A Visit to Flower Show - Feb 2015 @ Greater Noida

Nothing fascinates a plant lover more than a rejuvenating visit to a flower show. Greater Noida Authority organizes the flower show every year, though this happened to be my first visit. It was a few months back in Feb 2015; I think its never late to post about such a colorful event.

Three day flower show started with the competitions in various plant categories including cacti, succulents, flower arrangements, tray gardens, spot gardens, artistic arrangement of flowering plants, hanging baskets etc. The competition was open to all - residents, institutions, nurseries, contractors etc. to showcase their work. Performances by school students, Kavi Sammelan by Padma Shri Sunil Jogi, Classical music by Padma Shri Sharda Sinha, musical night by playback singer Sapna Awasthi were among various attractions of the event. It was an awesome programme which had something for everyone. 

Flowery Delight: A Glance at the Flower Show

Some things are better appreciated when seen by naked eyes; still I have tried to capture part of the beauty using my camera.

Spot Gardens

Group Arrangement

Hanging Baskets

Tray Gardens

Cacti and Succulents

How to participate in the competition

In case you want to showcase your work or participate in the competition - a flower show is a great platform. Greater Noida Authority organizes this flower show every year towards the end of winters. You would see big banners and hoardings at various places in the city regarding the date, venue and special attractions of the show. Interested people can visit the horticulture department in the authority office during working hours to get the details. Brochure and participation forms would be available a few days before the show in the Authority's Horticulture Dept. or in City Park (or Samrat Mihir Bhoj Park). The participation charges were bare minimal (Rs 10-20 per form). There was no additional fee for the visitors in the flower show. Greater Noida Authority encourages all the residents and institutions to participate in the flower show. I and my husband participated in the competition (in small tray garden category and even won prizes) and the response from their staff had been really supportive.

I really appreciate Greater Noida Authority for encouraging and appreciating individuals, institutions, nurseries, contractors etc. for being sensitive towards environment; and organizing the series of events for the residents so they can feel being part of the city.

How to create your own Miniature Garden

It was a fun project I and my husband did last winter. We created two miniature gardens and spent quality time with each other during this. In this post, I would like to share our experience/knowledge on creating miniature gardens.

Choosing a Theme

Its really important to think of the theme of the garden first and then build furniture/accessories/landscaping around that. 

For our 1st miniature garden, we planned to create multi-step landscaping with stairs joining each level; and a small patio at the ground level. We used Jade, Schefflera, Kalanchoe, Sedum plants in this garden.

For the 2nd one, we thought of a patio with wooden patio cover, some miniature chair/tables, a swing, a fence and birdhouses. This miniature garden housed Coleus, Schefflera and Kalanchoe plants.

Now mostly, choosing a theme and picking a container go hand-in-hand because you need to think of the accessories/landscaping which fits well in the container you pick.

Picking the right Container

We took simple pottery bird bath from a local vendor. She had a variety of containers with stands and with just a few bucks, offered to paint them in 3-layers of oil paints. After all the paint work, it looked really nice. You can also use any exterior wall paint instead. 

Any kind of small/big container would work fine here as long as it has drainage holes. For a container of around 1.5 feet diameter, 1-2 holes are sufficient; be sure to put them in the area where you plan to put the soil and not the concrete flooring.

Create a rough draft

Now that you have selected a theme and you have the container too, make a rough draft of how you would be placing the things in the container. Just take the measurement of the interiors of the container and draw it on a paper. Now make a dummy view on that - patio, plants, accessories or whatever you have thought of.

Start with the Patio

This is the first thing you would start creating (unless the patio is at some level above other landscaping items). For this you would need - some flat pebbles, miniature bricks, cement, concrete.

I would really like to thank the YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSfI7uck9h8) for the great help to create the patio. It really explains so well. I searched a lot for those kind of flat pebbles but could not find in my area. The only ones I could find were round/irregular which we could not make use of. We instead experimented with some flat concrete stones with some cement color and that worked reasonably well. Also created miniature bricks by mixing white cement, different cement colors and water. My creative husband thought of this idea of using rectangular tablet strips as brick mould.

Wooden Accessories/Landscaping

We designed the garden for interior decoration so we chose wood. In case you want to put it outside, you can use more of stones.

To create all the wooden accessories you see in the pics, we have used just these four things - sleek decorative wooden sticks (or biddings), fevicol (or any glue for wood), a hand saw (to cut the wood pieces) and some wood varnish (which we used as polish + sealent once the garden was almost ready). You just need to wait for a few hours for fevicol to work.

For the multi-level landscaping, we had to place the wooden landscaping in the container before we add any soil. However, you can add the rest of the items later in the garden (like stairs, bird houses, huts, chairs etc.).

