Flowering plants will not only enhance the beauty of your home and its surroundings but also add colour and glamour. Here are some basic instructions on growing some flowering plants -- which are hardy, self-maintaining, require little or no watering (except the aquatic Manel) or application of synthetic chemicals -- in a home garden.
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| The shoot and mature flower buds of Kadupul |
Kandyan Dancers |
‘Japan Araliya’ or ‘Pride of Japan’ is a hardy (semi-xerophyte) flowering plant. Propagate this plant from mature cuttings, firmly embedded in a medium of sandy-soil. Keep it for rooting in the shade. Moisten the medium sparsely but regularly. Once the plant is established, enrich the medium with compost. Do not use any chemical fertilizer or insecticide. The plant does well with or without watering. ‘Japan Araliya’ may be kept indoors or in the garden.
‘Kadupul’ is a hardy epiphyte. Propagate this plant from a plantlet with root and shoot, placing the plantlet on a tree trunk. Gently wrap the bottom part with coir rope and leave it alone. In time, shoots (leaf-like) in the shape of a sword (kaduwa) will emerge.
Multiple shoots, dangling down beautify the otherwise arid (dull-looking) tree trunk. When mature, the plant will come into blossom. It requires neither watering nor fertilizer. The ‘Kadupul’ flower-bud unfurls at around 1 or 2 in the morning and by 7 is half-furled. The flower resembles the water lily (Upul or Manel) flower.
‘Manel’ is our national flower and it is good to see it when one opens the main door. The plant is aquatic and propagation occurs with a sapling. Fill half of a wide-mouthed large pot with compost and anchor the sapling in it. Then fill the pot with water. Remember to keep a few tiny, hardy fish such as Guppies to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in the pot. If you feel there is a need to add fertilizer, spray the leaves with a foliar feeder once a week. When the water level recedes, top it up with tap water.
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| Japan Araliya |
The ‘Manel’ flower has a fine scent. Being viviparous, this plant will self-propagate until the pot gets filled with many daughter plants, leaving you with a pot full of flowers.
Resembling a troupe of dancers, the orchid plant ‘Kandyan Dancers’ are a beautiful sight. It is propagated from a plantlet and being an epiphyte, needs to have its base wound loosely with coir rope which is tied also around a tree trunk. Thereafter, it can be left alone and does not need watering or fertilizer application as it is self-maintaining.
Alternatively, it can also be grown in a pot in which is placed an appropriately-sized dead and decaying wood cutting. Attach the orchid plantlet to the piece of wood with coir rope and leave it outdoors in a semi-shady place with plenty of moisture. When in blossom, the pot can be taken indoors and returned outdoors once a week. |
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