You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2023.
I turn now to the balcony below the garden, and start with a survey of the other rose plants there. I have indeed shown one that was there, but that was in a pot later transferred as mentioned to the garden above. There are however others, including another pink bush which was planted in the same bed as my first rose plant. That was the red one that flourished over several years, but that finally died a few months back. I still remember it fondly, and its magnificence, and start with a few pictures of it in different stages over its four joyous years.
I show then then pink bush which went into that bed while the red one was still there. Then in February this year, after I had finally to grant that my red friend was gone, I put in its place the white rose plant I had been given for St. Valentine’s Day. It looked good but then subsequent blossoms it bore turned out to be pink, and it seemed silly to keep it there next to the other pink bush. So I moved it to the long bed on the east, which had a couple of other rose bushes, and it has done well there, with sometimes a whole host of blossoms, sometimes just a few.
After the three pictures then of the red roses, I show the flourishing little pink bush in that same bed, and then Janaki planting next to it what I had thought was a white rose bush. But when that proved a mistake and I had moved it, I replaced it with an orange rose, which can be seen in the sixth picture here.
The picture after that is one I cannot be quite sure of, but I think it is of the white rose turned pink after it had been transferred. I will move next week to that bed in the east, but since there is a lot to show there, this post will have to be shorter than usual, made up for I hope by the splendour of the buds and blossoms.
I began last week with the green tub which Nirmali gave me well after the pink one that was placed next to the ehala tree, on the right of the doorway into the garden. The green tub went on the left, further forward, for it was beyond the porch, where there was a croton bush that had begun, after the porch was built, to lean further and further forward in search of sun.
When the green tub was in place, I put in some seeds from the pink lotus flowers that had bloomed in the yellow tub, and they soon produced leaves on the surface, a lovely sight as the picture shows. But there were no flowers, and perhaps the croton bush overhanging the tub limited sunlight, which is why those leaves were not followed by blooms.
So in time I put in sprigs of the blue lotus plant I had brought down from Aluvihare, along with the spreading white flower plant. That flourished, but there was only one lotus blossom from the Aluvihare plants. Then I put in some plants from Getamanna, from the lake beyond the garden, but even these did not do too well there.
I then decided to concentrate on fish, and removed all but a few of the plants, which to my surprise and joy created an immense clarity in the water there. And I brought in lots of coloured fish, blue Siamese fighters, sari guppies, and the darting green and yellow zebras. There is also a black fish which I brought in earlier, plus a small gourami from the four I put in first in the temple flower tree pond.
That mix too is a joy to see. But before that and the lotus leaves from the beginning of 2021 I show the space there before the tank and the green tub moved centre stage, the tank being seen dimly at the back. You then have the tank in place and after that two pictures of the lotus leaves, which show how they spread, with the first showing the decorations above, which Kavi places on the croton bush – as indeed can be seen in the first picture, from the previous year.
Then you have the cornucopia of different coloured fish. Amongst them you see one of the shells that I brought back from Angola. They were initially put into one of the other ponds, when the clarity of the water here suggested that they would shine.
The next picture shows a Siamese fighter, the last of them I think, for they died off, the one after the other. And since then I have tried to introduce more lotuses, including a white one which I got when I first introduced one to the little pond on the balcony. The last picture here shows the leaves of that plant, with some of the residue of earlier leaves, under one of which, towards the left, you also see the Angolan shell. Sadly, unlike its counterpart above, this plant never flowered, and in time died away.
I have written over two months about my Roof Garden, so I think it is time to move on. But as the title of this series I decided on indicated, that was just the frosting on the cake, and what lies below can also figure here.
But before I move to the balcony below the roof garden, from which I access the garden by the stairway above the tank which featured first of all in the companion series here on water features, I will dwell for a moment on the pots that went up first to the roof garden, which I tend to neglect.
