May 22, 2008

You can give fruit and vegetables all the care and water they need, but if the soil is barren, they will not thrive, writes Zahrah Nasir

Q  I am a 15-year-old amateur gardener in Karachi. My garden had to be totally demolished due to a water pipe issue and now I have the chance to start afresh. I love fragrant flowers like raat-ki-raani and jasmine. Which other perfumed species can I grow? A problem is that every time I plant fruits and vegetables, they all die despite the greatest of care. Ideas please.

A  A perfumed garden is an absolute delight and it is wonderful that you want to create such a marvel despite your tender years. Depending on the size of your garden you may be able to find room for at least one brunfelsia americana, a slow growing shrub that bears petunia like, white perfumed flowers which eventually turn pale yellow. Then there is one of my own personal favourites, frangipani (chumpa) which can have white, pink, yellow or red flowers or murraya exotica (kamni), an evergreen shrub with white scented flowers.

Climbers may be easier for you to fit in than shrubs and some varieties of passionflower are heavily scented as are lonicera (honeysuckle) and rhyncospermum jasminoides (star jasmine). All of the aforementioned plants can be grown in large pots, too. Seasonal fragrant flowers are another option, of course, and I would highly recommend matthiola bicornis (night-scented stock), zaluzianskya (night phlox), stocks and phlox of all varieties, sweet williams, sweet sultan, sweet peas and bulbs like freesia. Again, all can be grown in pots if required.

Now, as to your problems with fruit and vegetables, you can give them all the care and water they need, but if the soil is barren, they will not thrive. Perhaps this is the problem and, if so, then you need to add lots and lots of, preferably organic, manure/compost before you even think of planting anything else. I hope this is of help and do not hesitate to get back to me if you have any more problems in the future. Good luck!

Q  I have 40 rose plants in pots, they have and still are blooming very well including creepers. Last week I noticed that some of the old plants that have flowers in bunches are covered with spider web like thing on leaves, stems and flowers. Today I saw many small cream coloured insects crawling on some other roses, there are hundreds of them.

I am very worried about all of this. I haven’t used any chemicals. Will garlic water help? Also, what is the right time to leave dead rose flowers to form hips in Karachi?

A  Oh dear! Your roses are infested with spider mites and these critters are not all that easy to deal with as they quickly develop resistance to most forms of pest control. As many generations of these troublesome insects can co-exist at the same time, the cream coloured insects you spotted are probably nymphs of the same species.

Garlic water should help if used regularly, you could try neem water too or simply wash them off with lukewarm soapy water whenever you see them. The infestation is likely to reduce as humidity rises in the summer as spider mites tend to breed very fast during warm/hot dry weather.

It is best not to try to ripen rose hips during hot weather in Karachi as they are liable to become mouldy and therefore unfit for use. Wait until next autumn/winter to come around and try then.

Q  Do you know the local/Urdu name of sea buckthorn please?

A  I am not aware of any Urdu name for sea buckthorn but its name in the Khowar language, spoken in one of the northern areas where this shrub is indigenous, is ‘mirghiz’.

Q  I want to cultivate around 500 orange trees on five to ten acres of ancestral land in Pindi Gheb, District Attock. In my grandfather’s time this land had an adequate water supply but now water is scarce so I would need to purchase water by tanker which costs approximately Rs500 each time. Is this feasible and, if so, where should we purchase the trees?

A I suggest you talk the matter over with your local Department of Agriculture or the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council and take advice from them. All citrus requires regular watering, and in quite a quantity when setting/developing fruit and personally, I feel that without a reliable source of water, you need to think of something less water dependent to cultivate.

Q Could you please recommend a good book or internet site on caring for roses in Pakistan? Most books I have come across are written by ‘goras’ and are meant for climates very different than ours, and I find it very difficult to make the necessary seasonal changes or compensations to adjust and fine tune their recommendations to our weather conditions here in Lahore.

A I must admit that I grinned when reading your question as I happen to be a ‘gora’, too! Your point about the unsuitability of overseas gardening books is absolutely spot on though, as not only weather conditions have to be considered but also things like soil chemistry, latitude, longitude and a whole host of other things.

If you can possibly locate a second-hand copy of Flower Gardening in the Plains of Pakistan by Mohammad Aslam Mian, published in 1972 and long out of print, then this would be the perfect book for you. Interestingly enough, the author based much of his horticultural work on books such as Manual for Gardening in India, Gardening for India, Indian Amateur Gardening and Gardening: A Guide for Amateurs in India all of which were written by ‘goras’ during the late 1800s to early 1900s!

Q I planted hyacinth, grape hyacinth and narcissus bulbs last December and they grew very well but the hyacinth flowers, in March, lasted less than a week in Karachi and the narcissus didn’t bloom at all. What did I do wrong? I also need to know if I should leave the bulbs in pots or remove them when the leaves have died, ready to store for next season. I tried growing tuberoses too but the plants immediately died.

A Frankly speaking, none of the bulbs mentioned are really suitable for cultivation in Karachi as the climate is far too hot. Basically these are cool region bulbs and require a period of cold before they will flower properly. If they do manage to flower then, as you discovered, the flowers are extremely short-lived. Why not try more heat tolerant species such as freesias next season. To keep the bulbs you already have, let the leaves totally die back in the pots before lifting the bulbs and storing them in a cool, dry place.

Tuberoses can flower round the year in Karachi without too much trouble. I suspect that the bulbs you purchased must have either been completely dried out or infected with some kind of disease/fungus. Try them again but check the bulbs thoroughly before purchasing. They should be firm to the touch and totally free of damage. Better luck next time!