you are careless or slow.

we have five sapota, sapodilla or chikoo Manilkara zapota trees bearing fruit year round. the fruit is a treat but we don't grow it commercially. there is plenty to go around for us, friends , family and the wildlife, meaning mostly monkeys and birds.
but there are challenges keeping the trees healthy. the main problem is fungi. there is fungi in the sand and the animals spread more so there is considerable dieback

and each year we have to cut away all we find. there is no way to get rid of the fungi once they are in the wood but we can slow the spreading

the other big challenge we have in many trees is mistletoe. we love having the birds around and are eager to photograph them but they bring with them the parasitic mistletoe, mostly Dendrophthoe falcata but also other species. they start off innocently enough and are hard to spot in the dense leaf cover. but they spread very quickly

if left alone to grow it slowly kills the entire branch. while fungi eat the wood and kill quickly the mistletoe depends on the host tree to provide nourishment so it in no hurry to kill off the host

each year we carefully inspect all the trees we cah reach and cut away the infected branches

mistletoe is quick to bud and bloom and the nectar is sweet, attracting both ants and bird, in particular, sunbirds. we love to see the tiny shiny birds but we have other flowers we would prefer them to frequent

if we cut a fungi infected branch the wood is totally dry but the mistletoe needs the sap of the tree. here the sticky white latex-like sap flows abundantly. we have to seal off the cut to prevent fungal attack of the exposed wood.

ok enough of the challenges and frustrations we face. mostly the garden yields great pleasures.

an angelic looking hibiscus closing for the evening

i edited the image to make a New Year's greeting to friends and family

the star fruit or carambola is coming along very nicely

the setting sun peered through the various trees leaving a stripe of light on the pile of discarded coconut husks covered with coniferous needles with a wild ivy gourd Coccinia grandis establishing a place to spread

and when the day is done there's a sunset to enjoy from the roof terrace

good night