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Flower power
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Debut poinsettias, Ylang Ylang bush tree, famed for its fragrance, vegetables and seeds, the Flower Show-2004, had it all. But this year the `foliage' on display was less than before!
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THE JUST concluded Flower Show at the Subhas Park mesmerised one with the riot of colours and heady fragrances that wafted around. Dainty Petunias vied with the more dense foliage of crotons to produce a symphony of visual delight.
The show this year boasted the largest collection of orchids up for display and also, as Professor V. I. George says, "For the first time in the 22 year history of the show we debuted the Poinsettia which is rare in Kochi's extreme climes." In addition to these exotics there were the usual fare of chrysanthemums, anthuriums, roses and dahlias. The miniature orchids, in various tones of purple, were eye catching so too the luscious green begonias with their speckled leaf patterns. The kids' attention seemed to have taken a fancy for the unusual coxcomb plant and also the ornamental cabbage.
The hit in the bonsai section was the ficus plant, which can grow without soil. Ylang Ylang, a three feet bush tree, which Prof. Jacob Verghese informed "is famed for its fragrance." And the 18 nurseries, selling potted plants as well as flower and vegetable seeds, also turned crowd pullers with those desiring these floral delights in their garden patches making a beeline for this stall.
With Valentine Day falling in between youngsters could be seen streaming in to buy blood red roses.
But the showstoppers were definitely the handful of flower arrangements stalls. Sheetal Joseph, participating in this event for the first time, enthusiastically tried her hand in the famed Japanese Ikebana mode. So there were names such as Serendipity, Tranquility, and Amazing Grace for her delicately worked out themes. It also included the Nageri style arrangement, which as Sheetal said, is "flower arrangement dealing with long cylindrical vases that was introduced into Japan by traders from other countries." It included bridal and gift bouquets, floating arrangements, basket and dried flowers arrangements and also the "one flower one leaf" arrangement where you have the most wanted single cut flower for today's expression of love, the Gerileri matched with leaves of various hues and shapes.
Philo, another florist, had innovatively done up her flower arrangement stall to depict social problems close to her heart. "I find expression not through words but through these beautiful floral installations." So there were dried flowers portraying the loneliness of old age or even the artistically done up bamboo shoots signifying youth wasting away in the fumes of drugs.
Penta Flowers, which have some ingenious flower arrangements to their credit, also deserved mention. One of them used the similarity in colours of the ornamental cabbage and peacock feathers to produce a stunning combination.
Medicinal plants too were included owing to the resurgent interest in the effectiveness of nature's healing touch. On display by the Cochin Port Trust were Bush Pepper, Vicks Mint, Italian Malta, Aloe, Steevia, a natural sweetener and so on.
"Kochi and especially the participating commercial institutions deserve a pat on the back for cultivating such a fine interest in plants," said Rose Jose, a botanist, who was seen capturing some of these colourful sights on her camera. Her only complaint was that foliage was not given due representation and the variety too seems to have fallen short of expectations.
What one experienced was true flower power.
RAKHEE MOHAN
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