Oro malarilumorothalirilum Oodi kuzhangenda Nethramenee…
Dearfriends, Todaymy posting is about the happiness we gain while looking at our flourishing gardenand blooming flowers . Fivedays back I planted five cuttings of Oregano (Panikoorkka/Karpoora valli) in theextension area of compound wall on onside. Today I found due to good rains theplants appear fresh extending roots fromthe stem. I cannot express my happiness on seeing it. Cows do not eat oregano. NormallyI grow oregano inside compound as bonsai in flower pots, but outside I allow itto grow as creeping, planting on the soil. In the other side of compound wall extensionoregano is growing already. While watering I make sure the leaves are cleanedby spraying water above the leaf. Manyask our permission and pluck the leaves, some simply pluck the leaves formedicinal use. In mud pots I have seen flowers appearing. But stem cutting andplanting is done for reproduction. The flower rarely appears and looksbeautiful. Manythings remain in memory from boyhooddays very sharp, while many things happened recently never comes to memory. Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 6-1-2012. Reposted after fully editing on3-11-2021. R. Gopalakrishnan 1. Temple Garden flowers Onthose days the gardens were mostly associated with temples in my home. Thehouses were having a few flowering plants but not as gardens. The beauty offlowers is more enjoyed while in plants. Probably this could be the reason inmany gardens in public places boards aredisplayed – do notpluck flowers. StillI recollect the beautiful shell flowers (Sankhupushpam) in violet and whitishcolour , oleander(arali flower) in yellow colour and in thickness than the onesin Tamilnadu, hibiscus(chemparathi) inred and light red colours, Holy basil(thulasi), kasi thetti in white and violetcolours in our local temple garden. Roses where only in very light red colour. Originalrose itself is told as a colour. MoreRama thulasi(green leaves) and few Krishna thulasi(brown leaves) and rarekarppora thulasi (Smelling camphor) were in our local temple garden. It was themonopoly for the variar to get in opening the bamboo gate and of course wecould assist him in plucking flowers forthe temple use. 2. Flowers in the houses. Houseshad rose, nalumani poo(fully bloom by 4 PM) , picchipoo and chemparathi. Mullappoo(Jasmine) too used to be there in some houses. Speciallyin the Brahmin homes there might be Tulasi maatam and Tulasi is planted in it and worshipped. Divya islighted and prayer offered before Tulsi during sandhya(twilight). Tulasi maatamand Tulsi is well maintained. Chemparatthiused to be of different forms like churuttu chemparatthi, red chemparatthi andlight red chemparatthi. Sometimes called Ambaratthi ppo when the flowers are very large. In fact these chembaratthies give good appearance to houses. I have norecollection of therttippo grown in homes. Asokam was grown in variar house, very big tree. Homegardens and up-keeping had notmuch prominence in my home on thosedays. 3. Flowers in hill top and slope. Onthose days for sastha preethi, a moopil was arranged to collect flowers (Thetti ppo) He would collect from nearby Pulikkunnil hills. The beauty ofthettippo I really enjoyed while climbing the hills. Howeverthetti grows in plains, in my garden three plants were planted in 2006. They are trimmed in ovalshape periodically. I have two asokamplants grown in bonsai model, height do not exceed eight feet. Nearby, electriclines are there. 4. Botanical gardens TheLalbag, Kappan bag and Brindavan gardens and their beauty first I relishedthrough cine films and later while visiting Bangalore in 1980’s. After seeingall those gardens the gardens at Malampuzha did not give much impression,though it is also a good garden . Now the garden at Malampuzha is remodelledand looking very beautiful. After seeing the botanical gardens at Ooty and Coonoor the gardens at Kodaikkanal was feltjust good for me. Howevernow visitors to Lalbag and kappan bag are very less. Brindavan garden requires more maintenance. Since film shootings are notthere now, the earlier type of care is not there now. Still good amount of visitors are there. 5. Garden giving aesthetic appearance. Notonly for houses, even for multi-story flats, where provision is given for gardens, they provide an excellent appearance. Nowadays most of theexterior designers give importance of plants and garden. Present day Kerala homesare designed with garden only. Nowwe have hybrid roses in multi colours, and chemparatthi with white, yellow andblue colour flowers. But after a time they plants are affected by fungus and dry.We have to replace with new plants. Vegetative propagation is not possible. Similarly for theroses also. 6. Pavizha malli poothulanja neela ravil… Smellingis believing. I have planted in my garden one pavizhamalli/Parijatham(nightjasmine). Since growing high at about 10 feet it is cut and again grows. Duringflowering season, where ever we are, in the home, we might be attracted to fragranceof flower blooming by about 10 PM. In the morning I have observed flowers fallen down have less smell. But few on thetree would be smelling. Similaris the smell of Mulla( Malli-Jasmine) blossoming. I have two plants, one isKudamulla. Other plants in my garden are NisaGandhi/ SarpaGandhi, lemon trees, andone Pomegranate plant. Somehow a different type of brown colour lemon isappearing in lemon tree. Kozhivalan gives beautiful flowers without smell (flowersappear something like that of tail of cock). 7. College and school gardens I recollectsome gardening was there in school in the front and good garden in front of the college with ashoka plants . I do not know whether it is due to specialinterest of Physics and Botany professors, gardens were there before thesections. Further remembrance is not coming. 8. The butterflies Whileseeing the beauty of flowers, I very often see the butter flies with differentcolours and different types sitting inthe flowers in my garden. Probably from the beauty of butterflies , teenage girls are called so. 9. The title First lines from apoem, written by late Mahakavi Vallathol Narayana Menon. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/2140628820.232490.1635942231799%40mail.yahoo.com.
