A bouquet of colours

FLORAL WELCOME

The bright yellow flowers of ‘tecoma stans’ and the pink or violet flowers of the tree called ‘Pride of India’ enhance the look of your home’s entryway. What better way than these beautiful flowers to welcome visitors, writes Rashmi Shrinivas.

Gardening has taken off in a big way in most urban homes, because of the need for apartment owners to add a dash of greenery in a limited space. While most of them maintain great gardens, be it in the balcony or the porch, many of them do not care much to beautify the entrance of their house.

The area between the tarred road and your house too is important and needs to be beautified. At times, the most beautiful gardens fail to impress a visitor because of the unattractive surroundings. This problem can be tackled by planting easy growing, pest-resistant, short trees with showy flowers at the entrance of your house. Tecoma stans and lagerstroemia are ideal in such a scenario.

Tecoma stans, originally a native of Central and South America, is commonly seen in India too. In Karnataka, it grows very well in warm regions like Hubli, Bijapur and Bellary where their flowers also have a bright yellow colour. Reaching a moderate height of about 20 feet, this tree, belonging to the family bignoniaceae, has medium-sized dentate leaves and bears attractive clusters of bright yellow bell shaped flowers. Because this tree is not deciduous, both leaves and flowers are seen at a time on the tree and it doubles up as a shade giving and an ornamental one. What makes it popular is its fast growing quality and long flowering season.

The name tecoma is derived from its native name and stans refers to its upright growing habit. Its narrow long pods contain flat white winged seeds resembling those of tabebuia argentea (which was also known as tecoma sp. until recent past) and markhamia lutea. So hand plucking the seeds for propagation is desirable to ensure accuracy. However, in containers, it does not grow very big. In fact, my plants in containers on my terrace look like bonsais. However, another variety of this tree with narrow leaves too is commonly seen.

Another tree that can ideally be grown in front of your house is the ‘Queen of Flowers’. Also known as ‘Pride of India’, it is botanically known as lagerstroemia speciosa. The tree is a native of our own Western Ghats in India and the most attractive tree when in full bloom in the month of March-April. Its crumpled petals, a characteristic feature of the family lythraceae (pomegranate family) where it belongs, give it the look of an artificial flower made out of crape paper, giving it the name, ‘crape flower’. The tree is found as a road-lining tree in most parts of Bangalore and bears an attractive inflorescence of flowers of either pink or violet colour, each flower being of the size of about three inches in diameter with attractive six petals round in shape.

Numerous attractive stamens in the centre simply add to the beauty of the flower! Its large leaves turn red just before falling in winter. Its woody fruit, when ripe turns into brown colour when dries and slits into six parts from the tip. Even these can be painted either in gold and silver and used for ornamental purpose in your home. When in full bloom with large leaves still intact and the flowers fully covering the crown of the tree, it can match the tabebuia as far as its beauty is concerned.

Since it is generally seen along water bodies, it is known as holey dasavala (hole is rivulet and dasavala is hibiscus) in Kannada.

If you manage to grow these two trees in front of your house, they will welcome your guests with their glorious flowers, besides beautifying the entrance of your house and providing shade. In fact, they may even compensate for the loss of plants, if any, within your compound.