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Back after two weeks to the Roof Garden, which has continued to flourish. I was away for ten days, and when I got back it was to find another host of roses, with blossoms aplenty visible from the balcony yesterday morning, in the pots and the beds of the eastern edge by the stairway. The first picture here shows the bed with three different colours of roses, seen from below, and the second the pot on the northern end with speckled red roses.
I was able to get up there in the evening, with Kavi and with Janaki, to water the plants – as a direct consequence of which doubtless it rained heavily in the night. As I went up, I had a pleasant surprise, for the pot I mentioned had a host of roses of different colours. How this happened, after months of blossoms all the colour of the rose on the right in this picture, I have no idea, but as the third picture shows the range was quite astonishing.
This may have resulted from the rich compost which we had been preparing for months, after Karu prepared a bin with an outlet at the bottom to take out the earliest stuff we had put in the bin. My brother had been most scornful of what was on top, and had perhaps as a result since two bins when there was only one, which I think prompted Kavi to lay out soil on the roof garden in addition to in the new beds in the garden as I had asked him to do.
The results were wonderful, as we see in the plethora of roses in the next bed along, though the picture is less striking that the one of these seen from below which is placed first here. In this fourth picture you see also the pot matching the first one, which had speckled roses as well as yellow ones, though only a single specimen of the latter can be discerned in the picture.
But the plant on its left more than compensated for this with a whole host of bright yellow blossoms. The next picture shows these, with beyond them Benjy on the balcony, insatiable in his curiosity.
I had tea up there while watering the plants and taking lots of pictures, more of which will appear next week as I talk about the other flowering plants up there. The last picture shows me with the bougainvillea on the northwest corner behind, its yellow blossoms visible. These have been present in profusion for well over a month, but now the purple plant has also begun to blossom though the picture does not show this.
I wrote last week of the tragedy that befell the fish in the tank by the dining room, which I had looked at with such pride just a few days earlier, its eight fish darting and gliding along in great elegance. That tragedy followed not long after the nights of the predators, up on the balcony, and also I noticed in the garden where I think the same stork I had surprised up on the balcony one morning was striding purposefully on the edge of the pond under the temple flower tree.
That necessitated swift action, and soon all the ponds in the garden were covered with netting, which Kithsiri put up as elegantly as is possible. But that does not amount to much, as the pictures here show.
I have tried to make the ponds more attractive with lotuses, and these are interspersed with the netting. These are the lowlying ones, which proved such a spectacular success in the pond by the garage. But in the garden one of them did produce a blossom following the one with which the plant came, but since then nothing has appeared, and the other plant just had a bud it came with flowering, and since then there has been nothing.
I have tried to make the ponds more attractive with lotuses, and these are interspersed with the netting. These are the lowlying ones, which proved such a spectacular success in the pond by the garage. But in the garden one of them did produce a blossom following the one with which the plant came, but since then nothing has appeared, and the other plant just had a bud it came with flowering, and since then there has been nothing.
And to see them I have to remove the netting, which however also gives me a better sight of the fish. So here I show first the green tub under the croton tree, with its netting, with Toby in his corner, and then from the opposite corner of the seat a lotus, first with two white malawi and then with a host of the red and the black fish in that pond.
The next picture shows the original lotus pond with a spaceship like cover, but sadly there were no flowers on the lotus, a tall red one for old time’s sake, that I placed there. Then we have the temple flower tree, with a flat cover raised in the middle, with a corner by the wall of the tortoise enclosure that has a net that can be easily lifted. There you see another lotus, first with two grey gourami, and then with the white malavi, and smaller ones and also one of the little pink tetras that remain there.
And to see them I have to remove the netting, which however also gives me a better sight of the fish. So here I show first the green tub under the croton tree, with its netting, with Toby in his corner, and then from the opposite corner of the seat a lotus, first with two white malawi and then with a host of the red and the black fish in that pond.
The next picture shows the original lotus pond with a spaceship like cover, but sadly there were no flowers on the lotus, a tall red one for old time’s sake, that I placed there. Then we have the temple flower tree, with a flat cover raised in the middle, with a corner by the wall of the tortoise enclosure that has a net that can be easily lifted. There you see another lotus, first with two grey gourami, and then with the white malavi, and smaller ones and also one of the little pink tetras that remain there.
