You can’t miss the Paul house of CG Block. A massive white edifice with elegant grey gates and more plants than you thought was possible to find under one roof. There are plants lined along the edge of the house, in the driveway, the terrace, staircase and interiors. Mithu Paul has a particular fondness for flowers, especially Roses, and has done a commendable job of keeping them in bloom even in this weather.
My gardening partner at home is Susmita, who is both my sister and sister-in-law, and we have inherited our love for plants from our mother. Our mother would win prizes from the Alipore horticulture society and when she passed away we counted 250 rose pots on her terrace. We sisters couldn’t save the plants then but later we found a diary our mother would maintain with her notes on gardening.
That, we thought, was her legacy and it gave us the impetus to start our own garden. A few years ago when our kids left town to study medicine we found renewed vigour and ample time at hand to develop our collective hobby.
Now we have over 60 pots of Roses of 25 to 30 varieties. Imagine the beauty when a single plant bears 30-35 Roses at a time, and huge ones at that! We use cinder instead of soil for these plants, which is light and allows excellent drainage.
Hibiscus varieties in Paul's garden
In monsoon, the Jasmines and Zinias are bowing out and making way for Dopatis. Some Gerberas are still in bloom and Lotuses will continue till the pujas. Multiple Kochias, with their feathery foliage, had also flourished. In fact, they were so impressive that my husband hijacked them to decorate the hotel that he runs! He says many more people will get to see and appreciate them there than at home.
This isn’t the first time. In winter, we had such an abundance of flowers that I sent some of them to the flower show (my husband Goutam Kumar Paul is the secretary of Bidhannagar Horticultural Society), some to the hotel, where my niece was getting married, and still had many left for the house.