Funny, before I left for Kandy, I wondered if I was becoming complacent about the flowers on the Manel on my bedroom balcony. I remember thinking I would be shocked when there were no longer two flowers greeting me when I went out each morning. Well, this morning there were three, with one on its last legs, and a bud ready to open tomorrow.
Not only that, in the few days I’ve been away the plant has pretty well covered the surface of the pot, and the leaves are now three, or four times the size they were when the monsoon broke, back on the 25th May. Given that the flowers last about three days, I reckon it has produced at least 30 flowers since the first bud appeared on the 29th of May – just four days after the rains started. It produced its largest, most perfect (sic!) flower after 42 days, and just a week later a noticeable increase in leaf size coincided with the beginning of its two flowers a day phase.
I know I get excited and talk about standing back and watching the bamboo grow, but for a plant to put on bulk and flower so prolifically at the same time makes it a champion, I think. Have a look at this.
Sorry to have gone overboard on the “Growth” posts, but it’s exciting stuff, as you can see from others‘ posts on the subject.
The Wanderlust Gene 
I am just impressed that you have a bedroom balcony! 🙂 Beautiful pictures!
Me too, you can be sure 🙂 Lapping up every second of the luxury of living here, while I can!
The balcony is the only sunny place in the house (which is great in the tropics, of course, but a bane for a gardener!) and this lily pot gives me enormous pleasure every morning.
What a beautiful thing to watch grow.
I’m such a lucky girl, Robin. 🙂
Indeed. 😉
Lovely growth progression – beautiful blossoms!
I love the way their colour seems to change with the intensity of the sun, the time of day – and that they are Sri Lanka’s national flower, growing on my balcony 🙂
😉
So much fun to watch the growth 🙂
I’ve been fascinated – glad I didn’t bore you to death!
Love the colour. It’s very exciting to watch something beautiful grow and flower. 😉
It is, isn’t it? Especially when it’s so obligingly prolific 🙂
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge – Growth | Just Snaps
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge – Growth | Chittle Chattle
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge – Growth | Chittle Chattle
your manel looks so beautiful in that pot, great photos too, the first raindrops, the bud, the flowers, you know waterlilies are my favourite, and that starry blue is just gorgeous!
It’s a beautiful blue, isn’t it? i love it too and am so delighted with it, up there on the balcony to greet me each morning. I’ve become a real nut about putting them in pots – you see them in pots everywhere, here – even in quite small pots you’d never think they would cope with.
Nature is both beautiful and prolific, Wanderlust 🙂 Beautiful photos.
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Growth « Jacqueline's Blog
Growth is a very exciting topic… and your manel is amazing!
Flower are getting bigger again, and leaf growth amazing … I wonder whether it’ll climb out of the pot one morning? 🙂
I can imagine how beautiful… you are amazing. I loved this balcony flowers and you inspired me now. How can I plant them, in a pot? Thank you, Blessing and Happiness, love, nia
People plant them in pots all the time here Nia, so you should have no trouble 🙂
I used to have water lilies at my old house and so miss them
You could keep a pot of temperate climate lilies even now, I think Jo .
I may look in to that
🙂
gorgeous! I love that purple, wow.
It’s great, eh? Changes hue with the sun – sometimes more blue than purple, sometimes the other way … 🙂
It’s a great accomplishment to be able to stop and appreciate the small but beautiful things of every day life, and share them with us 🙂
It’s something I’m learning (or remembering) from our blogging mates, Ella. That and the fact that I have literally a handful of plants now, and so each one is under the microscope each day!
Great sequence of photos.
Thank you Gobetween 🙂
Your Manel looks gorgeous. Always wonderful to see plants thrive. I used to have a whole pond of Manel when we were living on in the plantations.Miss them lots.
Wow, Madhu – from the plantations to an apartment in Chennai – that’s a huge change of environment – I’m sure you miss loads of things.
I’m not sure how I’d cope with living in an apartment – It’s something I think about ceaselessly – well at least once or twice a day … the things I’d miss, the things ‘I can’t live without’… But this house, with its tiny garden, is teaching me that I can manage without a huge garden, if only I can have a few things growing. Well, I think i can – though I’m beginning to wonder about how much I’m obsessing over the Manel … 🙂
It was hard at first, after those sprawling bungalows. But the move to an apartment was gradual. Our stay in a two unit rented bungalow kind of eased the move a bit. The ability to walk out without having to worry about security is a major advantage in an apartment, seeing as how we are constantly shuttling between Bangalore and here. But yes I miss those huge gardens 😦
Ah, a little bit of a two-step manoeuvre – I can see that would help. And the security issue – here in Sri Lanka too it seems unthinkable not to have a watcher, or someone in the house when you go away.
That such beauty lurks in those quiet depths!
… quiet, MURKY depths, Patti! I know it’s safe, in my manel bowl, but still I have trouble putting my hand in, to pick off dead flower stalks, and leaves.
There’s a pretty wild, very murky stretch of canal not far from here, and it’s covered with islands of water lilies, and hyacinths. The birds come down to wade on the lily pats, or swim along, fishing – but nobody goes near – they say there’s a crocodile still living there!
Is the manel flower the same as the blue lotus of Buddhist stories? I see it raises its stem above the water – unlike the water lily which sits on top of the water.
Hi Harry, nice to see you again. The manel is a water lily – Sri Lanka’s national flower, in fact. I suspect it’s growth so far above the water level is emphasised by its growing in a pot. This particular plant is a bit of a phoenix, rescued from near death from under a dense clump of bamboo and transferred into this pot in the sunshine on my balcony.