I love gardening. In my garden, I have grown peas, cabbages, carrots, potatoes and fruit trees of many kinds. And now, in my room, I have grown some flowers … and very strange kind of flowers they are. I will tell you how I got them.

Just before spring, I thought I would grow some new variety of flowers this season. I asked my mother for some money and set off on my bicycle.

I reached the marketplace. It was full of noisy people. I suddenly saw a shop that I had never seen before and mind you, I come to this marketplace quite often. There was a crooked sign over the door that said, “The Seed Shop”.

I went inside and gasped. What wonderful plants I saw all around me! They were labelled with strange names and had been imported from places I had never even heard of, such as Hibbityland, Pippity Islands, Joojoopur, etc. Strangely enough, the shop looked quite small from the outside but once I was inside it seemed to stretch for miles and miles. What fun it was to wander around! I could not even decide the variety of plants to choose. Finally, I selected a flower called Tippylaloo. When I took the seed packet to the counter, the funny old man said I could have it for free. I was overjoyed!

When I reached home, it was almost evening. I sowed just three seeds in the dainty flower pot that I had prepared beforehand and placed them outside my window where they would get plenty of air and sunlight.

Next morning, when I looked at my window-sill, I was amazed to see a fully grown flowering plant in the pot. Wow! The flowers were fully grown in just one night. I ran outside and examined them. They had long curly stalks which were a very strange shade of green. Each of the three flowers had six petals each, which were all of different glittering colours — red, orange, yellow, purple, pink, blue and even pearl shade.

Suddenly, two white holes popped open in each flower’s centre. The strange black dots swirled towards me and then a wide slit also appeared underneath.

“Hello! Thank you for growing us! It’s so good to breathe fresh air and the pot is very nice too,” said one of the flowers.

I could only look at my flowers with my jaw open and eyes popping out.

“Hey! What’s the matter? The cat got your tongue?” said the second flower cheekily.

“Errr! Ummm!” were the only words I could manage.

“Manners, Tippy,” said the third flower, taking pity on me. “We forgot to introduce ourselves. This is Tippy, that one is La and I am Loo. Together we are the Tippylaloo flowers.

How are you?”

“Surprised,” I said.

“We get that reaction all the time,” said Tippy, waving his hand.. err… leaf, cheerfully.

“Stay here. I’ll be just back,” I said and ran off to get my bicycle. I quickly rode off to the shop from where I had brought the flowers seeds. I reached the marketplace but I could not find the shop anywhere. I searched around but the shop just wasn’t there.

I rode back home slowly, wondering if the flowers would still be there or if it was just a funny dream. Well, they were still there, talking, arguing and waving their leaves. I took the pot and placed it in an airy corner of my room.

My strange flowers are still with me. Sometimes they help me with my homework. Sometimes they tell me tales of strange places and sometimes they sing funny songs. When someone enters my room, they go silent and behave like fake plants. We are all best of friends and I love my flowers.

I still have a few seeds left. Let me know if you want to grow some Tippylaloo flowers in your room too!