 Look at those stairs, aren't they cute; and the birdhouses; and that small swing. Enough of bragging :-). Now give your imagination wings and just create the accessories for your garden. 

Preparing the soil

As we know, fertilizing the soil in the small containers with a lot of landscaping can be tedious job so add some soil en-richer in the soil beforehand. Now, fill the container with the soil mix and get ready for the plantation.

For the convenience of fertilizing you can use appropriate liquid fertilizers later.

Plantation

We basically need to choose the plants keeping in mind the depth of the container, the amount of soil available to each individual plant, the root system and growth of the plants, and the amount of sunlight available. The plants should be slow grower so that they can stay in the container longer. Eventually if they outgrow the container you need to move them to some other container and add a new member to the garden.

While I was working on my miniature gardens, I did some research on what type of plants would work well in small containers. Here are a few: Various cactus and succulents (Jade, Kalanchoe, Peperomia, Adenium, Sedum etc.), Schefflera, Coleus, Purple Knight, Mondo grass, some varieties of Dracaena, bonsai Ficus, bonsai Yucca etc. If you plan to keep them outside you can try some small outdoor flowering plants too e.g., moss rose, calendula, small varieties of marigold, ice-plant, dianthus etc.

Take special care not to disturb the root system, so the plants do not get transplantation shock.

Now assemble everything in the garden (plants/accessories etc.) and Here You GO!!!

We even participated in the city's annual flower show competition in small container garden category; and bagged 2nd and 3rd prize (judges decided not to give 1st prize to anyone). That was a proud moment!!

How to grow Moss Rose (Portulaca Grandiflora)

Moss Rose or Portulaca Grandiflora is a perennial low-rise flowering plant which is ideal for small containers, ground covers and bordering. It comes in a variety of colors - pink, red, yellow, light pink, white etc. Pink is my favorite and is most readily seen in North Indian gardens. The best thing about the plant is that it flowers in abundance. If you are a flower lover, it would not disappoint you for a single day in its blooming period. It can grow upto around 8-10 inches in height. I particularly like to grow it in ground - around the base of big plants/trees or at the borders of the containers housing some other foliage plants.

Grown in a container with Yucca

I have a lot of childhood memories associated with this plant as it is the first flowering plant I grew as a kid. I remember the days when I used to sit around the plant waiting for buds to open in the morning. Some friend told me its called "Bichu Buti" (I really don't know if it is really called so because we were just kids at that time) but no one recognizes it with that name at the place I currently live in. Here the localites call it "Nau-bajia" (because the flowers open up around 9 AM).

Propagation

Grown in a shallow base container

It can be propagated using seeds but I would recommend to grow it using stem cuttings. Using stem cuttings, the success rate is nearly 100% and you can start getting flowers even the next day (in case they already have buds). 

I have tried growing using seeds, however the germination rate was low (I have never got much luck growing the plants with tiny seeds). Moreover, you need to wait for around 2 months in to see flowers. Instead if you use 4-5 cuttings in a small container, it would be full with foliage and flowers in a month or two.

Propagation using cuttings is so easy and simple that you can involve your kids too. My daughter really liked working with me on this. With the cuttings, you can never go wrong. Last year I took around 15-20 cuttings from my neighbor's garden - she actually just pulled a handful of the plants from ground. No matter whether it is pulled, cut or broken, it would still root - even without rooting hormone. Its perfectly alright to divide a single large cutting into multiple small sized cuttings to get multiple plants. Just dig tiny holes in the soil and stick the cutting in there and water it. In the span of month, the plants started producing around 15-30 flowers daily and it did so until the winters came.

Blooming Season

Moss rose is a perennial in India. It flowers profusely from spring till the start of winters. In winters, when sun does not show up, it would just go dormant; you can leave it there for the next season - it would not bloom but still would have green foliage. Once the spring hits, it would again start new growth and flowering. 

During dormancy, I like to keep my moss rose in a container so that I can use the same in spring. If you wish, you can grow it as an annual; however saving a few plants for next season is worth it.

Sunlight Requirements

The flowers would not open in low light. The blooms open as soon as the sun hits in the morning and would close in the evening. The flowers remain only for a single day but that's not a worry because there would be a lot of new buds waiting for the next day.

Water Requirements

Moss rose is drought tolerant. It does not require much water if grown in ground. It's quite hot here these days and I just water it once daily because mine are in shallow base containers.

Portulaca Grandiflora versus Portulaca Oleracea (Purslane)

Moss rose is sometimes confused with Purslane which has similar and equally beautiful flowers. They both are  low growing spreading plants and come in a variety of colors. You can tell the difference by looking at the leaves. Portulaca Grandiflora has needle shaped leaves whereas Purslane has flat leaves. Portulaca Grandiflora usually come in double flowers and Purslane in single.

