Joy of wheel ...

Botanical name: Gaillardia pulchella

Blanket Flower, Firewheel, Indian blanket is a short-lived annual flowering plant native to the central United States. The branching stem of this plant is hairy and upright, growing to 2 ft tall. The leaves are alternate, mostly basal, 4-8 cm long, with edges smooth to coarsely toothed or lobed. The pinwheel, daisy-like inflorescences are 4-6 cm diameter, vividly colored with red, orange and yellow. The central disc florets of the flowerhead tend to be more red-violet, with the outer ray florets being yellow. In one variety, almost the entire flower is red, with only the barest tips of the pedals touched with yellow. When planted as border or as bed it gives a wonderful feel to the onlooker. We had this plant when we were in Bangalore 10 years ago. Recently i visited Lalbagh on 25th January 2012,in connection with Annual flower show coinciding the Republic day and took this photograph.

Profusely and pleasantly ...

Botanical name: Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender

Mona Lavender is a quick-growing, herbaceous, perennial plant reaching up to 0.75 m in height, forming a lovely, rounded, dense bush. It has dark green, glossy leaves with intensely purple undersides and sprays of lavender flowers dashed with purple markings. Mona Lavender was bred by one of the horticulturists at Kirstenbosch, Roger Jaques, in the late 1990s. It was a fairly long process involving much hand pollination and raising many thousands of seedlings, back crossing and raising many more thousands of seedlings - each time selecting out the best, most attractive individuals to go through to the next round of breeding. Few months ago i purchased a plant from a local garden plant seller in Mysore, and maintain this plant in a pot. It gives a great pleasure as it blooms profusely and full of flower heads. I photographed it on 9th March, 2012.