For these were the bougainvillea, which I have had almost from the time when I put flowers onto the balcony. Both pots, one at the south east corner and the other on the northwest, had two colours. The first has pink and yellow flowers, which I bought first of all, when I bought my first roses, while in the other the yellow flowers have purple ones as their companions.
Sunil acquired these from a garden down the road, and they too flourish, though oddly enough the different colours emerge generally at different times. But sometimes, more in the first pot, they do coincide, and I start here with two pictures of that pot in full bloom, taken six months apart. This shows how in the interval more and more plants filled the roof garden.
The third picture shows the other pot, at the same time as the second picture. This just had yellow blossoms then, but you do also see here the glorious view I have from the roof garden to the north-west. By this time the placing of the roofing sheets made the new building on that side look glamorous, and most of all I think from this angle because it is framed. by two mango trees. One is in the narrow but reasonably long back garden that remains in that area, and the other towers over the driveway.
Finally from the roof I show that pot when it had two shades, a picture taken last month when you can see also the blossoms of the ehala tree which towers high in the space beyond the beds and basins and pots of the roof garden.
From that we transit down to the bougainvillea in its infancy as it were, on the balcony, which will be the subject of the next few posts in this series. First I show them when they were on the north side just next to the overhanging roof. But then, as the next picture shows, the water tank was constructed in that space, half under the roof and half outside, for fish and lotuses, so the bougainvillea pots were moved to the two sides. In the first picture you see all four plants in flower, though the pink are discerned just dimly. In the second picture they display themselves better, but now the purple in the other pot are less prominent.
That first pink tub which Nirmali gave me before coronavirus struck was followed by another one towards the end 2020. That was a green one, and I placed it just in front of the croton tree that is in front of the door from my little drawing room into the garden. So that too is visible from my designer chair just outside the door, to the left, to balance the pink tub on the right.
And on the right too is the tank on uprights which Lohan gave me which I have described already. I got it soon after my garden was enclosed, for he upgraded to a larger tank which sat outside Kithsiri’s house for years but has now been moved inside, a lovely sight during meals given how beautifully he has set it up, with fish of different shades and lots of plants.
The smaller tank he gave me is less elaborate. I set it up first by the wall of the drawing room, but that meant I had to turn round to see the fish in there. So I then moved it forward, so that its back is to the trunk of the croton to my left when I sit on the chair. That tree had begun to bend forward when the porch came up above it, to seek the sun, and I sometimes worry if it will keel over though it still seems steady enough.
Initially I had smaller fish there, of different sorts, but then I decided that I would only have angels in it, given that it is the best feature I have to view the fish within. They proved adorable, gliding along whereas the smaller fish used to dart about, and seen close to every morning were fascinating to follow. Initially I had a few black and white ones, but then I got a few bigger ones too, including a large black chap who was a joy to follow. And then, these were such fun, that I got a few with a dash of pink on top, so that for several months I had three distinct colours to follow as they weave in and out.
They seemed to get on very well, and move in schools, perking up every morning when I emerged from the drawing room, and then sliding up when food was scattered on top. Within a few seconds everything I had put in was finished, and I had to stop myself giving them more.
But then as I have noted all that changed when I had to place with the angels the large fish from the waterfall pond, after the white fish there had spawned, and strove desperately to protect their offspring from the rest. Some of the angels had died before, but when three died together I moved them all out, for I feared there had been vast conflicts. And as I have mentioned, the five put in the pink tub died away, three of them just last month.
But here I celebrate them in the days in which they filled the tank last year, first a host of orange ones, and then my black friend in the bottom left corner with the coloured ones behind. But then I go back to the days before the coloured ones when there were just the black and white, though the fourth picture also shows my friend. In those days too they were dying, as the fifth picture shows, but I end with another parade in the time of the angels in that tank.
I have not said much thus far about the two furthest beds from the stairway to the roof garden, in part because I have not done as much in those as in the rest of the place. The one on the south, where I had placed barbatons, has not done well. Some weeks back I showed a bud there, and we have had a few blossoms, but they were all on one plant. The one on the left as you look down died soon after it was planted, and the two on the right never flowered. It was the one in the middle that valiantly produced I think three blossoms in all, but now that too has died.
