Nov 10, 2008

A gardener’s exciting moment

With the mere touch, your fingertips tingles, nose becomes sensitive, eyes become attentive, heart flutters, and you’re in heaven. When does this happen? When you’re shopping for plants/seeds! Isn’t shopping the exciting time for a gardener? I’m sure it is. Of course your wallet would lose weight. DUH!

But tell you what! My mom’s purse didn’t lose much weight as we hit JACKPOT two days ago! A healthy plant, with beautiful blooms, at a cheap price! What else do you need? Isn’t that more than a Jackpot? I and my mom wanted to buy some Oleanders and Chrysanthemums and burned the EC road. Our eyes flashed upon a small nursery, which we missed the last time. The moment I laid my eyes on it, an array of humungous roses welcomed me (Damn me for not taking my camera with me!) It was such a delightful sight.

We went in and saw that all the plants were sooo healthy and fresh. We tentatively asked how much the Chrysanthemum costs. The woman said, “10 rupees.”

Jasminum sambac var. 'Belle of India'

Orange Rose

I thought, What? Am I dreaming?

Holy Basil

Mini Rose

Almost all plants costs the same, except the ones that come in mini pots like roses that cost 20 or 25 max. Damn! That was so darned cheap. We chose two chrysanthemums, two roses, two jasmines, and a basil. [Jump… Jump… Jump…]

Jasminum sambac var. 'Grand Duke Of Tuscany'

White Chrysanthemum

(Not sure if it's Oxyene Daisy but the flowers look like it. I'd appreciate if anyone can identify it exactly)

We also saw a grafted Hibiscus plant that had five different colored flowers. The moment my mom and I saw it, we thought, We gotta do that. I got wild and said, we’ll collect all available colors and graft them! Is that possible? Let’s see…

Yellow Chrysanthemum

(Is this the Crown Daisy? I'd appreciate if anyone can identify it exactly. The leaves are yellowish green if that helps)

Of course I wanted more, especially the ogre sized red rose, but I held myself. I didn’t have space for all that, so I restrained and drove back with a kid-holding-extra-large-chocolate-cone-faced expression!

10 comments:

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

So what did you get? Mums? I thought the Belle of India looked beautiful. I think that would have been my choice. I can always find room for one more plant! ;-)

Chandramouli S said...

I got mums yes - yellow and white (which's gonna flower in a few days. Yipee). I wanted to get more varieties - hunting still.
Yes, that belle is everyone's favorite in India. She adorns and scents almost every woman's hair here.

Krithika Ramalingam said...

Any chance you will give away the name of your find. A novice of a gardenere here, who feels a slightly larger nursery on the same road just took her family for a mighty ride. Unfortunately, a huge order needs to be replaced.

Chandramouli S said...

Hi Krithika Ramalingam,
Welcome to Plantville. The nursery's name is 'Rose Nursery' and for their contact number you may email me at Chandramouli.S@gmail.com as I'm not sure if I can post their telephone number publicly without their permission. I'm sure you'd find healthy plants there, but not rare collections. I'd be happy to send you over some of the seeds I have.

Anonymous said...

Chandramouli,

I can totally understand how you feel when you get things dirtcheap. "lets get a truck and take'em all" feeling.

Last week, I was determined to get Chrysanthemum (Yellow) and was searching all around and came across a road side shop that sells. The price was 30bucks. Bought myself an yellow and a red one( he promised its a red).With a doubting mind i returned home and after a fortnight guess what?

There is NO Yellow. I have Red, Majenta and a bright Orange. one polythene bag had two different plant. Yippieeeee.

I am now back on the lookout for yellow though ;)

gg

Chandramouli S said...

Red mums! :O. Wow! Good luck with that. I understand how it feels when you get something so unexpected. Even my rose hibiscus was not actually a rose that I bought but was a cluster red variety (I couldn't get a picture of it as most of the time the aphids would've chewed them or the nasty squirrels). That Hibiscus flowers both Cluster red and the pink colored flowers, which was a surprise to me too. Good luck finding the yellow one. In fact I'm on the hunt for the other color mums and I wanna learn how the mums are trained. The Kiku thingy got me interested. Hope I learn it well and by next year I have a post with my art.

Krithika Ramalingam said...

Thanks Chandramouli. I will look it up the next time we go out on ECR. For someone who is starting out on their first experiment in Chennai, your blog is a gardening 101. I happened on your blog while trying to trawl the net for shade growing plants that would do as well on the ground as it would in a pot, after a rash of lemongrass deaths :(.
best,


Krithika

Chandramouli S said...

Gardening 101? Well that's a bit of an overstatement. But if I did assist you in some way, I'm glad I did and hope I do the same in future. Any help or queries ping me anytime. I'll be glad to help. Good luck with your new adventure.

Krithika Ramalingam said...

True, not quite gardening 101... but you saved me tonnes of trouble and time sifting through info on what grows in Chennai. I've recruited my two year old into our gardening project - will be fun even if it is not quite aesthetic. Kr

Chandramouli S said...

I'm glad I did :). Wow, it's sweet that your 2 year-old's helping too. Do you have a blog? I'd love to see what's happening in your garden (or would-be-garden). Do share your experiences with us all. It's a beautiful world out here where we learn quite a lot! Doesn't matter if it is aesthetic to me, coz all I want is to grow a garden that satisfies me and my plants. And about what grows in Chennai, to me I have no boundaries. In fact I'd love to someday grow apples in Chennai (I know, it sounds way too much, but what the heck, let's try). I always want to get my hands on all varieties of plants, especially the ones mentioned in our own mythology like the Jequirity Vine for instance.