Skip to main content

BLEEDING HEART VINE

 


 

Some of you must have heard the name of a flowering plant called “fuchsia” also called Chinese lantern/dancing dolls. My wife and I had fallen in love with this plant when we were posted at a remote place called Chakrata during my Army tenure.

 

It is a plant of the hilly region; the poor plant did not survive one summer when we moved to the Sun City on posting. This was around 1993.

 

Time went by and we returned back to the Suncity after retirement in 2021. Our hobby of gardening continued and we established a small garden. One day while scrolling the net, I found a seller selling this plant called fuchsia. Without even reading any review, I ordered it.

 

It came as a weak plant and battered plant. However, it was not the one we were looking for. The shape of the leaves was different. I raised a query with the supplier, who refused to replace it. Being a plant lover we welcomed the new plant in our garden. It was not fuchsia but a “bleeding-heart vine”.

 

The Bleeding-heart vine looks almost unreal when in bloom. Its flowers resemble tiny white hearts with a striking red drop, giving it a dramatic, almost poetic appearance. It blooms in clusters (racemes). Each flower has a white, inflated calyx (looks like a heart or lantern) and a bright red corolla emerging from it (the “drop of blood”).

 

One day, while scanning a roadside nursery in our town, I came across a similar plant. It was laden with flowers. As usual, the gardener’s instinct led me to purchase it. This time, we would do whatever we could to make it stay with us.

 

That summer it flowered. It had a beautiful combination of white outer petals and red heart shaped petals in the center. We felt great to have this unique vine in our collection.

 

To keep it safe, we shifted it in semi-shade to avoid the scorching sun by placing it under our Champa tree. It stayed alive but did not flower for two years in a row. This was quite surprising. Generally, if you have looked after the plant well in almost all parameters, it does flower.

 

We didn’t get discouraged and kept this plant active. It grew new leaves and even grew new vine-like branches. But we kept missing the “Bleeding heart flowers”. We did not give up.

 

It is the third year now, and it has bloomed. What caught my attention was that the red heart was missing. The white outer cover was perfectly in place, but what had happened to the red core kept bugging me. I made a mental note of what I had done with the plant in terms of watering, manuring or hoeing etc. What kept it from blooming the way it should? I had no answers. These white flowers were beautiful too, but the red part could not be seen. It had to be investigated.

 

Thanks to the internet, when you scan a photo of a plant, it can give you a complete write up on it. Now there are apps which tell you remedies if the plant is not doing well. Any addition to my knowledge was welcome.

 

The lens was utilized to find out the reasons for it not flowering the way it should. The answer did not surprise me. The main reason was the harsh summer heat and direct sunlight which puts this plant into stress. We decided to make the plant’s life stress free immediately.

 

The most interesting reason which came to light was that in all probability the one which we saw at the nursery was a graft on a mother plant and a variety of the same species. The graft could have died and the main plant was flowering now.

 

Thus, the flowers had only with the white outer cover. I scratched my head. This could be a very likely possibility because we never noticed any graft or when that graft died. This happens commonly with roses.

 

All said and done, the white flowers are really beautiful and blooming in small bunches. In the evening the pot was placed in a place where it would not get only indirect sunlight. Hopefully, if not this season, then next season it would start flowering normally which is white and red.

 

Let me update you on the latest. Three days we kept it in the garage with mild morning sunlight falling on it. The red core has appeared. Our happiness is at its peak. We did it.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/9ZezN5aVcBg?feature=share

 

Have you guys seen a plant behaving like this? I wonder!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© ®NOEL ELLIS




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FINGER ON YOUR LIPS

  LT COL NOEL ELLIS   29/IV/2025   What has happened to Pakistan? While India is doing Fauji Exercises, Pakistan has mobilised for what! I agree that the people of India want revenge. But, from whom? Our PM has only said that “we will not leave the terrorists and their supporters till the end of the Earth”. He has never said he will sort out Pakistan, or has he?   It has been hilarious watching discussions on Paki social media channels. They seem to have already given up. Our RM meets the PM and Pakistan starts shitting bricks. They talk about jazba and gazwa, and start telling us about their nuclear arsenal. 160 I suppose. By the way we will send across one equivalent to your 160 if need be.   There is a saying, ‘Chor ki Dari main tinka” literal meaning is, a straw in a thief’s beard. However, the deep meaning is that a guilty person reveals his guilt through his behaviour, even unintentionally. Clearly, “a guilty conscious needs no accuser”...
18 comments
Read more