As a result, I planted a rose there too, when I got a host of them from Anuruddha for my birthday. After one of the barbaton blossoms, I show the rose, just less than a month ago, but seen across from the fantastic yellow chrysanthemums in the bed to the north, against the western edge of the roof garden, flowers I also showed a couple of weeks aback in all their unexpected splendour.
That bed has done well, with a wide range of flowers and also a shrub which I show flourishing in the fourth picture – if it appears that is, for as I finish this post it does not appear to have been uploaded. Before that is one of Janaki placing one of the first plants I put there, a picture I am fond of because it also shows at the back the two houses on Dharmaraja Mawata that are mirrors of the two next to us – or rather that were next to us before the front garden was sold – on Alfred House Road.
That plant is I think one I was told might spill over the edge, but that did not work. But then I found in a new nursery near Horana some blossoms which I was assured were hardy. I show them in their contrasting colours, though of the same species.
And after that what I put there flourished. So there follows a picture of those two flower plants with lots more in the same bed. The picture after that was taken earlier, when I had put in some lovely white flowers, but as the other picture shows, they had faded away, and have not lasted.
Meanwhile I had decided, so nice were those camphor flowers, as I think they are, to add some to the bed opposite this one, on the east, which had the flourishing impatiens flowers. I have two pictures of the other flowers peeping out from amidst the pink and the purple impatiens.
After these I have yet another view of the rose planted on May 14th in the bed in the south, but looking across at the yellow chrysanthemums in the one on the west, while beyond them are my water tank and then the roof of the staff quarters and beyond those the new building where I had celebrated my birthday early with my former students.
I mentioned last week the yellow bath tub in my garden, in connection with the fish there, having dwelt upon its flowers a few weeks back. But there are also a couple of other ponds in the garden created from bath tubs, apart from this one and the pink one, also from Lakmahal, where the big pink gourami lives along with his two new friends.
A few months before coronavirus struck, Nirmali told me, having seen what I had done with my yellow tub, that she had a couple of unused bath tubs in the yard behind her house, and asked if I would like to have them. I accepted at once, and I got then a pink tub which I placed in front of the ehala tree. When I was up at Aluwihare, where I much admired the ponds Ena had constructed in the terrace between her house and the hillside, I persuaded Piyadasa to let me have some of the blue lotus plants that flourished in the one pond that still had water. It was those that I brought down for the pink tub, though in fact another plant came down with it, and took root more effectively than the lotus.
I also put in there straight away fish that I took from my first pond, mainly the golden platies though of course a few of the guppies got in too. My enjoyment and development of that pond suffered when I was stuck at the cottage for well over two months when coronavirus struck. But after I got back, early in June 2020, I started to do more with it. The lotus plants there had died down, so I got more from Aluvihare, though there had in the interim been a few blossoms which I could admire from the seat just above them, next to the anthurium bed that I had placed round the ehala tree. At least, I think I recall some, but of these I have no pictures.
But I do have pictures of the delicate white flowers of the other plant that I had brought down by accident from Aluvihare, and I show them third here, following the origins of the pond – first the empty space in front of the ehala tree and the anthuriums with my two chairs on either side, and then the little fish I put in there straight away, before the plants were brought.
The third picture juxtaposes the leaves of the water plant with those of the anthuriums just above it. But after that I show one of the problems this pond faces from the tree higher up, namely the profusion of ehela flowers that falls into it. This picture was taken late in June, after I finally got back to Lakmahal after the coronavirus complications. By then there were fewer flowers falling, whereas in late May, as the fifth picture shows – though this is after some clearing – there are many more. And that I fear is something that troubles many of the fish.
