Flowers, I want more!!

 

I am an avid gardener back home. The landscaper who did our yard and patio introduces me to people as,

“This is Gayatri, She has 4000 plants in her garden.”

(A very knowledgeable man when it comes to trees and transplanting them (30+ foot ones), but he is lost when it comes to flowering perennial, annuals or bulbs.)

Bitten by habit, I still go out in the mornings, like I usually go out into my garden back home..trying to find out what’s blooming today. Only,  there is very little in my mom’s yard compared to what I have back home when it comes to flowers since, her interests are different. On the other hand, the plants are different and few beautiful too, I find couple of jasmine plants in her yard, especially the mysore mulli(The long pointed buds)..but, they are not flowering! The plant looks healthy and green with a good root development, but no buds. Its getting good sunlight too. Obviously, its lacking phosphorus in the fertilizer.

The main ingredients in a fertilizer is Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. Nitrogen makes the plant more green, and Potassium helps with a good root development. Phosphorous is the ingredient that helps with more blooms. I don’t know where to go shopping for this over here. I asked around in the local nursery..and the response was not helpful.

Still, making of what I have, some of my favorite pictures, I took in her yard is here.

This picture is of Nandi vardhanam. A very beautiful tropical flowering perennial ( I just found a tiny sapling growing at the bottom. I’m planning to take the root with me when I leave). Hopefully, I’ll be able to make it grow back home. I love this picture that’s taken from under the flower. The white looks so clean against this healthy green.

 

The gulmohar.had always been my favorite flower…Its growing in her yard too.

 

 

Then we have the popular Kanakambaram.  Its usually found in orange color, but, she has a beautiful pink one growing all over her yard. They seem to love growing and flowering here.  Even Richa loves them, because she gets to pick them. Nobody stops her from picking flowers here.  In India, people are allowed to pluck flowers every morning and leave the plant bare of blooms…(her opinion followed with mine).

That’s such a beautiful PINK.  She also has a yellow colored one but, it isn’t flowering now.

Then, we found a few peppers growing. She is surprised to find that only one is fruiting while a few others which are at another location aren't. Its clear, the soil is bereft of Phosphorus.

Anyway my favorite pepper picture I took in her yard.

 

Of  course, the Rose.  I loved this particular picture from  the ones I took

 

Then, we have this weird mushroom…which looks like a salt/mineral deposit from a cavern.

 

The flower below is the parijata flower belonging to the Celestial Parijata tree. One of the most revered trees for Hindus, and lots of mythological stories surrounding it. There is one story where Krishna gets this tree to the earth from Heaven (on request from his wife Satyabhama) and Indra, the God of Heaven, who wanted to stop Krishna, waged a war with Krishna in which Krishna prevails and thus the first Parijata tree came to Dwarka, on earth. 

There is another story,  of a princess who is in love with Surya (Sun god), but she is rejected by him. As a result she burns herself and from her ashes was born the Parijata Tree.  That’s why one says, that this flower only blooms at night and before the first ray of sunlight falls to the ground. These trees are always found on temple grounds and the flower’s (white with orange stems) scent is so mesmerizing.

 

(I almost digressed here. Couldn’t help it!)

And we have the visitors…who sometimes let me picture them.

 

Her yard also has the coconut trees, lime, mango and many other tropical fruit trees...Now-a-days, I’m going around the yard looking for plants which I plan to carry with me (I didn’t mean the coconuts and such  ). Like, a tiny curry leaf plant, a tiny sapling of the lime plant. The limes in her yard are so juicy unlike the ones we get in US, which are so huge but have no juice in them. Hopefully, I’ll be able to sneak in couple of these plant roots and seeds.

Until recently, I didn't know that there were 3 (atleast 3 I know of) cultivars of Curry leaves. The one with tiny small leaves (Gamthi), is supposed to be the most fragrent of them. And I have that here..Wow!