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Meditating on new ideas

Prasad vows to continue his experiments by breding plants that usually do not thrive here, says Harjeet Kaur Allagh

DIVINE TOUCH Incorporation of art on a green patch can work wonders Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar

One has seen gardening as a hobby or a passion. But for M. Rajendra Prasad, it is literally a meditation. He lives and breathes plants. His garden is not the conventional lawn with a row of plants bordering on it. It is rather more of a collection and breeding of rare and exotic plants; nurtured and researched upon, as a burning passion to prove that one can rear all kinds of plants in hot and sweltering Vijayawada too.

Mr. Prasad shifted to Vijayawada from Bhimavaram last year and transported his precious plants more carefully than his other treasures.

A retired lecturer, he graduated in botany but did his masters and M.Phil in geography. Gardening has been a passion for the last three decades. His home is nestled in the tranquil Veterinary Colony and he spends most of his time amidst these plants. His speciality, initially, was in sustaining hybrid roses but he soon switched over to bonsai. He has a collection of almost 40 bonsais with lemons; oranges, peepul and a greenland ficus that won him a prize in horticulture show recently.

Adeniums generally grow straight and tall but the ones in his collection are short and twisted into various shapes. One adenium looks like a model of Ganesha that he has anointed with vermilion and women begin to come and pay their obeisance to it wherever it is displayed.

Rare sight

He grows a beucarnea, into three heads. (It is usually tall and single-headed). Different types of ferns also find a place in his garden. An almost 25-year-old ornamental cycas, which usually grows into the shape of a fountain, has been twisted to change its shape to that of a miniature palm. Medicinal aloe vera grows abundantly.

But the piece-de-resistance comes from the various hues of flowering plants that are growing profusely and provide a soothing effect to the eyes. The sheer colour, the magnificence and the endless varieties of flowers are simply breathtaking.

Twenty-one different bougainvilleas, reared in pots are a riot of colour. Though they look similar in colour, each is a different species. A wide variety of chrysanthemum has blooms of four inches diameter.

Discovering facts

Flowers like gerberas and anthuriums that we usually find only at a florist in Vijayawada, blossom abundantly in his hands. Orchids! Each inflorescence costs around Rs. 60 at the florist and comes from as far as Bangalore or Ooty. But Mr. Prasad has found a way to grow them in his garden. A close study of the variety has led to the discovery that they grow not in soil but in a bed of charcoal!

One would think that other than gardening he would not have time for anything else. But Mr. Rajendra is a man of different facets and has many interests. Homeopathy is one of them, while reading comes along with it. A rather weird pastime is to tinker around with electric goods. He loves to breed and train dogs. "I am a jack of many trades but master of only gardening," he claims.

His better half, Vijayalakhmi, initially had problem with his passion for gardening. But once accolades and appreciation began to pour in, she realized that the time spent amidst greenery is worthwhile.

Their daughter Sushma is married to Koshal and settled in Hyderabad. The couple misses their child and the little granddaughter Anisha.

"Nurturing plants is like nurturing babies who need attention 24X7. They need to be attended to regularly or else it does not take very long for the plant to turn lifeless," he cautions.

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