I had not thought I would be able to post today, for I was supposed to be in Kumana, but yesterday morning when en route I was called up to be told there had been a burglary at home. I called the police, who had responded promptly, and Janaki stayed at home to show them what had happened, but I rushed back and saw them myself last night. Thus far it seems that not much had been taken, though several cupboards had been forced. Fortunately I have no jewellery, and do not keep much money in the house, and I suspect tht was what interested them.
How they gained entry remains a mystery, it was certainly not from the balcony beneath the roof garden, for that had been firmly closed. We have all sorts of theories, all based on the assumption that it was people who knew the house, since they would not have dared enter we think had Toby been around. But we were seen taking him away the previous afternoon, to join his sister while Kithsiri and I were away. From now on I suspect we will have to keep him behind, which will make Janaki happy for she misses him when he is away.
There is some consolation in having had to rush back, for it means I will see more of the lotus blossom that appeared on the Monday morning. That is in the smaller basin in the balcony so should be described in the parallel Saturday series on water features. But there is also much going on above, including a new blossom in the pot of yellow roses which I have scarcely mentioned thus far.
The newest addition to the team, it sits on the left of the stairs up, just over the roof of the main building. The first picture shows that blossom, and the second the team without this post, taken from the seat on the balcony where I view the new lotus, seen as a bud in the third picture. In the second you see the sequence above, the new temple flowers and then the yellow roses in the main bed and the orange ones on the other side. The tall bush with red and white roses in the middle has no blossoms but behind it you see between shoots a rose on the tree in the basin that hosts the temple flower tree.
The last two pictures are of a basin I tend to neglect because it has no colourful flowers. But my effort to introduce colour in the midst of the two lime trees, one from Getamanna, the other from a seed dropped after a drink in which it lay into a bed of roses on the balcony, seem to have succeeded. The first of the pair shows a bright purple spread on the northwest edge with a speckled plant on the opposite side, between the two lime trees. And the second picture shows this basin from the other side, with the kovakka plant, ivy gourd, on the southwest corner.
I wrote three weeks ago about the first pond in the garden, or rather the first tub, the yellow one in which pink lotuses flourished. I concentrated on those then, but I should also now say something about the fish that fill it, and are a solace now when, though more and more lotus leaves appear, there have been no blossoms for ages.
I put in several fish when the tub was first filled. I bought gourami and carp and lots of red platies, while as noted previously Kavi gifted me a Mozambique, which I thought of for ages as my most senior fish, until it died a few months back. Then it turned out that there were guppies in the mud which had been brought from Kithsiri’s village, and they too multiplied in droves, as did the platies, considerably. And Kavi also gave me at that time a sari guppy, which I would love to see flash past the rest. It seemed too to mate with the ordinary guppies, for soon there were other fish there with that characteristic quivering tail.
When the big pond was created, I moved the carp and the gourami there, though by then there were fewer than the ten I had got of each. And in time they died off, with just one golden carp hanging on for ages, getting larger and larger.
Meanwhile I decided that the yellow tub needed more fish for as the lotus spread, with lots of leaves, it was difficult to see the guppies in the water. So over the last couple of years I have replenished the stock, though sadly none of these more ornamental fish have spawned.
My favourites were the zebras, green ones that would flash round the pond, much quicker than any of the other fish. I show one that just happened to be there when I took a picture of a lotus bud. But I had occasionally concentrated on the fish and I show next an orange gourami that I had added towards the end of 2020. But it is the green ones that predominate, though you can also see the red and orange platies.
When I gifted Lakmahal a swing for its 84th birthday in January 1921, repairing the swing my father had had many years earlier, I moved it from the south west corner to the south east, between the pond and the tub, so that I could see the fish in both early of a morning with my coffee.
But in time the darting zebras died away, and then, to supplement the little fish, I put back some gourami, and also bought a pair I was told were white gouramis though Kavi is convinced they were mozambiques. They frisked about quite happily, but then one vanished, a victim I think of the kingfisher, and the other was enormously shy for weeks. But then it began to reappear, and can be seen here together with the two grey gourami that survived.
Rajiva Wijesinha 