Pakistan Gardening Forum

Looks like Garlic vine.

Munir wrote:Looks like Garlic vine.

I hope it's garlic vine..
what is blue shower vine?

Garlic vine

Yes, it is Garlic Vine (Mansoa alliacea). Very nice flowers but you will have to take care of it during winters.

Just checked the smell of its leaves. It smells like garlic. You guys are right.
One thing more its local name is Blue shower ... I just checked from local nursery wala, he calls it as Blue shower. I purchased it from Islamabad about 4-5 months ago, he also called it as Blue Shower.. Very slow growing vine. Has not flowered yet.
Today I bought another one , not knowing that I already had one. This one that I bought today has flowers ... its in 8 inch pot, will transplant it tomorrow.. Any special care in winters?

What about the second picture? It looks like some sort of honeysuckle (pretty popular in Islamabad).

M Farooq wrote:What about the second picture? It looks like some sort of honeysuckle (pretty popular in Islamabad).

Both pictures are of same plant. 2nd picture is taken from very close to plant, thats why its looking bit different from the first picture.

jdashraf wrote:

M Farooq wrote:What about the second picture? It looks like some sort of honeysuckle (pretty popular in Islamabad).

Both pictures are of same plant. 2nd picture is taken from very close to plant, thats why its looking bit different from the first picture.

One of us needs an eye exam ;-) just joking. The top one has a different leaf arrangement - each attachment point on the stem is further divided into two leaves; this is characteristic of garlic vine. The second one (lower picture) has simple leaves and a different way of attachment on the stem (not sure about the id of the lower plant).

jdashraf wrote:One thing more its local name is Blue shower ... I just checked from local nursery wala, he calls it as Blue shower. I purchased it from Islamabad about 4-5 months ago, he also called it as Blue Shower..

Our nursery walas are in habit of giving strange names to the plants at times and than they insist that this is the correct name.

This reminds me of a discourse with an educated Nursery wala who runs one of the famous nurseries in Pakistan and is considered to be an authority about the plants (no doubt he has vast experience of growing and handling plants). I was actually looking to buy a few palms for hot Okara climate. Trusting his knowledge on the subject, I asked the nursery wala to recommend a few palms which will thrive well in Okara.

One of the palms he showed me was Nannorrhops ritchian which I recognized very well as I had seen it growing wild at numerous places in Balochistan, NW Punjab and lower areas in Kashmir. Without revealing to him that I know well about it, I just asked the guy how about this palm? He said that "well this palm will do very well in Okara but it is quite expensive" (it was a large size plant) and that "it's name is Nano Hips Palm". Amused by the name and in the light mood, I asked him that why is it called Nano "Hips"? Had he been an illiterate guy he might have said that he doesn't know but being educated (apparently), the guy refused to acknowledge this fact and wanted to impress me with his knowledge. So he said that he is not very sure but since this palm comes from Europe, it has probably been named after some Angraiz women Nano and that it's leaves resemble the hips of Nano. To illustrate his point further, he asked me with lot of authority in his voice "can't you see the resemblance??"

I was completely flabbergasted with this explanation but didn't want to put him off straightaway, so I started inspecting the plant from various angles as if trying to find any resemblance with the perceived hips of an Angraiz women. But suddenly something clicked and I asked him, "are you really sure Nano was a women?" and that "what is the source of his information?". In a dry tone, he advised me to google it on the internet and everything is given there. Enjoying the discourse now, I asked him "doesn't this palm greatly resembles Nannorrhops ritchian which is locally called Mazari Palm and grows wild in many areas of Pakistan" and is widely used by locals to make straw buckets etc? He said "may be" but this one is imported from Thailand. Now it was my turn to get a little furious. So I asked him that has he heard of a scandal where people are taking out grown up specimens of Nannorrhops ritchian and few other native palms from the wild and selling them as imported palms in top of the line nurseries in Islamabad, Lahore and other big cities minting lot of money? He was visibly put off by this question and plainly told me that he is very busy and I should quicken up my purchases, if at all I was interested.

So much for Nano Hips Palm