Today’s fervent green thumb is not your father, husband or any agriculturist, but a woman who is growing her own flowers and ornamental plants particularly our national flower lotus in her garden.
The ancient art of gardening is now being embraced by a new demographic. For decades, the typical gardener has been a man, while a woman who gardened tended to be grey grandpas. Srividya Raghuram, of Kovaipudur had her vision clear: to have a beautiful farm. Discussing her passion with her family members, Srividya received ample support.
She started an aquatic garden when she bought a house in 2010, and planted water lily psnama pacific and mexicana without knowing their names, by 2013 she initiated planting native varieties of pink multi petal Lotus collected from pudukottai. Her keen interest motivates her in collecting seeds, hybrid lotus and lilies by seeds and rhizomes through friends and relatives from abroad.
“My flowers in my farm attract lots of bees and butterflies, but it was more exciting to see how a small water-body can change the biodiversity of my farm”, she says. She always missed the flowers from her childhood which smelled like heaven. She looked a long time for those plants on the Internet and was able to get a few of them online.
Lotus is sacred to Hindus and Buddhists, the lotus is the national flower of India. This hardy aquatic plant is native to Southern Asia and Australia, but they can be grown in nearly any temperature climate under the right conditions. She experimented growing lotus from seeds or from tubers.
Nelumbo Nucifera, also known as Indian Lotus, sacred lotus bean of India, Egyptian bean or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is often colloquially called a water lily. Under favourable circumstances the seeds of this aquatic perennial may remain viable for many years, with the oldest methodology.
To know about lotus and lily, which grow in any climate, she studied in detail, because without knowing about plants, it is not possible to grow them. She has enough experience in landscaping and she guided inches of the garden of her house. Be it placing of the flower pots, cement rings, slabs.
She has introduced three types of thousand petal lotus, hybridised by Dr. Daike Tian (Ph.d) from China, and now it is blooming well throughout the country. She is the pioneer of introducing many foreign lotus in India. First bowl lotus Golbonzo Fengshoi Toi, foreigner lotus, red skyscanner were introduced by her in India in 2015.
Pink cloud large var, versicolor lotus, white peony, lady bingley bowl lotus, siam ruby, red sky scanner, red Philips, Vishnu white lotus, yellow peony, Golden apple, Autumn moling, king of Siam, water lily and has many more best varieties of lotus and and more than 70 varieties of lilies in her farm.
Her keen enthusiasm and passion towards collecting and raising various exotic lotuses. Her humbleness and altruistic personality with a wide knowledge in raising lotuses and huge collection of many rare and hard to find species of lotuses, which helped her clients to choose the right species of lotuses. She has been recognised as “Lotus queen” by her clients. Pink cloud and ultimate thousand petal is gifted to the Rani of Odisha to present it in Puri Jagnathmandir.
When the flower market in India shrunk except the flowers that are used as gifts, and even lotus was not a gifting flower, in those circumstances she boomed her flower business and succeeded not only within the country, her customers were all around the world.
I was surprised to see her plantation, and then she was the only person who introduced foreign Hybrid in India. She is quick, responsive and maintains very high parameters in Tuber quality. Packing and shipping at a reasonable price, her client exclaims about her work.
Now her inclination is to plant lotus in at least 108 temples in the country. Her passion has made her reach great heights in her life. She is the proud recipient of India’s biggest South India Women Achiever Awards – 2020.
Interviewed by
Sindhu Mangalawedha
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