I looked at two of the beds on the balcony last week. There are three others, or rather two beds and a pot. In the last are white roses, a tall plant that has not failed thus far to produce blossoms, one or two every month or so. They are perfectly formed roses, and I show first today a close up of one, and then that one together with another, both of which lasted quite some time.
The very first bed I put up on the balcony now has a small plant of pink roses that also never disappoints. The larger orange plant there, which took the place of the red one I cherished over four years, is less prolific, but it did have a blossom opening on Christmas Day, which you see third here, with a pink blossom and a bud. And the pink roses were in full flow a month later as the next picture indicate.
Unfortunately I have not taken any pictures of the other bed, which has red roses, rarely but there has been a blossom there right through this month. It has little foliage though and I fear the worst, but it has somehow survived now for a couple of years.
Meanwhile I finally after ages added roses down below in the main garden. While I was away in Greece Somapala built up three beds there and, though two are in perpetual shade so I do not think flowers will flourish there, the third does get sun in the mornings. So I put in a couple of plants in December and then another this month. It is these last white roses that you see next.
But the other two plants there have not produced blossoms after the first ones with which they came, and it seems that this plant too will not do well, for its buds did not bloom, apart from one. I fear the sun is not enough, though perhaps this was because of the incessant rain, and I will keep trying for a few weeks more, until perhaps I have to retreat to shrubs as I did with the first bed there, above the pond around the dead temple flower tree.
After these pictures there are variations on the same themes, beginning with Lara exploring the new white roses in the garden soon after I got that plant. Then I show earlier white roses on the balcony, and then the yellow rose of Christmas in bright sunlight a couple of days later with two blossoms on the pink bush.
The first post for this series in the current year was on a positive note, as was what I showed last week. I was exulting in the two new ponds, the second very new and doing well it seemed, the first having recovered from its earlier bleak situation with the arrival of new fish which Janaki’s brother Dharshana gave me, to add to the large pink gourami there, plus four catfish.
But there was disaster last week. I went up one morning to find the larger pink gourami not glued to the edge of the tank, where he waited to be fed, devouring everything that came his way so that I had to drop in food all over the rest of the tank to give the fish a chance. In time he came up as did the rest, but they were desultory, and I worried, and I should have worried more.
But I went away that day and next morning Janaki called to say he seemed very ill, and though she took him out, he died shortly afterwards. And one of the silver dollars followed. I told Kavi then to empty the tank, for perhaps the mud had turned noxious. Kithsiri had indeed advised me to do this a few days earlier, for there was no need for it since the lotuses had not thrived, and even the basin I put in, after the blossom the plant came with died, lost its leaves when another bud had just emerged from the water.
I delayed, and this seems to have been fatal. Kavi moved the fish as instructed to the waterfall pond, but though the four catfish did well there the silver dollar was attacked there and in the ehala tree pond by the malawi, and he ended up on the pond by the garage, though I have not seen him there yet.
The pond above is now clear, and the other gourami, who seemed weak when I got back, has now improved, and appears at the age of the tank in the mornings and eats, if not quite as voraciously as his mate. It breaks my heart though to see him all alone there, but I am not quite sure what to do. I suggested to Kavi that the bereaved Silver Dollar should be put back, and I hope he will try. The catfish unfortunately, who seem able to survive anywhere, lurk at the bottom of the waterfall pond and I do not think it will be easy to get hold of them again.
The first picture is of the two gourami together in the pond, and the next shows them with one of the Silver Dollars just below, and a couple of catfish down below. The next one shows all the types, a gourami and a Silver Dollar on the left and both black and white catfish down below.
But then you see the two dead fish, and then the lone gourami, with only a statue for company.
The roses on the balcony also did well at the turn of the year. I showed some of them in December, so here I will confine myself to what was there after Christmas, and in the first couple of weeks of this year.
This included a new plant, which I brought back on December 27th after two nights at the cottage. It had a flower that reminded me of the red flowers of the first plant I had on the balcony, which died away last year, though perhaps this was a shade darker. There was another blossom on the tree, of a lighter colour, and the first picture here shows the contrast. But that had been bend in transit, and though that picture does not reveal this, the last picture today shows me holding it up.
