Hanging garden

Space is one of the most common constraints an urban gardener faces… Solutions are easy to prescribe but a tad difficult to implement. However, one of the simplest solutions is baskets.

While you can not completely do away with pots, hanging baskets do have their own pros:

• Ease of display: They are better visible from outside a balcony
• Doesn’t occupy the precious square foot of an apartment balcony
• Lighter to lift and rearrange
• Planting and replanting are easier: You just need to dig out few palm-fulls rather than a 16” pot.
• Better suited to plants with smaller roots:

Few snapshots from my basket show for this winter:

And yours??

Chrysanthemums (Guldoudi) update

Remember our little chat regarding planting guldoudis....

As the guldoudis' season recedes in Delhi, here is a quick look on how my grownups looked around November/ December.

My wild picks from neighbourhood park resulted in two containers of soft pinks blooms: I love :D

Planting early meant I had a good show for at least two good months. Not bad, I say!!

Winters are here!! ... Happy Dahlias to you

There are winter flowers and then there is Dahlia J

Gigantic flowers in attention-seeking shades. Symmetrical flowers... a photographers delight....!

The initial method of caring for a dahlia sapling is more or less similar to Chrysanthemums (see earlier post). They can be started using tubers (you can use last years’ produce), but from my experience, fresh plants procured from nursery or raised from seeds are a much better bet.

Caring for the full grown plant becomes much more important in Dahlia. Dahlia flower is a heavy flower and hence the plant must be supported using wooden stakes (or something similar).

The second significant thing is pruning – though we would love Dahlias to bloom like a Chrysanthemum plant, but it would not! And hence a good gardener must be less greedy and prune her Dahlias to let only a couple of healthy buds to survive. This is essential for heavier, healthier flowers.  

Thirdly, a good sun is essential for blooming however, too much of heat can burn out the flowers which otherwise can survive for weeks together in Delhi winters.

Happy Dahlias to you... This years’ beauties...

Plan your Chrysanthemums (Guldoudi)

Why am I talking about Chrysanthemums at the onsets of monsoons.. ! ! Isn't it a winter plant!?

Chrysanthemums are first flowers of the winter season in the northern plains. They grow in bunches, stay for long, come in varied colors ranging from white, to pink, to deep magenta, to yellow and even blood red! They are ideal for container gardening, in fact they look much better in containers than if planted directly to the soil.

 White Chrysanthemums... my yesteryear produce

They produce their first bloom around september, so yes, if you are planning to rear them from saplings, this is the time to begin!! in fact you should plant them sooner rather than later.

How to 'Option 1': Saplings
Saplings are usually available in the nurseries. However, in the recent years, Delhi nurseries rather want to make people buy full bloom plants rather than saplings (because of obvious difference in profit margins), so they are becoming increasingly difficult to procure.

How to 'Option 2': Cuttings
Guldoudi plants are rather easy to grow from cuttings. So, what you need to do is take 4-6 inch cuttings from an older plant, rip off the leaves on bottom half, and plant 4-5 cuttings together. Planting multiple cuttings together facilitates a 'fuller' container, once they are in bloom. They might wilt initially but should be fine in a couple of days.

Caring for your newly planted Chrysanthemums:
1. Show them morning sun for a couple of weeks, but keep them away from harsh noon sunrays.
2. In case of cuttings, please make sure that the donor plant is healthy, as guldoudis are quite prone to pest attacks.

Here is a picture of the second option to give you some idea on how a newly planted set of cuttings may look:

Day 1: Chrysanthemum cuttings

Winter is a nice time to begin!

Embarassed to admit that its been almost an year (&5 days) since I started this blog. But without much further ado, lets start…

Winters and Spring are an awesome time in Delhi for a gardener. There are blooms everywhere – just look around there are varities of Dahlias, gerberas, calendulas, guldoudis all around. And my sincere appreciation for the residents of the city and the municipal authorities who show such a fervor year after year…

Here is some of my own produce…