The courtyards of almost all the houses in Kodagu have been brightened with colourful dahlia flowers months after the onset of rainy season. Dahlia flowers of various colours have started blooming in front of houses attracting visitors. | |
Garden lovers start planting dahlia saplings during the onset of rainy season. The flower, which gets rebirth every rainy seasons, start blooming within a month. It does not require any extra care to grow dahlia flowers in the garden. The very speciality of dahlia is that its flowers are not only attractive and colourful, but also are dfferent in terms of size.
There are many types of dahlia species and each one is different from another. It is said that the plant was introduced to India by a Swedish Botanist Doll in 1789. Kodagu district is famous for the dahlia flowers as it can be seen in majority of houses. People of Kodagu are fond of dahlia flowers that they collect different types of dahlia from their neighbourhood during rainy season. It is very easy to grow dahlia that either a piece of root or stump is enough to reproduce it. A dahlia plant grown from its root gives flowers of bigger size. A combination of sand and soil will be suitable for the dahlia plants to grow. The plant will give more flowers, if organic manures were used. Timely pruning will make the plant more strong and also will produce more flowers. “More flowers can be obtained from one plant alone, if it was taken care properly. March-April months are suitable for dahlia plantation. The roots can be preserved in soil after the season so that it can be transplanted in the next season,” says Gayathri Raveendra, a resident of Napoklu. source: http://www.deccanherald.com / DH News Service / Madikeri / Aug 15th, 2010 |