Nurseries need to increase varieties of ornamental flowers

Emerging flowers industry in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Nurseries need to ramp up varieties of ornamental flowers to attract more urban customers having penchant for the plants to decorate their houses, entrepreneurs said.

The ornamental flower industry is fast growing in the city, which has a score of nurseries. The main cluster with almost 40 gardens is situated along the famous Badin Chowk.

The businessmen said that they were happy to draw a good income because of the flourishing industry. 

A decade ago, the price of a flowery pot was much less that what it is today. At that time, the number of nurseries was few and customers didn’t have many options.  

“Now they visit any garden and receive exotic plants as per their affordability,” said Ahmed Kumbhar, a nursery operator. His nursery has a variety of fruity tree saplings for marketing. 

Kumbhar, a primary pass, has more knowledge about this newly emerging industry in the urban society, providing sources of earning to youth. He has a smaller garden, where one dozen youngsters work, fulfilling different tasks, like taking care of these plants, watering, moving the same from one side to another and transplantation.

Kumbhar was born to a potter family in Tando Yousuf, an old neighborhood of Hyderabad city. According to him, when his elders saw the declining market of earthen-made items, some of them moved to other professions. 

"Our family is still associated with pottery, but makes only flower pots and sells these items to different nurseries in the city,” he said. “Prices of these pots rang from Rs5 to Rs50. If there is any demand we can make larger sizes of pots for gardens,” he added. 

Earthen pot-maker-turn-caretaker of ornamental flowers is content over his transformation. But he linked his work of maintaining flowers to other earthen matters. “Potters know the soil’s worth and water status, which we apply at the gardens,” he said.

He said house gardens mainly attract royal families, who love to have these products. “They are the main buyers of these items. These royal families have a value for these flowers and can afford to have gardeners to take care of the plants,” he added.  

There is no fixed price. "Customers come here and do bargaining,” Kumbhar said. 

Worth of Flowers:

He said like the price of earthen pots, flowers and tree saplings have different rates, ranging from Rs5 to Rs5,000. Palm variety is costly. The nursery operators supply this variety to people straight to their house gardens. 

Small fresh gulab (rose) plant in plastic bag is available at Rs5, which after one month is priced Rs10--20 and later Rs50--100. The price changes as the plant’s growth and maturity increase.  

Kumbhar, in the end, earns Rs500 to 15,000 in a day. “Sometimes, we have a bulk order, but there are days with no business,” he said.

These nursery workers do not have social life. They stay at their nurseries and shops for day and night. 

Supply Line:

The garden centers of the city usually buy flower seeds from the Punjab and receive them through couriers. It is as costly as gold. A smaller pocket of seed costs hundreds of thousands of rupees. 

It takes at least six months for a plant to grow. Saplings also get perished, while relocation is also done according to the growth. 

The nurseries’ young members have different jobs to do, like sowing seed, planting sign sticks, collecting fertile sand, shifting location of pots and watering to plants as per the need. They avoid overwatering as it may affect plant health, and put a negative impact on operational costs, relating to water and energy.

Nursery owners face problems, such as water shortage and power crisis. They have to pay more for receiving water and electricity. 

The operators believe that it is not an ordinary work and the staff members have to do a lot to decorate flowers to attract buyers. There is a need for suitable soil, field layout, planting techniques, seedling management, weeding and control of seedling diseases, rootstock propagation, uprooting and transplanting of germinated seeds in the nurseries. The staff members know this process and cultivate most of plants in a state-of-the-art greenhouse sheds, which they believe can protect plants from heat stroke and cold.

Training:

Seasoned nursery's owner said the Badin’s cluster is the mother of all gardens located nearby. Mostly nurseries’ operators learned from here and have launched their own businesses.

He has mature fruity plants at his garden and offers customers to have fresh fruits while visiting the site. Despite having primary education, he claimed to have completed short courses of nursery management at government and private institutions.

There were government’s forest nurseries located at the main highways, mostly along the forest region. They had their own priorities to provide plants to different departments and people for promoting forestry. They also launched tree plantation campaigns every year. 

There might be some government-run nurseries in the urban centers, but they do not have indigenous tree saplings and usually provide plants, which are not climate-friendly. However, private nurseries have indigenous trees available with a variety of scenic flowers, fruity trees and climate-friendly plants.      

The government launched different schemes for skill development to reduce unemployment among graduate and educated youth. The authorities are yet to introduce a program specifically for uneducated youth, who may work, earn and live with dignity. This garden establishing business may help uneducated youth to earn bread and butter.