My Roof Garden on top of the rest 26

I go back today to the roof garden, for yesterday I was able to get up there after ages, having been deterred by the relentless rain of the last few weeks. It did stop at times, but that was when there was no one else available to go up with me. Not only am I mindful of my commitment not to go up there on my own, I was also aware that the place, and the stairs, were rendered more slippery by the rain. So I desisted, contenting myself with looking up from the balcony at the edge with its profusion of roses, seeing buds and blossoms and knowing the plants were doing well,

But there was pervasive if not sustained sunshine yesterday morning, and Kavi was available, to also advise me on fertilizer. Long ago Sunil had got two large bags, but I was not sure how to use them, and I am glad I waited for Kavi said one was only for roses, and had to be buried in earth in a circle round the plant. The other promoted blossoms in general, and was scattered on the soil.

The first picture shows what I had to rely on, taken from the balcony on Sunday, a gloomy day, but there follows the promise of the blossom and the bud that can just be seen there. The second picture is of the variegated rose bush on the right of the stairs as you go up, bought from the chap in Ingiriya I had found so helpful. There is just the one blossom there now, and that just opening, but there are buds there too, rearing as it were to go.

The third picture is of the other plant I bought in Ingiriya which had that same colour but also yellow roses. The blossoms you see here though are all yellow, flourishing in the pot in which I placed them, on the other side of the long bed on the left of the stairs. And in that picture you see too the yellow blossoms of the plant at the end of the bed.

Next is the tall bush in the middle, with the pink and white blossom that is seen from below in the first picture. It towers above the rest at that edge, so it can be seen from the seat you see beyond it. There were no flowers on the bush next to the stairs, though I had over the last couple of weeks discerned blossoms there when I stood up on the balcony. You see that in the next picture, where you can see the tall blossom. In front of it however are the blossoms in the basin that lies in the middle of the roof garden.

And finally I show a glorious purple blossom on the other side of that bed, on one of the plants which Anurudhdha brought me for my birthday in May. It had a fabulous blossom then, and this has recurred, but never one as luscious as this one. The last picture also captures the splendour of the early morning sunshine yesterday.