Chrysantheums.....star shaped!

These white star shaped Mums at the Chrysanthemum show I recently visited were really beautiful and eyecatching.

One particular arrangement that grabbed everyones's attention was one the one above in which the Mums were planted in such a manner that they formed flat carpet like surface ! It was really fascinating.

Unusual looking plant

At the flower show I attended recently I saw two very unusual plants. One was a foliage plant (above)with leaves that looked like butterfly wings. The stem was very thin and black like a string. At the leaf edges there were tiny black dots (can be seen at the upper left of the photo).I have no idea what plant it is as it wasn't tagged except for a prize it had won. But it was really beautiful and delicate looking. Never seen anything like it.

The other was this beautiful Chrysanthemum. The thing unusual about it was its color. It's the first time I have seen a greenish colored flower! It was really sooo beautiful.

Flower Rangoli..beautiful art

Rangoli is a popular art form in India. Rangolis are painted on the ground in front of houses using rice powder, sometimes supplemented by flower petals and other colorful materials.
The term rangoli is derived from the words rang (colour) and aavalli ('coloured creepers' or 'row of colours').
It is an art of making attractive, innovative designs on the entrance of the house - as a symbol of welcoming guest. Rangolis can be seen during marriages and festivals.

This beautiful Rangoli was made at the entrance of the flower show I recently visited and had been done using Marigold, Rose and Chrysanthemum petals and I think Mango leaves.

Chrysanthemum flowers on show

The mums in the pot above would cover a diameter of about 5-6 feet if untied we were told!

Hello everyone. Please forgive me for being lazy but it turns out I'm more of a reader than writer of posts!

I recently went to the YWCA Chrysanthemums show in my city and was amazed by the variety and colors of Mums on show. Please enjoy and more to follow later!

Garden foliage collection....the remains!

During the construction of my house I lost many many plants to careless workers who couldn't understand why I was so bothered about saving them. Even though we moved the pots umpteen number of times trying to keep them out of the way we still lost many to falling rubble, careless handling etc. These are the few that I have left. You will notice I'm partial to green.

Though I do love flowers they seem to be more like 'fair weather friends' whereas the greenery is always there!

Saffron Flower and Corm

The picture above is from the website- http://www.flowersofindia.net/

Recently an uncle and aunt of mine visited Kashmir. They went to the saffron fields near Srinagar and brought back a corm with a flower. The flower was wilted but still had the strong saffron fragrance. It was quite fascinating.
Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice. In India, Saffron cultivation is unique to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The annual production of saffron is confined to Pampore in the Kashmir valley and to the Kishtwar valley of Jammu province and varies from 10 to 12 tonnes.

The botanical name of Saffron is Crocus sativus. The purple colored flowers appear just above the ground and are a beautiful sight.The flower is the only part of the plant which is seen above the ground. The blooming time of this flower is autumn. Saffron has a unique sweet smell and is used in dyeing and cooking.
The orange-red stigmas of the saffron plant are harvested and produce a pleasant aroma and a warm golden orange color. Each plant only produces three small, red colored stigmas. Approximately 100000-150000 flowers are needed for one kilogram of dried saffron!
Saffron has to be harvested by hand which also drives up the price. Another difficult aspect to harvesting saffron is that all the plants flower within two weeks of the year and they only flower for less than a day. That means that thousands of workers have to work on constantly rotating shifts twenty four hours a day for two weeks.

The yellow stamens are also harvested but they do not have the same aromatic and color properties of the stigmas. Pure saffron consists of only the stigmas of the flower. Saffron is also believed to have many medicinal properties. It is called Kesar in India.

Marigolds on my balcony garden

I enjoy my morning cup of tea out on my balcony these days with Marigolds for company.

A visit to the garden nursery continued

I absolutely love foliage plants and my garden always has more green than color. So while at the nursery I just soaked in the green all around.

A visit to the plant nursery

Recently I visited the Sunder Nagar Govt. nursery with a dear friend of mine. The nursery is spread in 60 acres and is located near Humayun's Tomb. They had the most beautiful crimson dwarf Cannas which we both just loved and bought. Their color was so striking that we were amazed. We also bought some herbs to plant-celery, parsley.Their foliage collection was beautiful and extensive- rows and rows of potted plants under huge trees. We spent a good hour just walking around and soaking in the beauty. Wish we had more time to explore coz it's spread in a huge area.

The planter outside

The Golden Bottlebrush has been planted in the ground since then because the leaves were drying up. It had probably overgrown the pot it was in. Still looking for some suitable plant for the window 'frame'. Suggestions are very welcome.
The planter on top has bougainvillea pots. Have recently repotted them all. Hoping and wishing for a profusion of colors all the year around.

Framed...!

My balcony garden display!

My favorite place in my home is my balcony, especially in the mornings. I just love to sit out there and have my cup of tea and enjoy the greenery all around.

Gardening...the new beginning

Planted the yuccas at the entrance to my garden.

A new beginning..for the garden

Ok, these were my first additions after cleaning up the garden area. I bought four yuccas- silver star. I just love them. Thought they would make a dramatic statement at the entrance.

The garden makeover..

This is my house after major reconstruction/renovations... knocked down almost all the walls on both floors and reconstructed with an entirely new plan.

And this time around, as you can see there are planters built into the design so that we could have plants all around! However, lost many of my potted plants and those in my garden in the process because there was no safe place to keep them.

Would be grateful for any suggestions for some other plants that can be placed in the planter outside the L shaped glass windows? Currently I have money plant pots placed there. Would need a minimum fuss plant that has stems trailing down about 4-5 feet. The area gets plenty of sunlight.

A demolished garden and starting again from scratch

Recently I had major renovations going on in my house and my garden was completely destroyed because of all the building materials lying around in it. So this is what the space looked like after major cleaning up! Earlier, there were mounds of rubble in it about 5-6 feet high.

I was able to save my palms(near the boundary wall) with great difficulty. Also sadly, I lost many of my potted plants despite shifting them around a hundred times to keep them out of the way of all the debris.

Gardening....A Beginner's thoughts

Well since this is my first post i'd like to explain a few things. I live in Dehli, India and I just love plants. However, that doesn't mean I know much about gardening!
The title of this blog, Dhara, means Earth in Hindi. Another meaning of dhara(pronounced dhaara) is stream. So I thought it would be pretty appropriate. Especially in light of the fact that every possible combination of the words - earth, plants, garden, novice etc. for the title were already taken up!