My Old Rooftop - More Photos

Hah! Trying to get my photos organized have unearthed a few more photos of my old rooftop garden. Notice how over-exposed the photos were. This was how strong and bright the sunlight was, even in the morning. I estimate that this was taken around the 9-10am mark. No later than 10.30am.

My old Coral Tree (Erythrinia Fusca), grown in a pot, putting out new growth and flowers after a prune.

My huge Cycad (Cycas Revoluta) that was overshadowing the pond.  

The sitting area, seen through another palm (Pinanga Coronata). Yes, many good memories here.

My old staghorn (which was HUGE) and my wild and fern-filled tree fern stem, amidst a large draecana. 

This photo does not do the plants justice, and I have no idea why I took it the way I did, but surely there must be a better photo of them somewhere... Ah... to have all my photos unearthed from nooks and crannies, and organized!!! I miss the tree fern stem. Someone gave it to me in early 2000, and my hubby thought I was nuts taking this dead, dirty stem ("rotting" he said) AND hanging it on our roof. I had wanted to tie some ferns on it to make the tree fern stem a literal fern tree, but life has a habit of occupying our time... 6 months later, mother nature had decided to colonize it. Lo and behold! A living fern tree! I counted at least 5-6 different types of ferns, but from this angle you can only see one. Two, if you do an extreme magnification of the photo. Since we were staying very close to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, mother nature had probably sent me some spores from there :-)

My palms (Veitchia Merrillii) on the roof, enjoying the sun. Also notice my favourite ponytail plant (Beaucarnea recurvata) [bottom right, second plant]. 

I bought my ponytail plant as a really tiny plant from Ikea (you know, the type they sell in almost thumb-sized pots? Ok, I exaggerate). That was probably around 1998, give or take a year. This roof photo was taken in 2004, which makes it roughly 6 years old. I still have the plant, which has aged well, and is still growing! Since it is one of my favourite plants that has stayed with me through the years, I'll take an updated photo of it one of these days, and give it a separate post.

Nelumbo nucifera

I've been trying to get a lotus for my pond from a year ago, and finally got one 6 months ago. I had specifically wanted a single petalled lotus for its simple beauty, and finally found a pink one at AMK. However, growing it had its ups and downs.

When I got it, it was a small plant in a small pot. I had re-potted it in a nice big pot, and it grew well. New leaves, new flowers..... after it's second flowering, it started to get an infestation of aphids. I was diligent in swiping them off the plant (they dropped into the pond and were promptly gulped up by my goldfish) and this went on for a couple of months after which they plant got weaker and weaker, with smaller leaves, no flowers and finally even the new leaves had brown "varicose veins". I had tried popping a couple of the common fertilizer pellets for water plants but it did not help. The only visible result I had was green algae forming on the stalks of the lotus leaf that was below water level.

In a fit of desperation, I decided to severely prune down the leaves, remove most of the mud/soil in the pot, and put in new clay/mud. So far, it has decided to reward my efforts with new leaf growth (without the varicose veins), but it has all been leaves that float on the water. I will wait and see if it gets strong enough to put up the standing leaves above water, and eventually flower for me again.

Fingers crossed.....

Thalia geniculata

I just repotted and split one of my favourite water plants, the Thalia Geniculata (or in my vernacular, the "Zig-Zag Flower Plant"). I have had this plant for just coming on to a decade. It has undergone so many re-potting and splits that I have lost track of how many friends and family were beneficiaries of it's growth. I bought it for my old rooftop pond, and now it sits in my garden pond. Although it is classified as a bog plant, it is possible to grow it in a container, as long as it is given enough water.

T. Geniculata is an evergreen, marginal aquatic perennial.  I love it's easy maintenance nature, and both it's lovely lance-shaped green leaves and it's small purple flowers that keeps branching out in a "zig-zag" manner. When you have a really mature "zig-zag" flower on top of a long stalk, they look extremely elegant. To keep it tidy, regularly cut off browning leaves and flowers. The photo above does not do it justice, so I will post another after it has recovered from the split and repotting, and is flowering.

A good base of muddy/clayey soil with a fertilizer top-up every 2-3 months makes it a happy plant. Any balanced pelleted slow-release fertilizer is fine. Wrap up in cotton wool or newspaper, and shove it deep into the pot. A full re-potting effort is required once a year, to get rid of dead stems, and when it becomes pot-bound. If you are lazy, it can go on for up to 2 years in the same pot, but it will be a really hard job to re-pot cause the pot will be packed tight. Just split existing plants into different pots, to give it room to grow for the next year.