“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Shakespeare's famous lines from Romeo and Juliet has hardly any takers at the four-day horticulture exhibition — Horti Expo at People's Plaza in Necklace Road. “The beauty of rose is due to its delicate shape, colour and distinctive name. Every rose has a special name,” states the salesman at Apurva Nursery as he majestically holds a peach-coloured wonder, which by the way is called ‘The Painter.' ‘Double delight' and ‘Nicole' are the names of other types of roses available here.
To say that the Horti Expo, which started on Tuesday is manna for nature lovers is an understatement. The exhibition has nurseries, stalls displaying seeds, garden tools, bonsai and ikebana stalls, plants and pots of all varieties, shapes and sizes. Walk in with a Rs. 10 in your pocket and you can still buy a Christmas plant looking cute in a plastic tea cup! “This is called a Christmas plant as it grows the same way as a Christmas pine,” says the person manning the counter. If you want to add a dash of exotica to your garden, check out the multi-coloured chrysanthemums priced at Rs. 50.
Thankfully, the exhibition is not just for people who can afford to grow gardens in front of their plush bungalows. “The idea is to spread the message of greenery and show how people living in apartments can grow a patch of green in their small space,” says the stall keeper of a nursery. At the Bonsai stall, the bonsai varieties - Schefflera and Serissa Foetida proudly display their age. Walk around and check out the tissue cultured bananas, organically grown coffee and black pepper stalls.
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This summer, the sugarcane juice is all set to be available in a new avatar. Sugarcane is neatly blended in a high-end machine (which runs on electricity) to extract the juice. The cart, which is already available in Infosys and Wipro is high on hygiene unlike the road-side sugarcane juice available in the city.
Spend around an hour in this green world and if you are hungry, satiate your hunger with a plate of noodles or fish samosa, cutlet and biryani. The entry is free and the exhibition ends on January 30.