My family and other plants

Once when we celebrated our daughter8217;s birthday, I gave each of her friends a different return gift 8212; a potted plant 8212; hoping to initiate them into a wonderful hobby.

Once when we celebrated our daughter8217;s birthday, I gave each of her friends a different return gift 8212; a potted plant 8212; hoping to initiate them into a wonderful hobby. I was not sure if they would like their gift but, as it turned out, they were thrilled to get saplings of colourful crotons, dracaenas and palms.

That is the beauty of plants. My association with them goes back to my childhood days. We had a lovely garden, thanks to my father8217;s passion for gardening. However, it was only after I set up my own home that I realised their true worth. Our first home was a fourth-floor flat amidst rather bare surroundings at Ahmedabad. As a young couple starting out, my husband and I didn8217;t have too many things to decorate our home with. So, we just bought a few potted plants from a nearby nursery and adorned the house with them. With their colour and foliage, they not only livened up the atmosphere inside our home, they helped me cope with long spells of boredom since they needed constant attention.

They literally grew on me. As the years passed and we got transferred from one place to other, our green companions multiplied in number. Each of them evokes a happy memory 8212; a spell at a particular station, a visit to a new place, or simply that of an old friend who had gifted it to us. The bonsais given to me by my father, who has since passed on, are cherished heirlooms.

We now have a prized collection of more than two hundred plants, of many varieties and generations 8212; some of them as old as my teenage daughters. It is quite a job keeping them all healthy in a flat, and my husband sometimes suggests that we keep only the good ones and discard the 8216;weeds8217; 8212; a term he uses for the unattractive ones. But as James Russell Lowell said, 8220;A weed is no more than a flower in disguise, which is seen through at once, if love give a man eyes.8221;

And I love them all. When I sit in the balcony amidst them I feel as if they are talking to me. Sometimes bees and butterflies come a-visiting and my happiness knows no bounds. I feel I am the proud mother of a rainbow family. How8217;s that, Angelina Jolie?