Skip to main content

Queen of Summer



Bougainvillea!! Shrubs that add a lot of colour to the summer months! A native of South America, the bougainvillea is one plant that has really taken to the Indian climate.




Strictly speaking, the 'flower' is the small, white, well...flower- like thing you see in the picture. The surrounding bigger petal-like thing is some kind of a leaf variation. During summer, when the rest of the plants demand water, the bougainvillea shuns water. Excess watering encourages the green foliage. So, during the monsoon months here, this plant is just an ordinary, thorny shrub. There are some varieties with dual coloured leaves for such times...they look ornamental even when not in bloom (unfortunately, none in my collection).

Here's another beautiful bougainvillea .... where the flowers aren't visible.


One nice thing about the bougainvillea is that it can be grown in pots and trained to nice shapes. Since the plants are very hardy, available in 40-50 different types and resistant to pests, they are popular among gardeners and landscapists. Pruned bougainvillea in well maintained gardens look very aesthetic.

Speaking for our garden, our very modest collection of 5-6 colours also serve as a hedge....so, we have allowed them to be a little reckless! Even so, they look beautiful!

I remember reading about some botanical institute in the country (in Lucknow, I think... not so sure) where different types of bougainvillea are evolved and released for landscaping/ gardening purposes. You know someone actually names them too! I remember a couple of odd names..... 'Thimma', 'Wajid Ali Shah',....
One nice name I remember is 'Shubhra'.... for the white bougainvillea :)


Comments

  1. very nicely written mam:):):):)
    I've posted my experience of Gokarna as you said...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, Nanda Kishor.
    Righto! Next stop, 'Manada maatu' :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. namaskaara,
    aaraatappa idoo? nanda'andu e-mail id. mi0gaLaddu ka0Dattilye! haa0gE illiye comment'ide.
    baililiddeero?

    "Here's another beautiful bougainvillea .... where the flowers aren't visible. "
    idu sari'yo?

    ge0Ta.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Namaskara GenTa :)
    You have actually taken the trouble to go thro' some old posts!
    You're right...I've not revealed my mail i-d. Yes, bayalilidde...unfortunately, not a very regular visitor/ commentator.
    Re. your last question... the actual flower in the bougainvillea is the small, white flower in groups of 3. The colourful, eleya haangippa thing is known as bract. The actual flowers are visible in single bract bougainvillea. In the double bracted ones, the flowers can't be seen...tumba bagadu huDukidare, you can see a very tiny, flower.

    ReplyDelete
  5. :( so sad ;) aldo! haangella hudkekka....

    if we find a blog good, we hav to go thru it :)

    BTW ningo English MA' yaa?

    Ge0Ta

    ReplyDelete
  6. enna blOgu noDyo0diri. hosa hosa ge0Tugo, etc haakuttaa irte. bailili elli iddi? "bare kare"liyo athavaa? elli? kookilu haakire kelto? :P
    register aaydeero?
    ge0Ta.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks, GeoTa! MA ella allappa!! Heenge...raja udaasinappaga hottu kaLavale geechuvadu :)
    Your blog is good...humourous..very homely to read the Havyaka language :)
    By the way...adallippa i-d ge message kaLsidde..bahusha sikkidille.
    Bayalinge (oppanandallo?) ondondari batte.. bandippaga comment maaDte..Register ayide...oppannana intimations enna inbox inge kelavu sarti battu.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wonderful pics in a wonderful blog:)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ash gourd & beliefs

Whenever a farmer comes to my doorstep selling vegetables, I buy them. The other day, one of the regulars dropped in. This time, he had only ash gourds. Since my own ash gourd vine was looking good, I had to tell him that I didn't want any. He then expressed a desire to see the vine - to check out the variety, etc... Soon after seeing it, he told me that the vine would produce only one gourd and that I should be offering it to some temple instead of using it! Well! I hadn't heard this one before! Though nobody knew why, every single person advised me against using the ash gourd if it turned out to be the only yield from that vine. And, 'Give it to some temple' was the final line that everyone added! You know, as far as vegetables and beliefs go, the ash gourd is one that has many attached to it... each one of them, meaningless and without logic. My mother believed that a whole ash gourd should not be cut with a knife by people whose parents were alive. Fortunat

Ganesha's water-pot!

You will not find this place on the tourists' list of places to visit in Chikmaglur. However, you'll find it on my list of favourite places in Chikmaglur. Let me take you there..... A half-an-hour's drive from home will take us to the not-so-sleepy town of Koppa. From here, onto  the road to Kesave village.  About 3-4 kms on this road, to the right - a rusty arch and the mud track beyond welcome us. Blink, and we'll miss the place! We are now on private property. This part of the estate is open to all. Because, it is here that the river Braahmi has her origins. The Braahmi is a small tributary of the river Tunga. Infact, she joins the Tunga within 20 kms. from her place of birth. The presence of an idol of the elephant-headed God lends some piety to the place.    Someone has done a neat job -  making it seem like the water is gushing out of a water-pot. This, and the presence of God Ganesh... the place is locally known as 'KamanDala Ganapati'. Lik

Temple Ponds

Temple ponds, or, 'Pushkarni's are such an integral part of ancient temples. I just can't get over the idea as well as the efforts that must have been made to build them.  Often, these ponds are quite polluted. But for the presence of some stagnant water, some of them look like dump yards :(  So, it was a pleasure to come across this clean one at the Janardhana Swami Temple at Yermalu on the Udupi- M'lore highway. Dakshina Kannada & Udupi districts can be called the temple districts of the world- there are so many temples that one would need a lifetime to cover all of them! So, not surprisingly, this was our first visit to this temple. If the M-S wedding didn't take place here, we would have missed this one. The idol here was installed by Saint Madhavacharya- social reformer & philosopher who lived 700 years ago. This pond has obviously been renovated since, but, surely, the origins date back to the 13th century, or, earlier? You know, according to t