LT COL NOEL ELLIS
09/VII/2025
When you walk out of the front door, if there is someone holding a bouquet of flowers for you, how would you feel? The size of the flower doesn’t matter, neither does the colour or smell but just the gesture itself which takes your breath away. They flower in their own time to spread joy.
If you can hear their woes through your ‘stethoscope of your mind’, their ailment can be looked into. Or else, they just stand there, fighting till the very end and offering you what they do best. No matter what the season, no matter how they got scorched in the heat or got drenched in rain, flowering plants just do not complain.
They make sure that if there is even a one percent chance to flower they will. They are not at all demanding. It is only a gardener who pampers them. The more you do it, the more they give back. It all sounds very philosophical, but it is true to the last word.
It is all about timing. “If rains come, can rain lilies be far behind”. They stay in the soil as bulbs all year. The first shower stirs them and wakes them up from their slumber. New shoots and at times buds are the first to appear. One after the other, there are flowers galore. It is the vibrant colours and textures they display which fascinates everyone.
Imagine, if one has to wait the whole year for one flower from one bulb to bloom. The bloom stays for a couple of days and then it is all over. The plant lives, the bulb grows within the soil but then nature takes over. It has to stay there, gain strength, multiply and then sleep till rains arrive in the next rainy season. The wait does not matter, but their staying safe and healthy does.
Advancement in genetics has done a great job by bringing about many changes in their genes. From single colours, to multiple colours, sky's the limit. People are working day and night to give them textures, shapes and colours. Many have been converted to double petals. The range is mind blowing.
Our collection started with five bulbs. As time has gone by, we can proudly claim that there are about twenty different colours which have flowered over the years. Here are a few.
There is something called “sympathetic detonation”. If one bomb exploded and if there is another one close by, it too would detonate. That is what happens to the rain lilies. If one blooms then there is a kind of chain reaction. One after the other they start blooming, is what we have observed.
Every season, add a new and unique colour. The old bulbs with us have multiplied. Soon there would be a riot of colours in our rain lily collection. Wish us luck.
How many colours will bloom this year? I wonder!!!!!!!
JAI HIND
©® NOEL ELLIS
Good write and beautiful Lillees Noel. With rains in plenty, you will have plentiful of blooming lillies....
ReplyDeleteThank you
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