It was placed in the bed I created in the south east corner, which was followed by the little pond against the south wall. As I have mentioned, what I planted there produced some lovely yellow and orange blossoms, but then the first plant died and its successor too, swiftly, and Kavi pointed out that I had not created an outlet so that water was retained there.
So a few months ago a hole was bored, and then the dead branches we had placed there were covered with the first fruits as it were of the compost bin I have downstairs. The soil was very rich, and I feel anything planted there will do well. Despite losing its mate, the red rose shone for some days, and then as it faded little red shoots appeared, so I hope for the best.
That was not a good day for travel, for for the first time en route home I lost one of the fish I had bought, a red tetra. I buried it in the long bed on the east, under an orange blossom. This was dark as the first blossom on this tree had been, unlike the succeeding blossoms on its counterpart on the roof.
Similar in colour was the blossom on the first bed, where the red roses had been replaced by little pink ones, which are constantly in bloom, plus a taller orange plant. And so too the plant at the northern end of the eastern bed also has orange blossoms, though as you can see in the fourth picture it produces ones of lighter colour too.
The fish Kavi gave me I put in the new tank next to the garage, which I have described already as providing a home for some of the angels who were born on the balcony way back in October 2022. There are four of them there, placed after I had put in a lotus plant that I hoped would provide them with shelter, though I also placed netting along the sides.
Before that I had had a few little fish, only a couple of whom have survived, but they include a Black Molly which I think was one of those who survived being moved into a basin that was a nursery for lotus seeds, and lived on there with a friend when the lotuses gave up. He was joined by two tiger barbs, and two green barbs, which are related though they have a green splodge instead of the stripes that make their counterparts so beautiful.
And then there were four white catfish, who dart about the place, in contrast to the stately angels who glide along with great dignity, two white ones, a black one, and one that has a golden streak.
Into this menage I added four Oscars which Kavi gave me for Christmas. Two were white, preposterously round, with bulbous eyes. One of them had these characteristics in spades, and he practically fixed himself to the front glass of the tank, and causes me great joy, not least because he is excessively greedy. His mate took some time to join him, but is now often in evidence, while the black ones were more coy though they too have taken courage now.
What I find astonishing, and thrilling, is that a whole host of them are waiting at the edge when I go down of a morning to give Rocky his yoghurt and then feed them (in that order, since Rocky is very sensitive and sometimes will not eat if I feed the fish first). Generally I find three of the angels with their noses to the glass, and the two white Oscars, while the little black fish swim in and out amongst them.
Missing are the catfish, but they appear soon after the food is dropped in, and twist in and out amongst the others, darting at the blobs of food, while Round Oscar munches steadily on.
And there is even greater joy there for the lotus plant I put in has produced blossom after blossom. The plant is in a basin which is in the centre of the pond, and after the first blossom which was there to start with three buds have surfaced through the water, and have burst into flower when the sun is hot. Sadly they do not last longer than three or four days before they droop, but they look magnificent when they bloom.
Unfortunately they do not blossom early morning, so I have to make another trip down, and lurk so that I can get a picture of the flower with fish surrounding it.
The first two pictures are from the end of last year, with the white oscars to the fore, a dark one also in the second picture and the angels in profusion. The lotus seen there had faded, as the second picture shows but been replaced by another, and then that too fell away after a couple of days. But the next, as seen in the last picture, was once just blooming when I went to feed the fish, so you can see the dawn chorus, the oscars as always leading the band.
Despite the absurdities of the weather, fierce rain interrupting intense sunshine, the roof garden continued to flourish. Less than a week after I had denuded it so that Christmas lunch would be with flowers from up there on each table, the place was again in fine fettle. On the last day of last year the variegated bush had several blossoms, and there were blossoms in various shades of pink on beds to the east and the south and a pot too.
Less than a week later the other pot with the lovely mottled rose, though it is on its own there, had also put forth in profusion, while the deep orange flowers I had got from the same source in Ingiriya were out again, though as earlier their colour was now very light.
There were more pink flowers in the pot on the eastern edge, before the bougainvillea plant and, though that had no flowers, its counterpart on the northwest corner was full of them, and they looked fabulous against the tiles of the roof with the September Dawn of the new building in the background – from where, I should add, I can see these flowers when I walk, with the leaves of the three tall trees in the garden beyond them.
