Auntie's garden...

These pics were taken the side yard from my auntie's house (my sis's MIL) in San Ysidro. Like most Filipino moms, she has a green thumb. I'm not sure what these were called but I know I've seen these before at the San Diego Zoo. I remember seeing the thorny stem but the flowers were red instead of yellow.

She also had what they call a "money plant". It's a succulent and you can break off pieces and replant them. Having one of these is supposed to bring good luck...


What are these? Epidendrums of course...

In her back yard, it was like a jungle of beautiful flowers. Even though she said she hardly has time to take care of her plants, she seemed to be doing a good job of keeping her orchids alive, like this Cattleya.

A stalk of a pink and yellow Gladiolus.

This glad was a deep reddish purple hue. Really pretty. You can see the covered patio in the back and more epi's.

A bloom from a Cactus plant...

This is what it looks like when it's blossomed:

Here were more of the same cactus flower; this was near a water filled trash can. These blooms were so huge and lush.

I think these succulents are called burro tails.

Spanish Moss hanging on the truck of the Trumpet Flower tree.

Her trumpet flower tree had so many beautiful blossoms. Our sad and stunted tree in our back yard is lucky to even have two or three meager blooms.

I love the shape of these flowers so much...


She even had strawberries near her pink gladiolus along with fennel (see the fronds?).

Here they are!

The ubiquitous Filipino floral favorite, the Epidendrum orchid. You can grow these quite easily as well. When they branch off with roots, you can break off that piece and replant them. My mom has tons of these in her back yard.

More hanging plants. Some were orchids that weren't in bloom yet. She also had potted orchids such as dendrobiums and cymbidiums.

And her garden would not be complete without a few banana trees. Those things multiply like crazy all by themselves. Behind it was a fruit tree of some sort. She also had a guava tree in another part of her back yard.

Even the neighbors had banana trees!

I wish I knew the name of this tropical flower but isn't it quite pretty?

I wish our garden had flowers like these. If we didn't have someone coming into maintain our backyard, we'd just have dead grass and a barren front and backyard. Our flowers in our front yard are bougainvilleas, a few rose bushes, a few calla lillies (not in bloom), and day lilies on the side. I like how older Filipino uncles and aunties have such nice gardens. My auntie didn't really have a lot of vegetables like my parents do, but her collection of flowering plants was great!