Water Features 57

There are no Malavi in the next tub along, the pink one which was the first Nirmali gave me. It was set against the ehala tree, which is about parallel with the croton bush, so the tub is further north than the other one, and to the west.

I tried to have lotuses there, but failed as I have noted, and the mud there was removed. When that was done I put in several grey gourami, to go with the red carp that were there, and two white fish, a Malavi and what Kavi insists is a Mozambique. But the carp died, and we thought this might be because the Malavi had attacked them so we removed him. The Mozambique does chase the gourami, but this seems to be a game for no damage has been done, and all six of them have survived.

I did put in two little red carp when I got some more for other ponds, but one died. The other however grew, and is almost a match for the other seven big fish. And then, since there was one pink tetra in there from the days of the mud, I tried to get some more. But only red ones were available, so there were for some time just three of them there, along with the pink one. They ignore him however, so he sails blithely about on his own, while the other three are often seen together. He has better luck with some orange tetra I got later to supplement the red, though there again he is very different from them.

The first picture shows one of the gourami with the Mozambique and the surviving red carp, all three about the same size. That shows them all well, but the next one has the other two between netting whereas the one gourami there is on the bottom right beneath some netting.

Then we see a gourami with a small pink fish and a small red one, I think the tetra, while the next two pictures have a couple of gourami in each, first with the carp and then with something pink or white which could be the Mozambique, but is more likely the pink tetra.  

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 57

I have showed orange and pink roses on the balcony in the last two weeks and I move now to the red ones. The two bushes with red roses also did well in April. The little bush in the little bed against the west wall abutting on the staircase produced two blossoms together, which is unusual, and I show these first. Next there is I think the same plant with just one of those flowers, taken a week earlier when it was just blossoming.

The taller plant in the bed on the south east corner continues to produce many flowers though as I have mentioned before none is as large as those that were on it when it was placed there. I show first two blossoms together on the 1^st of the month, and then a single one near the front corner a few days later. After that I show another couple of blossoms towards the end of the month, one of them showing a surprising amount of white so that it almost seems multicoloured.

And then it produced another surprise early in May. Having started with only deep red roses, and then produced flowers of lighter shades as time passed, it has now generated a yellow rose, which I could scarce believe when I saw it. It is on the extreme right of the last picture here.

Water Features 56

The yellow bath tub, from the downstairs bathroom at Lakmahal, which I wrote about last week is against the east wall of my little walled garden. At right angles to it, just outside the porch which leads to my drawing room, is the second bath tub which Nirmali gave me during the time of coronavirus, a green one which is beneath the croton bush, or rather tree, which is in the porch, peering out from the front in search of sun.

That pond is well protected, so I fear that there will be lots of netting too when I try to show the fish. Dominating it in terms of colour are the Malavi, as I still think of the white fish which began spawning in December 2022 in the waterfall pond. There were so many of them then that we moved some to this pond and some to the pond round the dead temple flower tree, against the south wall as is the waterfall pond.

Those put in there also spawned, perhaps because one of the pair I had put there, when the other pair I had spawned, was still around. And there they spawned again and again and kept most of the youngsters alive, unlike in the waterfall pond where there were two more sets of little ones though only one or two survived of those.

The four put in the croton pond grew larger and larger, though they never spawned, and a few more were added there so there seem to be about half a dozen in place. The other fish there are much smaller, several black mollies, and then guppies and platies. But my pride is a tiger barb, which I had forgotten putting there soon after that pond was commissioned. There were a pair, and they would lurk at the bottom, but suddenly a few months back I saw one flash up for food, and then the other did too.

So I knew there were two of them, but then a couple of months back one of them died. The other however continues to dart up, and I did manage to get a decent picture of him, which I show first here. You see him on the left, pirouetting downward, with a black molly by him and lots of guppies around. Then there was another, not so good, where you see him again on the left, this time with a plethora of platies, while next to him, from the brilliant tail, is I think a sari guppy. And a third one shows him above a black molly with a platy below, a delightful range of colour, with something pinkish or possibly white towards the right, which could be a smaller Malavi.

Oddly enough there are no Malavi in the first two  pictures, but you see four of them in the fourth one, with some platies, and one in the last juxtaposed against a black molly. These I should note also multiplied from just one or two pairs which I got initially, though they did not need to dramatize the protection of their young as angels and Malavis do.