Finally I show a long shot of the variegated rose bush, with blossoms on two of the three plants in the long bed between that and the stairway – though it is possible the last two pictures may not appear.
I had wondered whether, with the advent of another year, I should start a new series for the Saturday post on this blog. But so much happens in the various ponds and tanks that I have, that I will continue with the same subject, as I do with the gardens on Wednesdays, though whether there will be enough happening throughout the year remains to be seen. And I will have shorter posts this year, and focus more on the pictures, since that I suspect is what people are interested in.
Though there was also bad news towards the end of the year, I will start with the good. A couple of days before Christmas Kavi and his uncle Dharshana presented me with a host of exotic fish, for the two new tanks. It may be remembered that last year Dharshana gave me two large ones to put in with Kavi’s massive pink gourami, whose doctor had told him, having cured him of what had seemed a life-threatening illness, that he was bad tempered because he was by himself, and would improve with company.
We were frightened he would gobble up any company he was given, but the large fish Dharshan gave me were beyond him, and he and that pair co-exist very happily. Only once have I seen him chase them, when I think he felt his food was being taken, but most days they all three gobble away, with no thought for each other.
This year too Dharshana gave me two large black fish, Silver Dollars, he said they were, not quite as large as the previous two. This was appropriate for I put them in the tank on the balcony where I had two white gourami who had grown since I got them, which is why Kavi thought they should be moved from the bath tub where I had first put them. He believes they are the same breed as his massive one, but they are still comparatively small so that Dharshana’s new black fish are to them as his earlier ones are to the giant.
They live quite happily it would seem with the gourami and also the four catfish there, two white ones and two black ones. The white ones I bought for this tank but the black ones had previously been in the bath tub under the ehala tree, and I had not seen them since I put them in. Kavi said he saw one occasionally, but of the other he had just a vague glimpse once, as I had once of the braver one.
I had had two white gourami in that tank but one vanished and then the other died, after I had covered the tank up, and Kithsiri suggested then that we remove the mud and keep it bare. When this was done, while I was away, Kavi found both black catfish and we moved them to the dining room tank (as I will refer to it, using balcony tank for those on the upper balcony).
The two black catfish promptly vanished, but one did see glimpses of them occasionally, and then after the two big black fish were put there they have appeared more frequently, perhaps thinking that they needed to be quick off the mark to get anything to eat.
The first picture shows the tank with the balcony beyond it, encompassing a bougainvillea bush and also a little bed for greenery. This scene has however appeared previously too, when I introduced this tank. The second picture shows the big gourami in the pink tub in the garden, with the fish Dharshana gave me for Christmas in 2022, and there follow the Silver Dollars he gave me a year later, in the new tank with one of the gourami lurking in the background. The next picture shows the gourami with one of the white catfish, but this picture like the last one is not clear because the water is muddy.
This is because I had wanted to have lotuses here, and the fifth picture shows a plant with a blossom I had put in the week before Christmas, with a gourami sailing by. After that blossom faded away another was beginning to emerge through the water, but then it vanished, and when I checked on what had happened, which required getting the basin out because of the murkiness, the whole plant had vanished.
I fear gourami eat lotus leaves, and one of these two is voracious. But I suppose the realization that I cannot have plants there will help me to see the fish, because I will now clear away the mud.
I had thought about starting another series for the Wednesday post on this blog, but so much happens in my garden, at its different levels that I decided to continue with this subject. But the posts will be shorter, to give even greater emphasis to the pictures, which I have no doubt are of greater interest to readers than any explanations of what and why things are.
Today’s subject lends itself admirably to this, for I go back to the roof garden which I have not talked about for nearly a month. But as I found a few months back, incessant rain, with bursts of fierce sunshine, has been good for the roses, and the burst of flowering they engaged in has not ceased. When I made my way up there in the middle of December, it was to find luscious flowers on several plants, a pink one in the first big basin, the yellow little one in the bed at the southwest corner and the bright yellow one in the second big basin amidst the lime trees.
Unfortunately I took no pictures when I was next up there, on Christmas morning, when I plucked the best blossoms for vases on my tables at lunch. So when I was up there again a few days later there were few flowers, though little buds that had escaped at Chrismas had flowered, a pink one in I think the first big basin, and an orange one in the bed on the eastern side.
Rajiva Wijesinha 