The first bud in my Water Snowflake plant.

Today I witnessed the first bud of my Water Snowflake plant which is called ‘Kumudu’ in local language. Unfortunately I had to go to work so I couldn't see the fully opened flower. Scientific name is Nymphoides ezannoi. It is the white dot in left top of first image.

Wedding cake wrapping and cake basket decorations.

My friend's wedding is over and it was beautiful. This is the look of a piece of cake completed.

And I decorated three wooden baskets to hold cakes with white roses and ribbon.

Then comes cake knife and a candle to light oil lamps. I used little white roses and ribbon.

First plants I adopted.

When I moved in I brought only two plants which I planted in containers at my parent’s home specialy to bring with me to my new home. Both are spices use in our traditional culinary. One is Pandan (screwpine) leaves native to Southeast Asia,called  ‘Rampa’ in local language – this is a water and shade loving bush so suitable for a indoor garden. It is the long leafed green plant in following image.

 The other is Murraya koenigii, called ‘Karapincha’ in local language meaning curry tree– These grow into fairly big trees if allowed, so suitable for out side gardens.

Start of my hanging garden.

Then a Yellow Oncidium commonly called ‘Dancers’ cutting came home with me from my parent’s home. It is doing great now and not yet flowered. It is in the right most hanging basket. 

Purple and white Dendrobium came home from a flower exhibition I normally try not to miss. Any way I don’t miss any type of garden exhibitions if I have time. J

Two Native Dandrobium varieties made way to my little hanging garden and living on tree bark cuttings I collect at my parents’ home. One is Dendrobium mac-carthiae called ‘Vesak Orchid’ locally which is native to rain forests of Sri Lanka. I grow four plants at my parents’ home with many blooms. It is our most beautiful endemic epiphyte - A protected plant and is listed as highly threatened species. 

The other (still trying to identify exact name) I collected from a wild growing bunch of orchids at my father’s estate which has a small flower. It is the long stem with little green leaves mounted on tree bark. Behind it is a clump of Spanish moss. 

Follows a picture of  flowering ‘Vesak Orchid’ at my parent’s home. It is perfumed.

Wedding cake wrappings for a dear friend.

One of my best friends is going to marry next week. In our wedding functions we have special dried fruit cake wrapped beautifully according to the wedding theme. This one has deep purple bride maid’s dresses so my friend wanted deep purple organza wrapped cakes. So we friends launched to the task and made 500 wrappings in last weekend at my home.

Threads of stones are glued to organza around a 25cm circle then cut after glue is set. It was time consuming but very satisfactory thing to do for a dear friend. I'm posting only the circles not the final product since wedding function is not over yet.

Full view of my first crazy quilt

It is hanging in my bedroom wall now. 

A weekend wild flower posy

This flower can be found in wild in our country. It is called “Ganda pana” in native language which is Lantana camara. The meaning of native name relate to its nature which is it has a slightly uncomfortable smell but lovely to look at.  It is a bush type plant and bears little berries for birds.