ANOTHER REASON TO SMILE

 

ANOTHER REASON TO SMILE

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

03/X/2022

 

            To bring one new life in the garden can bring so much happiness. This morning brought that same joy. The quotient of gladness grows so many folds, if the experiment which you had been trying becomes successful or an old and very dear plant, which you thought had perished in the milieu, suddenly sprouts. People who have experienced this feeling would know.

 

            I shall narrate some stories of such delight.

 

            When we were in Alibaug, snails were a big issue. The rainy season came and they appeared in hundreds out of thin air. We had prepared a flower bed when our garden was in nascent stages with a local creeper. Little that one realised that it was the snail’s favourite ‘dish’. Within days, they chewed leaves

 

The feeling was again difficult to explain. It was anger, disgust and fear of what next  snails would consume. One handpicked the snails one by one but their swarm was multiplying in geometric proportions. Only a chemical spray could eliminate the menace, which I did.

 

Snails were so delicate that if you lifted them or pressed them with a slight extra force, it used to crush their shells. Their shells are paper thin and a little extra pressure can crack them unlike the ones we collect from the sea.

 

            I could not get rid of the snail population but lost that creeper forever. It has just sprouted once again after a gap of almost a year. Probably I would have used that mud in some pot. Its seeds travelled with us and now tiny leaves have shown up. It was happiness galore.

 

            Second happiness was the snails themselves. How I disliked them but now that we have a fish pond, I thought we needed snails in it. One fine day I saw this ugly looking thing floating on the side of the pond. Initially, I thought it was algae, or some rotten leaf. As soon as I touched it to pick it up, it dashed to the bottom to resurface at another place close by.

 

            Though my experience with snails was a nasty one, but one in the tub was welcome. How it came there is a story for another day. They are algae eaters and why not eliminate algae naturally instead of cleaning the pond every few days. How I wished there could be more!

 

            The same feeling of joy came when I saw small lentil-like things floating on the water lily leaves. It was a sight to watch as they licked the whole leaf from both sides clean and made it free of algae. Welcome my friends, but if you pose a threat to my plants in the tub or my fish, I might have to change my mind. The new found happiness is still lingering.

 

            The third biggest source of my happiness was another successful experiment. It was sprouting water lily plants from its leaves. A search on Google and You tube, confirmed that one can grow it that way, so I gave it a try.

 

            A few leaves out of the cluster of a water lily have a protrusion on the surface of the leaf, where the stem joins the leaf, like a tiny rice kernel. Once this leaf grows old and is about to wilt, it needs to be plucked and dipped upside down in the water. My fish fingerlings were enjoying playing hide and seek around this leaf so it was left in the same container. In two weeks' time, fresh roots and new leaves have sprouted at the centre of the old leaf.

 

            It took me some effort to spot that leaf with a kernel. It had a rough joint with its stem. The leaf was clipped and floated in reverse with the brownish portion facing the sky and the greenish portion towards the bottom of my lily tub.

 

            This morning one checked those floating leaves out of curiosity. Lo and behold, there are roots on the side facing up and two new leaves at the bottom. A new life has emerged. One will let them grow a little till those hair-like roots mature and the leaves grow at least as big as a table spoon for them to be transplanted into a fresh pond.

 

            We have the mother plant, so it would be prudent that we share this new life with some plant lover, if not a water lily lover. Our happiness would be compounded if we can bring a smile to someone's face and make new bonds.

 

            Now that this experiment has brought a smile to my face, it must have brought one to yours too. Would you guys also try growing water lilies the same way? I wonder!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS