If you've always wanted to have a garden but lamented the lack of space, the 21st Horticulture Expo-2011 is a must visit. Among the 200-odd stalls put up by more than 160 participants at the expo, a stall put up by Greenwall is sure to catch the eye. The Mumbai-based enterprise specialises in setting up vertical gardens for homes, apartment complexes and corporate houses.
From prices beginning Rs. 900 onwards, there are vertical installations in different heights and shapes to choose from. The wrought iron structures can house potted plants and come with facilities for drip pipelines for easy watering of the plants. A 15-feet circular installation can work up to Rs. 35,000. Are there takers? The stall is attracting spectators, sure, and they don't miss an opportunity to click photographs with camera phones.
The horticulture expo has something for every person who has or wants to have a green thumb. Seeds and saplings for ornamental and flowering plants, bonsais, vegetable plants, exotic orchids, rare fruit trees (think dragon fruit, star fruit and even Thailand honeydew melons and you will find them among the stalls).
Move into the enclosed green spaces and take a look at the varieties of red and green chilli plants, rose gardens, mangoes and a host of companies that specialise in irrigation systems for homes and farmhouses. On display and sale are organic fertilizers, products by the Coconut Development Board (a range of virgin coconut oil products devoid of chemicals) and Honey Development Board apart from stalls of Unani medicine, aloe vera and soyabeans. And the Ikebana presentations by Rekha Reddy offer some food for thought. While there, also pick up tips on growing mushrooms.
Gardening and interior designing go hand in hand. Garden and home furniture made from bamboo, decorative flowers from Thailand and Feng Shui plants in the form of Chinese bamboo also find space in the expo.
For once, Necklace Road paints a busy picture and the reason has more to do with nature than with the routine handicraft and handloom expos. Hundreds of cars and two wheelers lie parked outside the People's Plaza on balmy afternoons as people leave the expo with their pick of seeds and saplings. The expo ends on Sunday.
