Love Of Gardening

Parmeshwar Devkota

As we walk down the streets of Kathmandu, we notice three types of houses along with two rows of buildings. The first type of structures is without a single flowering plant. The second category of houses seems to have possessed some flowerpots at a gate but poorly gardened. And the third types are found fully decorated with flower vases with blooming flowers in them. 

The first group of homes can be compared with persons who have little or no interest in beauty of flower as well as nature. The second ones can be likened to newly-married couples, with a spirit of enthusiasm and rejuvenation.  And, the third category can be compared with the people having vibrant family members living three generations together.

If you have noticed, pedestrians gaze at such houses turning their head again and again, and go further and speculate that the members of that house must be laborious and extravagant at the same time. It is because maintaining all vases with blooming flowers and growing all plants require money, skill and continuous physical work. 

In nurseries of the Kathmandu Valley, plants and flowers are so expensive that you are forced to think twice before buying a single plant. Let me share a bitter experience. One fine morning, I went to a nursery near my locality in Kapan.

It saw a miniature cotton tree like plant blooming in a small vase. It mesmerised me and I rushed to the plant. I held it on the right palm and looked at it carefully.  It looked like a cotton tree, but it was an indoor plant. 

As I saw the price tag of the plant, I was literally shocked and almost dropped it on the ground, because the price was exorbitantly high. The price tag read: Rs. 2,500. As I could not believe the price, I went to the owner to confirm it. He said that it was not a mistake and there was no discount because it was a special plant.  

Sometime later, I had an opportunity to go to Nepalgunj. As I got some spare time there, I roamed around the city and reached a nursery close to Rupaidiya Road. I saw the same plant of the same size.

When I wanted to know about the price of the plant, the owner said its actual price stood at Rs. 3,050. However, he gave me a discount of Rs. 50. The plant has still been blooming in small flowerpot over two years. 

That incident has made me share three things: first, we must bargain for plants as much as we can. Second, if we go out of the Kathmandu Valley, we should visit nurseries there and buy plants of our choice at much cheaper prices. Third, the winter is the right season for grafting plants because most of plants and flowers are in a dormant state in this season.  

We could learn some techniques of grafting such as cut grafting, cleft grafting, splice grafting, and other techniques and methods of asexual ways of plant propagations from YouTube. With the help of any one of the aforementioned techniques and methods, we can produce new plants of our choice at home and save our hard-earned money.