LT COL NOEL ELLIS
06/VII/2025
The pitter patter of the rain seems to be like distant drums. The clouds come, turn from white to grey to black, threaten to rain and then the winds whisk them away without a drop being shed. The day you don’t expect it to rain; the clouds read your mind and do exactly what you didn’t expect.
The biggest dilemma of a gardener is to water or not to water. If you do you are damned, if you don’t the same applies. Nevertheless, it is fine to err on the plus side if the pots are monitored well. In case ‘fauri ilaj’ has to be done, it should be done to keep water from stagnating.
Water plants are happy till the time there is enough water over their pots. Yes, the fish in the tub look forward to fresh water to enjoy themselves. I am not sure if they bathe when water is topped up through a hose or from the sky. It is play time for them.
Waterlily bulbs got spared while repotting them in February. In shallow containers, the new growth which emerged was not as healthy as the normal pots. They needed more space to spread their roots.
Even though some of them started to flower, the size of the flowers was much smaller than a normal healthy plant. The aim was to preserve as many bulbs as possible. These were left overs after distribution to family and friends. To see them malnourished was hurting me from inside. Something had to be done.
If your intentions are pure, things fall into place. If you succeed, nothing like it, if not, they continue to flower like miniature water lilies.
Be that as it may. We have a few hanging pots which fit into the garden railing in the front of the house. They did a Yeoman's job of hosting seasonal flowers, especially the winter ones. Now that the season has changed, they were lying empty and looked a little odd, but were available. A gardener cannot see even one empty pot.
These pots do not have holes at the bottom. That meant that they could hold water and have submerged pots within. That is the basic requirement for a water lily tuber/bulb to grow. The roots have to drown in water and the leaves need to float on the surface.
We had another set of small pots lying empty. The plants they were holding died after they finished their season. Now, they were available. Six hanging pots could hold twelve small pots (pot in pot method).. That meant that one could transplant twelve tubers downstairs. That also meant twelve waterlily colours would bloom on the ground floor.
Hard core flower lovers wanted to see waterlily flowers in bloom. Waterlilies are generally day bloomers, except a few. Old people or people with problems with their knees cannot climb stairs. Pushing them could create unnecessary issues. So, for them I took this plunge to bring them downstairs.
Garden soil and manure is never a dearth in our garden. One always keeps a bucket full of both. Plus, compost is kept handy for feeding the plants from time to time. The factory producing them is ‘in house’ and on our roof. So, making these healthier and bloom better would be achieved without much ado.
One wire tailed swallow came to our window sill and gave its blessings. I consider it to be a good omen and extracted the tubers to be planted afresh. With hands-on experience of two seasons of replanting and repotting, it did not take much time to settle the extracted tubers in the small pots. Thereafter, the place our hanging pots were placed earlier would see a new variety of plants altogether.
Slowly, water was added in the pots for two reasons. The pots within had to stand straight, without tilting or toppling or else soil in the pots would spill over exposing the roots of the fresh plant. The tubers start to float, instead of getting rooted under water. The plant can die in some cases.
The hanging pots are a little old and are made from plastic. They have got a little brittle but should be able to take the weight of water and soil for at least this season. Our fingers are crossed.
There are some plants which are already budding. If all goes well and they settle down quickly, we should see them bloom soon. Wish us luck for the new experiment. The “very senior citizens” are going to appreciate and bless us for sure.
Today, as I publish this article one gorgeous looking purple water lily has bloomed. Some more buds are also showing.
What colours are they the rest going to reveal? I wonder!!!!!!!
JAI HIND
©® NOEL ELLIS
Comments
Post a Comment