GARDENING: ‘WHICH FRAGRANT PLANTS ARE SUITABLE FOR LAHORE?’
Q. I’m keen to have fragrant plants in my Lahore garden. Which ones are suitable and for which season?
A. Perennial shrubs and climbers/creepers, with fragrance and suitable for your area, include: Jasmine, perfumed roses, honeysuckle, carnations, violets, raat-ki-rani, oleander, brugmensia, gardenia, murraya, beaumontia grandiflora, camoensia maxima, porana panicolata, stephanotis and rhyncospermum jasminoides. Annual flowers and climbers with perfume include: Sweet peas, sweet sultan, stocks, Virginian stocks, sweet alyssum, phlox, wallflowers, dianthus, sweet William, heliotrope, mignonette and nicotiana. Fragrant bulbs and corms include: many varieties of lilies, tuberoses, freesia, Dutch hyacinths and nargis.
There are, in fact, so many perfumed species for you to choose from that it is not possible to list all of their growth habits and flowering times. Some of them though, will be covered in more detail next week, when shrubs come under the microscope. Meanwhile, the best bet is to make regular trips to local nurseries to check out which fragrant flowers are in bloom at the time.
All your gardening queries answered here
Q. I have a farmhouse located in the Galiyat, District Abbottabad, where I plan to grow blueberries and raspberries. I wonder if you can suggest some other suitable fruit bushes as well. Winter temperatures sometimes drop down to as low as minus five degrees Celsius. I also need the names of nurseries where I can get these plants from.
A. You can add gooseberries, black currants, red currants, white currants and Worcester berries to your list of climatically suitable fruit bushes. I do know that blueberries and raspberries are available in nurseries in Haripur and Islamabad from time to time, but suggest that you do an internet search of sources, within Pakistan, for all of these. It is against company policy to name specific nurseries in this column but it is always worthwhile checking the gardening section in the advertising pages of the newspaper itself. Good luck!
Q. What is the right time to plant papaya and custard apple seeds in Karachi? What soil mix should I use to grow them in pots?