E.Kalaimathy is losing sleep these days. She wants to push her skill to the limit and grow Bonsai in the small plastic caps that cover many medicine bottles. She knows she will soon do it herself just the way she started off 15 years ago growing a Ficus in a small plastic cup. Today, it occupies a place of pride in her verandah as a massive houseplant growing in a Bonsai round pot and looking as pretty, healthy and green as ever. “These small trees teach you big lessons,” she says.
If you happen to cross the building of Sacs Plaza in Tallakulam, you may find the entrance to the building owned by her husband, G.Elango, lined with a variety of small plants now that are ready to be picked up by random customers who step in for other purchases. It is not without a reason the plants, that are often sold in several other city nurseries at a high cost, are being given away.
Quite unlike an engineer-turned-businessman, Elango too is crazy about breathing lives into drawing rooms and balconies, verandahs and neighbouring streets by greening every space. In fact, when he shifted to Jawahar Nagar in 1990, he planted 150 saplings in his and the adjacent streets. Today each of them stands tall as a tree turning the locality into a cute little avenue.
With husband and wife complementing each other’s love for greenery, their house is home to over 300 plants growing in pots of all shapes and sizes, majority of them miniatures. While they insist Bonsai is a pure hobby born out of love and respect for greenery, the EB staff finds it difficult to believe! How can you grow so many plants just as hobby and not sell, the couple is often questioned and threatened their electricity connection would be converted under the commercial tariff.
So Elango has now decided to go full blast in promoting greenery. “I want people to understand the drama of potted plants. It is so easy and fun to take care of them just the way you care for your child and see them grow,” he says, believing every house, big or small, can lend a corner for at least two potted plants.
His wife is the silent supporter tending to the green babies with equal passion. How did she get started in a town like Madurai? It was the typical case of a housewife left with ample free time once her husband and children left for work and school. Her uncle’s family that owns the Hotel Fortune Pandiyan would often show her the bonsai creations that adorned the hotel lobby. “I got interested and started reading books and articles on Bonsai,” she says.
Whenever Elango travelled outside he returned with books, gardening tools, seeds and Bonsai kits for his wife. And from one rubber and one weeping fig tree planted in 2001, Kalaimathy moved on to a greater variety and today her collection includes bonsai-trained dwarf pomegranate, Western cherry, Kodaikanal oranges, bougainvillea, the banyan tree, tamarind and circus trees and adenium. The challenge of growing miniature trees kept her hooked to the art of turning living young trees into loving works of art. But her favourite are the Ficus whose hanging roots lend support to the main tree.
She also loves to twist the plants into different forms or braid the pliable trunks using copper wires or hanging stones and pebbles around the stems. For the convenience of growing Bonsai, when she required different shaped pots with holes, the couple ran into problem finding a suitable potter in Madurai. Finally one person in Poovandhi agreed to make it for them after being shown the drawings and Elango ended up buying a truckload in one go.
Regardless of their shape and size, says Kalaimathay, Bonsai are do-it-yourself trees that combine art and horticulture. “All you need is any tree of your choice and few tools and the timely attention and care the tree requires,” she adds. “It is the pruning technique that makes any tree a bonsai, whether you choose the formal upright style, the slanted or the cascading style,” chips in Elango, who has also installed a Mist chamber to provide the right temperature and light to his saplings.
“Caring for your plant is nothing less than caring for a pet or your child,” says Elango and both husband and wife vouch what a satisfying therapy it is. “It is a meditative hobby that gives you peace of mind,” he says. And how creative you can get, giving it a shape and most importantly keeping it small is what makes you happy, she adds.
