REASON TO SMILE
The hummingbird vine has been an all-time favourite of mine. From one red vine we now have multiple vines. They have spread and spread so gracefully. This vine is the main stay to the ‘arch entrance’ to our lawn. They also adorn and entwined like a loosely knit charpoy of the olden days, on which our hanging pots are strung.
Once this vine got acclimatized to our set up here, we have seen it grow inch by inch. At places we had to train the ends of this creeper. At places we had to tie them up with ‘sootli’. Some places we had to twist it around a bamboo support. Somewhere they had to be weaved through. This single vine now has become a thick mesh. One cannot make out which is the original vine because at most places the overhangs have been weaved back.
Tragedies do happen. There were times when their delicate tips ‘snap’ while weaving. My heart used to miss a beat. The clumsy hands didn’t know how to handle such dainty and fragile darlings. If lifted a wee bit more than it could stretch, snap, it gave away at the weakest spot, leaving one end in your hand. A few buds which could have bloomed could not mature due to mishandling. Plant lovers would realise this feeling, when a healthy branch snaps because of your fault.
The visualisation of the final arched canopy was there in the mind but it took shape inch by inch and very slowly. The wait was worth the smile it brought and became a matter of envy for the neighbours who copied the bamboo arch and are now training ‘money plants’ on it. Every week they change the plant. No plant of theirs has survived.
One has become a collector of various colours in the same variety of plants. A kind of fad. Glancing through an online portal one found different coloured seeds of the vine available. Without giving a second thought one colour was ordered.
Many times the seeds sent by dealers are not the ones which were ordered. They goof up or mix up or send the wrong ones. We have experienced it with lily bulbs. Except for the rain lilies, none of the exotic amaryllis lilies have flowered in the last five years.
Be that as it may, the seeds were planted. Then was the eager wait for them to sprout and turn to vines. My only apprehension was the colour as mentioned in the catalogue. We had ordered white ones. ‘White’ is a rare colour in the hummingbird vine. Next in line is a pink if this is successful.
These vines came in the midst of summer, so their growth was slow. The best time to plant these seeds is in spring. Still as an experiment and exuberance to see white flowers they were shoved into the pots with bamboo supports, for the vines to climb the moment they sprouted.
The first happy moment was when all ten seeds ordered emerged tearing the mud. We waited as they grew and were replanted along the arch and the hanging pot stand. This creeper has a very strong grip and a very fast growth. Up and up it went and caught on whatever it could lay its tendrils on.
A voice inside was telling me that the vine should be flowering anytime now. With heavy rains overnight, one had to walk to the other end of the lawn to check. It brought a huge smile to our faces. We saw the first white bud. It was really that ‘paisa vasool’ moment for us. Fifth of May they were planted and we witnessed the first bud today.
The beauty of this vine is that it produces plenty of seeds. Every seed pod gives three to four seeds once dry. Many fall off and are sprouting at places other than where they were planted.
Some of the seeds which had been collected were thrown in between the crotons, a few under trees so that they would find their way up in due course. Some red ones we planted in nursery bags and gave to our friends, which are flowering now and flowering well.
To see the results of the ‘seeds one sows’ gives so much satisfaction. To share the seeds of your hard work and efforts gives even more satisfaction. This is not only true for plant seeds but for everything we do in life.
If correct seeds are chosen, planted and raised well, they give good results & revivify your face. When the effort of nurturing a ‘seed’ is extra special, it fulfils the life and gives you another reason to smile endlessly. Isn’t it? I wonder!!!!!!!!!!!!
JAI HIND
© NOEL ELLIS
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