TAKE A PAUSE

  One thing I have realized that spending time with nature brings so much of mental peace. A small bird can just cheer you up. Her tweet can lift your mood. The sheer joy one derives from watching then come and play in your garden, feed, and bathe is just elevating. All those who do it know what I say and a request to those who haven’t must try it.   Morning time is the most hectic for the birds. They all know that their feed will be there. Their tweets and chirps are indicators of the happiness they enjoy. I am sure in between their tweets they chirp to thank us too.   Evenings are another kind of high. These days their feeders go empty by evening. The water bowls too are nearly at bottom levels, not because of their thirst but now they bathe in the bowl more often. The water sprinkled while they shake their bodies flies off emptying the bowl.   In the evening, when I go to the rooftop there is a different kind of hustle. A few sparrows, a pair of dove...
15 comments
Read more

A PERFECT GARDENER

    Most of us are parents and grandparents now. All of us have brought up our children and now are looking after Gen Z. We gave our children and their children the best of best.   With that as an opening remark, let me shift focus to gardening. I am no expert on parenting or gardening. We went with the tide of highs and lows. The churns and turmoil. Even if we consider ourselves as perfect parents, can we be perfect gardeners?   The answer in both cases would be a big NO. When you look back, there is something more which could have been done. Things could have been done differently. There is no perfect template which can fit all.   One saw the kid take baby steps, then their growth stage and then they matured and ready to bear their own children. What is in store in the future? No one knows.   Having said that, let me return to the topic of Gardening. This would interest gardening enthusiasts. Are you a perfect gardener?   My p...
4 comments
Read more

A BREAK FROM BLOGGING

    Christmas week is a busy week and spills over to the New Year. Friends and family get together, rejoice, make merry and strengthen bonds. It is cold and wintry, the reason to indulge in relishing plum and rum cakes and pakwans, dry fruits and puddings and be at peace.   However, too much rest to my ‘finger tips’ was catching with me both with the laptop keys and the ‘click button’ of the camera. Sometimes, it is good to take a break or if one can call it a ‘fast’ of a different sort. It is a good time to sit down, chill, run down and reflect on things which are now memories in the year coming to an end. How time flies!   We had a dinner planned for my chaddi-buddies and their families last evening. We were looking forward to having fun and lots of laughter. However, in all this milieu, some little things had to be done like feeding the fish on the roof, lest I miss out.   As I opened the roof door, my eyes lit up when I saw a white breasted k...
8 comments
Read more

TALE OF A CERTIFICATE

It was way back in 1979 that I became a ‘matriculate’ with a ‘first division’. One required 60% marks for it and I got 60.14%, one mark over the threshold. This I came to realize only yesterday when I had to produce that certificate after almost 46 years.   Those days, first division meant you were the cream. No one talked about percentages or marks. All that mattered was I, II or III Div.   The first time I realised that how important this certificate was when as a young Captain in the Indian Army with three years service, I got a notice from the Army Headquarters to “show cause” why my services should not be terminated as they did not find my matric certificate attached with the mandatory documents required to be submitted to UPSC.   Earth moved under my feet. I was from a Sainik School where all documentation was sent by the school administration. How could they have missed out? Why me, was the question?   Panic and fear struck together as I had ...
6 comments
Read more

