80 sq m rooftop terrace turned into a hundred-flower garden with nearly a thousand pots of flowers, netizens exclaim it's spectacular

Tinkering away to make a "hundred-flower garden" on an 80 sq m rooftop terrace. In winter a cold snap froze to death 80% of the rooftop flowers I'd spent over a year tending, and it took a whole month just to clear away the corpses. Then I started all over again - isn't the whole point of being a gardener the love of tinkering!

Petunias and Calibrachoa are definitely the stars. As temperatures drop, the big flower balls get uglier and uglier, and they simply can't survive the winter here, so after pinching them back I promptly tipped out the pots to compost the soil. I took so many cuttings - every one that survives counts, and it seems the survival rate is pretty good!

After nearly three months of hard graft, the rooftop is full of life. In another month or two - wow, just thinking about it makes me giddy with delight! Worth it!!

Watering isn't a problem, especially in summer. Facing the night breeze on the rooftop, holding the watering wand and watering slowly, watering and looking, picking out dead branches and leaves along the way - an hour or two just slips by. It's such a joy!

My pots are a real mixed bag too, all different sizes. I just try, when using them, to group pots of the same colour and size together with matching flower varieties. If I really were obsessive-compulsive, I'd throw them all out and buy gallon pots - I feel those are good-looking, durable and cheap - but I really can't bear to part with mine!

I'm from Chengdu and work here, 200 km from Chengdu. I'm not settling down here, so I don't dare pour more money into it. Being able to see beautiful flowers is enough for me - I won't ask for more!

Hauling soil, sowing seeds, buying seedlings, potting on, planting out, building climbing trellises, hammering together wooden frames, moving plants in and out to dodge rain and catch sun... almost all my time after work is swallowed up here. Luckily spring here is fairly long

I don't know whose pigeons they were. One morning I pushed open the rooftop door and a big flock of pigeons was standing neatly in a row on the railing. Hearing the door, they took off with a "whoosh". After checking, although no flowers had been damaged, they'd left a row of pigeon poop behind. I bought a bunch of pinwheels - hey, it really worked, I've never seen them again!! Definitely worth a try!

Such a big space, so many flowers, and kept so tidy too. Looking forward to the follow-up explosion of blooms

Blue-eyed daisies (osteospermum) and gazanias are hands down the best value for money. Next year they'll carry on being flowering machines!

Netizens exclaim: the sight is stunning - nearly 1000 pots of flowers together, so spectacular!