Portulaca Grandiflora

Portulaca Oleracea

How to Grow Sunflowers

I always longed for sunflowers in my garden. Never knew growing it would be so easy and fun. And then looking at those dazzling flowers every morning is even more pleasing.

Common Name: Sunflower

Scientific Name: Helianthus Annuus
Variety: Teddy Bear
Type: Annual/Seasonal for Summers

Sowing the Seeds

I started with my sunflower seeds just after the winters were gone (along with the Zinnia's in one my other blogs) - around Feb 15. Just put the seeds in a container filled with soil and cow manure mix and covered with a little of soil. I watered it daily. It germinated within 3-4 days. 

Feb 18: Germinated after around 3-4 days of sowing

Feb 24: After around a week of growth

Transplantation

I transplanted most of them in ground within 2-3 weeks of germination. I have read a lot over internet about sunflowers not liking transplantation but mine just did not mind. In fact, I even re-transplanted some of them to other location after a month of growth when I discovered that they were becoming overcrowded. I think they don't even know they are being transplanted if you just don't disturb their roots and dig a little deeper in the soil so that whole roots and soil mass come out.

 

Growing Afterwards

I did no pinching as I did not want to experiment with my very first sunflowers; wondered if they would care to give me more than one flower.
I am really lazy at fertilizing the garden - this is an activity I do only 2-3 times a year and then too I mostly use cow manure or some general purpose soil en-richer. So, I particularly did nothing special for them while they were growing. They just received sufficient daily water and ample sunlight and took around 2 months to grow big and sturdy. Throughout all this I waited for any signs of the buds.

They have developed a strong stem and are around 4-5 feet tall. You can even use some support if they are in some container or your weather is especially windy. Mine are in ground and I don't feel any need for the support.

 

Show of Buds

Somewhere at the end of April, they started showing their first buds. And then to my amaze they developed buds beneath all the points where leaves connect to the main stem. They spent around one full month growing the buds. I would call it a Show of Buds because the plants looked wonderful with all those buds growing bigger. Excitement was building to watch the blooms. 

 

Bloom

My wait for the first flowers ended up happily in late May when I saw those yellow petals peeking out of buds. And then yet another wait to see the buds open fully. It takes around a week for the bloom to open fully. 

Summer is in full swing and I have these astonishing flowers in my garden. They have already made their way in my garden for years coming ahead.

How to Propagate Snake Plant

Sansevieria trifasciata (known as Snake plant due to the shape of its leaves and Mother-in-law's tongue plant due to the sharpness of leaves) is an ornamental plant for indoors as well as outdoors. Just a coincidence that I got my first snakes plant's cutting from my mother-in-laws garden :-).

There are two ways to propagate the plant - using leaf cuttings (Using this method you can get multiple plants with just a single leaf) and using rhizome division. I tried both the methods and would share my experiences with you.

 

Propagation by Leaf-Cutting

When I started with this, I just had a fair idea of what to do but no idea about what to expect after planting the cuttings and how much time would be taken by the cutting to root. So, I thought of writing this blog with pictures and all details so that others can benefit from the same.

Steps:

1. Single leaf can be cut to create around 5-10 cuttings, each of which can be put in soil and would result in a separate plant.
2. Prepare the soil and put the cutting in the soil. I used rooting hormone too. It's very important to put the cutting in the same direction in which it was when the plant was there in soil. If we reverse the direction cutting would not root. This is as per the information I found on internet, I have not tried the other way to confirm the same. :-)
3. Water the cuttings properly.
4. Wait till the cuttings root and show sign of new growth. I read somewhere that cutting may take time to root but I had no idea on how long should I wait.

I used to look at the cuttings from time to time to notice any new growth but after 1-2 months I lost patience. I just ignored except for occasional watering as I generally plant the cuttings nearby existing plants so that they don't miss on water; and then transplant them as and when they root. 

I had not grown any snakes plant before so I was not even sure how would the cuttings show new growth. After around 2-3 months, I even pulled one of my four cuttings from ground to check if it really did any progress. To my relief, there were small roots. I missed taking a picture :-( . I put it back in the soil and knew that it might take time but it surely would turn into a full-fledged plant.

I planted the leaf cuttings during 1st week of September, however I the new growth started appearing in the last week of April. This long duration of around 7 months) before I could see any growth can be due to the winters in between but I am not sure. The new growth did not appear at the cutting itself, it appeared as a shoot nearby.

Offshoots appearing nearby cuttings

Offshoots nearby cuttings

Some of the blogs say that when leaf-cuttings root, they result into non-variegated leaves. I would have to wait for a few more days to confirm that.