CHILLED BEER

  LT COL NOEL ELLIS   23/V/2025   How do you like to have your drink? Some like it shaken and not stirred, some ‘on the rocks’, some like it ‘neat’, some hide it in coke, some straight for the bottle, and some don’t mind ‘Tharra’. I will not talk about ‘Hooching’. “Alcoholics’ can drink all the above.   But what about my birdie friends? Birds can drink water from anywhere. It could be from a river, a pond, a nala, even a drain. Some get used to a homely environment, love to have it from their bar aka an earthen bowl. It is like having a cold drink in this heat.   For birds their ‘bar’ is like the ritual of going to fetch water at the village well where they congregate. They gossip, tease, fight, nudge and even shoo each other away. Two to three sips and it is all done. No one wastes it, no one gets drunk and no one minds drinking straight from the same bottle.   It was like the younger days when we shared one beer bottle amongst frie...
2 comments
Read more

MYSTERY OF THE MISSING FISH

  Stray cats are on the prowl in our lane. Residents feed them a variety of food. From Roti to bread and milk is their diet. The way they are bloating is an indicator of their health.   They have been also feeding on the roti we spread for the birds. They eat roti only in case of an emergency. It is birds the cats are after. We haven’t seen them catching one but knowing cat behaviour, they would not miss a chance.   What I do not appreciate is that they jump into the grain bowl. It is a shallow earthen pot hung with wires on a protrusion of a dried branch. Even if there are ten birds feeding on the feeder, it doesn’t shake. Imagine, when a big chubby cat jumps onto it. They have dropped that pot several times and broken it.   We do not mind cats basking on our veranda chairs, but how does one tell the cats not to leave the birds alone. Like the birds are looking for a meal, so are the cats. Nothing like a juicy sparrow or a bulbul or a fat dove.   These cats wer...
6 comments
Read more

ARMY CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR

ARMY CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR   LT COL NOEL ELLIS   16/I/2026   I was watching the excerpts of the ‘Army Day Parade’ held in Jaipur. The show put up by the Army was exemplary. It reminded me of the Chinese Military parade, ours was far better. I wish I could have witnessed it in person.   What impressed me was the showcasing of the ‘Bhairav troops’ in their ‘combat regalia’. Especially the Sikh troops. Camo painted faces, Khaki pagris and the call of Bole-so-Nihal could shake up the enemy in his grave.   What caught my attention was their boots. Keeping their tasks and deployment in mind in various sectors, those boots would be wind proof, water proof, light weight, comfortable, flexible, durable with enhanced grip and ankle support.   The contingent was not in ‘Tez chal’ but ‘daur ke kadam taal mode’. Which implies, they do not walk but are always on the run to annihilate the enemy. Their boots had to support their operational requirem...
4 comments
Read more

A WAKE UP CALL

  There were two incidents that shook Pakistan last week. One was the attack by the Baluchi people; I am on purpose not calling them militants or terrorists which the Pak army spokesperson has declared them. The second was the bomb blast in a mosque in Islamabad, their capital, under the very nose of all kinds of security agencies.   The Paki Army claims that more than 200 Baluchis, 25 Armed forces personnel and about 36 civilians were killed in the first incident spreading across the length and breadth of the district of Baluchistan at 14 locations ( figures would be much higher). 60 killed and 176 seriously wounded in the bomb blast. This means more than five to six hundred people were wiped off the face of the earth.   Massacre, butchering, killing, murdering, extermination, slaughtering, slaying, like terms can be used for this mass scale elimination of one's own people to heaven or hell depending on which side of the fence you were. Innocent souls got caugh...
8 comments
Read more

IF THERE IS A WAR…...

    LT COL NOEL ELLIS   28/IV/2025   I remember the 1971 war as a small child. We were in Kapurthala Punjab, very close to the Pakistan border. It was an evening in December, I do not remember the exact date. While returning from a friends house, the declaration of war was done as I skipped along the ‘Thandi Sarak’ of Kapurthala.   The gist was that a vehicle with loud speakers was telling people to head home as an "emergency" had been declared and war had started. I ran as fast as I could, shivering with fear and my heart beating unusually fast. Though I was a lap baby when the 1965 war had taken place, it appeared serious business now.   Overnight, Dad and other Uncles started digging trenches infront of our homes. Carbon paper was no dearth in a teachers house, so mom got into an overdrive to stick them to the glass windows. Though the glass had been painted during the 1965 war, some broken panes had been replaced. Mom told ...
6 comments
Read more