Gorgeous Blooms of Bauhinia Kockiana

This tropical vine known as Bauhinia Kockiana or Bauhinia Coccinea which needs support for its luxuriant woody stems and trailing branches with green and deeply-veined peaked leaves is truly a gorgeous beauty! When it blooms, which it does throughout the year, it’s covered with bright orange-red magnificent inflorescences with a mix of yellow-orange as some flowers from the cluster gradually wither. It’s eye-catching, no doubt about that! This beauty is amongst my favourites.

It loves the strong sun, needs moderate water and occasional fertilizing to be happy and healthy.

However, too much of anything can be fatal! My hubby and I were shocked and saddened in early February when we returned from a 3days/2 nights holiday at Genting Highlands to find our beautiful vine a casualty of our sometimes unpredictable and extremely hot and dry weather. It suffered ‘sunstroke’ where its branches, leaves and even flowers were thoroughly scorched by the intense heat. Fortunately, other plants in our garden were not unduly affected.

So, rather than ‘write-off this unsightly mass’ which was so beautiful just a week ago , my spouse suggested that I trim down heavily on its stems and branches which were already devoid of leaves and flowers, hoping to nurture it back to health. I did exactly that and my hubby patiently watered it, sparingly at first, increasing gradually.

One week passed without any sign of growth, then the same for the second week! But by mid of the third week, there were signs of life with tiny bean-size appearances at the nodes of some stems. Praise the Lord! It survived and now it’s gradually being filled with new young leaves and branches. Given time, it’ll definitely splash its colors on its beautiful blooms once again to brighten our front yard fence and our days.

Updates:
Sharing 3 images below:
First photo: it survived the sunstroke and even managed to flower again in August, 2006 though less abundantly.
Second photo: just to show its progress in July, 2007 - towering almost 8ft. tall with just a couple of flower clusters. Foliage lush, but flowering very much reduced - could the sunstroke experienced a year ago be the cause?
Third photo: another unfortunate happening again early last month (Feb. 2008) - was extremely scorched by the hot sun, as it was not watered for 3 days when we went off for a short holiday. I've already given it a hard trim down to 3 feet tall and new leaves have sprouted. Hmm...wonder whether it will ever flower again? Had it been planted on ground, I'm definite it would not have suffered such stress! Too bad, our small garden is mostly paved.



See more pictures of Bauhinia Kockiana and plant information at my other website.

Last edited: March 27, 2008