And of course I need not talk about the way platies, a few pairs of which I got initially, and guppies, which arrived unannounced in the mud I got initially for the lotuses, multiply ceaselessly. 

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 56

Last week I showed the orange roses on the balcony, on three bushes in the first two beds I set up there. In between the two orange bushes in the long bed in the east, there is a small pink one, which has been producing blossom after blossom.

I last it in March, just after I had got back from Canada, but I included then a perfect blossom that had been there just before I left. And I now show first another perfect blossom, taken on the day I last posted, though this was not included then. A couple of weeks later there were two, in the middle of the bush, and two weeks later still another beauty near the edge. I show that flower again, three days later, with yet another blossom nearby.

Sadly the little pink bush in the original bed, next to the orange blossoms that change colour which I showed last week, had not had flowers during this period. But just when I thought I would have to pass it by this time, a little bud emerged and I am able to show it looking lovely last week.

I have that last, for before that is the white rose tree in the pot placed below it. That had wonderful white roses which I showed back in March, and it has done the trick again now. I show then two flowers, one blossoming on top with a smaller one below, and then immediately afterwards the two of them on the next day.

The upper one is again a perfect rose, though sadly the one lower down has a bit missing, though you can still appreciate its lovely formation on the other sides.

Water Features 55

I have not featured recently the four bath tubs in the main garden, for now the fish in them are difficult to take pictures of, given the nets. But this is not so very different from the situation earlier, for those ponds were full of leaves so it was difficult to capture clearly the fish in them. And except for a few bigger ones, which I have shown, there is nothing very special about a host of little fish, with lots of guppies and platies.

But recently I tried to do something different in the first tub, the yellow one, where for many years pink lotuses flourished. That stopped over a year ago, and then several of the fish there, which I had shown, white gourami and red carp and grey gourami, died, and we realized there was something wrong with the mud. It had fermented, or whatever it is that happens to mud, with the heap of leaves that had fallen into it, and we cleaned it all out. Then I put in the more recent mud from the pink bath tub that Nirmali had given me a few years ago, for since no lotuses had lasted long there we decided it did not get enough sun and so we removed the mud from there and thought to have relatively clear water.

Mud was put in the yellow tub since I had hopes that lotuses would once again flourish there, and for that purpose I only put little fish in there, and just a few of them, to stop stalks being eaten. But the plant I placed there soon died, and what with the need for netting I decided to give up.

So that pond now has lots of little fish, of different types and colours. I found the rosy barbs I had put in the little pond on the balcony so attractive that I put in four of those, and added to them a range of tetra including a blue one, in addition to the usual pink and green and yellow. And then I put in a few zebra, pink and yellow, which dart around even more quickly than the other fish.

Initially I had put in a few black mollies and some tetra and they are still there, while Kavi then added a few smaller Malavi. So I have there a kaleidoscope of colour, and though it is difficult to catch, I did manage with a new camera on a new phone to capture something of the jolly movements I admire every morning, with my coffee and their breakfast. 

The pictures do not show well the splendour of the colours, but you can see several in the first picture, and the second has a black molly and a white malavi in addition to the smaller fish. There are then two from different angles, the latter showing losts of malavi, with the final picture showing I think glimpses of blue and red tetra in addition to the brighter colours.

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 55

Back now to the balcony, where the roses continue to fascinate. I have been particularly struck this last month by the shifting shades of the bush in the original bed at the south west corner of the balcony, where for years I had flourishing red roses. The current orange bush has lasted for some months now, whereas a couple of predecessors gave up, with one having been transferred since it had little pink roses and there was already a little pink bush in place in that bed.

Four weeks ago I showed two blossoms on that bush which were more yellow than red. But two days later the orange glow had taken over. And then, a week later, when a new bud was emerging, one of the earlier flowers had faded away to a still very attractive pink. The bud was in blossom two days later, its promise of orange fulfilled, which was in marked contrast to the pink and white of the earlier blossom.

The next picture shows these two again, a few days later, when the pink flower is fading. Behind it you can see the other flower that bloomed alongside it, still showing shades of orange.

The next picture is not of this bush, but of the one on the north end of the bed with three plants in it. That has not stopped producing flowers but of late they do not appear in profusion, and there has been just one at a time. This one, with no doubt about its colour, appeared just after the two yellow flowers in the other bed had turned orange.

And then, on cue for this post today, the plant at the south end of this bed, after a month of lying fallow, produced a flower which was in beautiful blossom this morning.