NASTURTIUM

NASTURTIUM

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

27/I/2023

It’s been a desire to grow “Nasturtium” flowers in our garden. The pronunciation is very different for how it is spelt. For a lay person like me it is Nas-tay-shun. How the British got on to this, I will keep for another day. Today, we welcome them to Ellis' Garden.

It was about five decades back when it was the first time I had seen this flower in Ellis ‘senior’s’ garden. His passion and green fingers could grow even a dead twig. Those days flower seeds were not commonly available. Seeds were preserved after each flowering season. Relatives and friends were more than happy to share them.

For Dad, it always was a special request to friends going abroad to get seeds. In those days, getting seeds and bulbs was not difficult, nor were there such strict restrictions on carrying them. Anyone asking Dad as to what they should get when they returned from ‘foreign’, his answer used to be seeds/bulbs/fishing hooks and lines. They would oblige.

A couple of seeds and the right season to grow them was the main consideration. Manure was in abundance and soil was perfect in Punjab. There was no dearth of pots and water was available in plenty. Many flowers grown from seeds used to ornate our garden, nasturtium being one.

The yellow-orangish-saffronish shades of this flower are perfect for the ‘Basant’ festival just gone by. They flower in this season.

Decades went past and it was when I and my wife had a bungalow to ourselves that we decided to order its seeds online. As they say, half knowledge is dangerous. The seeds came in summer and were sown the next day. Instead of incubating and sprouting them in pots, they were sown in the flower beds. Most of the seeds sprouted but did not flower because the rainy season followed. Rot and fungal infection caught them fast in the Alibaug downpours and they perished leaving us heartbroken.

We were determined to grow them; the seeds were re-ordered. The long spell of the rainy season got over & the seeds were sown again. This time they stayed and flowered to our delight. The flowers are so attractive and charming that we decided to have them in our collection of seasonal flowers.

Come 2023, we got a handful of seeds online again. With so many small grow bags lying in my gardening tool box and enough of a perfect soil-manure mix, we wasted no time in planting them. Of course, this time we researched the season to plant them to get best results.

Our Balcony needed colour. We added a few bright coloured polka dotted hanging pots on its railing. Our balcony garden had started to take shape when we added these bags to the hanging pots. Passers stopped, admired and even took a picture before they crossed.

Final results are here to share with you all. Now that the flowers are erupting like lava from a volcano, it was time for me to pen down my thanks to these supremely beautiful flowers decorating our railing.

These flowers I dedicate to my mom, who used to painstakingly look after them in the days of yore. It happens to be her birthday today. She would have been 99. God bless her soul. May she bless us all.

By the way they are called ‘Jaalkhumbi/Jaalfarezi’ in Hindi/Urdu, but we shall call them ‘Nasturtium’. Are they known by any other name? I wonder!!!!!!!

JAI HIND