A thousand daffodils

WHEN we fled from Bombay nearly 30 years ago, we settled on a piece of land just outside Bangalore in the delusion that we were going to become horticulturists. Luckily I found a small, shabby, old (it was then 50 years old) but well produced book by one B. S. Nirody called Flower Gardening in South India - A Practical Guide for Amateurs. In spite of its age the specific title and a glance at its first few pages made me feel it was particularly addressed to me and I put my faith in it. It has become for me the Good Book.

Throughout the book the author lives up to the expectation raised by the words "practical and amateur". Beginning at the beginning with the relationship between plants, climate and soil, the author goes on to describe and explain simply and clearly all the usual gardening chores - potting, propagation, watering, manuring, pruning, labelling and, perhaps most useful of all, dealing with pests and diseases. Indeed many gardeners of today might findthat Nirody's recipes for brewing anti-pest concoctions are what, paradoxically, makes this venerable work extremely up to date. For, during that long period since it first appeared we have passed through the whole cycle of getting excited by chemical pesticides and fertilisers and then getting disenchanted with them. So now most of us will be happy to learn how to concoct those old-fashioned remedies which used to do such yeoman service for our grandparents.

The second half of the book consists of an exhaustive list of flowering plants, each one carefully described and with notes for its cultivation. The new edition improves this list with a system of asterisks which allows us to choose those plants which will give us the best value in those conditions which we can offer.

Although Bangalore is geographically in South India, its elevation puts it in a happier gardening position than many other places, so that most of the standard gardening books can be useful. It is the people of the "real" south, the hot coastal places like Chennai where flowers just refuse to appear, who will find education and comfort in these lists. If nothing else, it clears the air to be told categorically about what will NOT grow - or perhaps, will not flower. This advice is priceless, for it prevents us from wasting our time in attempting to do what cannot be done. The choices are limited, but Nirody shows us how to make the best use of whatever is available.

Exactly 73 years after this book was printed, a new edition has appeared - prepared by Nirody's children, printed in Bangalore at the Navbharath Press, and financed by N. S. Rao, himself a well known gardener who was a great friend and admirer of the author. The main difference between the two editions is in the appearance - a larger format and beautiful colour photographs, including a spectacular frontispiece and cover.

The main text is wisely left untouched, the only addition being a short new preface and an introduction by one of the author's daughters in which she speaks of her father's life and work. A small-town boy with a strong vocation, he managed to get himself educated in his chosen subject of horticulture and botany. One of his early assignments was the daunting one of preparing a nursery of the trees to be planted in the public spaces of Lutyen's newly-built Delhi. Big scale planting assignments continued, but he became a legend when he was asked during World War II to supply "English" vegetables like cauliflower, peas, carrots, and brussels sprouts for British troops posted in South India. The hillsides of Ooty (Udhagamandalam) were meticulously terraced and massive quantities of fresh vegetables started flowing into Bangalore.

The small scale work included the introduction of new trees, flowers, and fruits to India. We have to thank Mr. Nirody for the fact that we can enjoy avocados, and feast our eyes on the spectacular Tabubia Argentea and Cassia Spectabilis on our roads, and that in our gardens we can have the snow Queen and terracota bougainvilleas, double gerberas, double hibiscus and "pixie" lantanas. But perhaps Nirody's greatest triumph was his success in laying out and planting the 200 acre Jubilee Park in Jamshedpur, transforming a large wasteland into a beautiful nature park in the space of two years. Any man who could do all that well, his book is worth possessing even if you do not happen to be a fanatical gardener.

LAEEQ FUTEHALLY

Flower Gardening in South India - A Practical Guide for Amateurs, B. S. Nirody, with illustrations, p.233, Navbharat Press, Bangalore, 2000, Rs. 300.

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