 

Propagation by Rhizome Division

While my hubby was pulling the leaf for cuttings from my mother-in-laws garden (you see guys generally use their hands instead of shears or knives), he just accidentally pulled two full leaves with rhizome intact (though separated from main plant). It was like taking the whole plant out and then dividing the rhizome. I also put the same in the ground.

I expected this would show new growth sooner than the cuttings. To my surprise, it did outran the cuttings but only by around 15-20 days which is not much as compared to total dormancy period. Also, the growth did not appear on the main plant/rhizome but appeared as an offshoot (a few inches away from the main plant). I would update you in case I see any new growth on the main plant.

Two offshoots nearby the main plant

I am waiting for the plants to grow a bit and then would put them in their own personal containers.

 

Water and Sunlight Requirement

If planted in a container, constantly wet soil can cause damage to the roots however this is not much concern when planted in ground. This can be planted outdoors as well as indoors (in low light conditions too).

 

Improves Air Quality

This is one of the best air purifying household plants. It is also known as bedroom plant due to its ability to filter many pollutants in indoor environment. They release Oxygen even during night due to CAM, a secondary type of photosynthesis.

Reference:http://archive.news.softpedia.com/news/Top-15-NASA-039-s-Plants-That-Can-Save-Your-Life-78345.shtml

Scientific Name: Sansevieria trifasciata
Commonly Known As: Snakes Plant, Mother-in-law's tongue, Saint George's sword
Type: Evergreen, Perennial

Its far easier to go and buy plants from nursery; but you feel real satisfaction when you do something from ground up. The joy of creating a new life!!!

First Zinnia in my Garden

I have been a plant lover since childhood and would attribute this trait of mine to my mother. However, I was not that much passionate until recently when we shifted to our new house wherein I had some space to cultivate this hobby of mine. For my summer annuals, I decided to try the seed pack instead of purchasing the mature plants from the nursery. Though I would need to do a little extra effort to start the seeds and keep them watered while they are ready for transplantation but it feels great to see the whole life-cycle of a plant. Moreover, it would give me a plenty of plants at a cost lesser than a single mature plant from nursery. 

Germination from seeds

Feb 18: after around 3-4 days of sowing the seeds

Feb 24: after around 10 days of sowing the seeds

I started my zinnia seeds in the mid of February; this is when we start summer annuals in North India. Here is what you need to do to get started: Fill the container with some cow manure and soil mix. Water thoroughly and wait until it is all soaked in (around 15-20 minutes). Now make small holes in the soil with the help of some pencil/stick, put one seed in each opening and cover with some soil. I read somewhere that use as much soil to cover the seed as is the size of the seed, and it works for me. Sprinkle some more water and here you go. You just need to put the container in a sunny spot (sun is not that harsh in February here) and keep the soil moist for a couple of the days. Just after 3-5 days, I started seeing small seedlings appear from the soil and within a month they were ready to be transplanted.

I only expected that even if I would be able to successfully get 4-5 plants from the whole pack, I would be more than happy. Though it turned out that most of my first set of seeds germinated. Then after an interval of 15-20 days I used the rest of the seeds too so that I would have flowering throughout summers. Though I lost a number of them due to my little knowledge/experience with these plants and some neglect, I still have around 30-40 plants in my garden, some have started blooming and others ready to bloom.

Needs a lot of sunlight during growth

The mistake which one can do with these plants is not to provide proper sunlight. I put a lot of seeds in an area which lacked proper light and were overcrowded; and could not transfer them to sunny spot on the early stages of their development. The seedlings became too thin and tall in search of light(I could not take pic, but the seedlings had grown so leggy that the first false leaves were at around 4-5 inches above the ground), and could not sustain thereafter when I transplanted them. The one's which I transplanted in the sunny spot are doing better as compared to the one's which were transplanted later.

Pinching the Plant

Mid April: One of the first buds

Though you can let the plants grow freely. After attaining some height, it would show its first bud, which itself appears pretty. Then the vertical growth stops and plant starts branching out. The branches in turn would start producing flowers. You can instead pinch (cut the top leaves with some sharp scissors) the plant when it reaches a few inches or desired height. Pinching would then stop the vertical growth and encourage branching and keep the desired height of the plant.

Watering needs

They would need almost daily watering (to keep the soil moist) in the initial phases of developed till a few days after transplanting, after that you can reduce watering. I have planted Zinnia in ground and they forgive me if I don't care for them for 2-3 days; I have not tried longer. I generally water all my plants at least every other day during summers.

First Flowers

The buds started appearing after around 2 months of sowing the seeds. The first zinnia flower in my garden just started fading after around 10-12 days. I like the plants whose flowers stay on the plant for quite a few days OR they manage to bloom daily :-). My seed pack resulted in a number of different colors in the garden - purple, orange, light orange, red. I am waiting for the second set of zinnia's to bloom. It was a wonderful experience and I am definitely going to try them again.