The Annual Flower Show and its Treasures

Saturday, March 18, 2017 Heba Moeen 1 Comments

I know, I know ... it's been a while since the 66th Annual Flower Show took place; three weeks ago (February 23 - 26, 2017) to be precise. However, since I have a 9 to 6 job, sometimes the mind exhausts and the blog post gets delayed, not to mention the occasional writer's block as well.

A beautiful Dahlia at the flower show

Anyway, whoever visited the flower show that took place at Sea View, Karachi would agree that these are the treasures of nature that make you wonder what Heaven would actually be like if this is not perhaps even a glimpse of it. Organised by the Horticultural Society of Pakistan (HSP), it presented a collage of resplendence this time as well. However, this time, the unfortunate gap left behind due to the demise of Abdul Karim Khan aka Baba-e-Baghbani, the founder of this society was deeply felt.

At this elitist display of flowers I couldn't help but fantasise about a garden that I might one day possess so that whichever flower I fell in love with at the flower show would become part of that very garden ... a purple flower garden perhaps. This reminds me of the book, 'Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett I once read.

The collection of flowers and plants was simply adorable, I took my camera along and eventually ended up snapping almost 600 pictures and spent 4 hours there. Considering I went with friends, I really salute them for the display of patience for my photography, especially that of one of the friend's mother who had come along to accompany us.

Such gems who love nature are rare in our part of the world unfortunately and when it's said that charity begins at home, it should begin at the government level which seems to be doing nothing to preserve the environment. You would be surprised to read The News article which mentioned that 47,000 trees have been cut down in Karachi in the past 5 years all on account of development projects, yet there seems to be no development whatsoever. You see a road being made and the next day when it's open for the public, it's not even smooth and caves in before the next onset of rain. Talking about trees and greenery, our city should declare a state of emergency thus persuading people to plant more trees that are environmentally friendly and chop down all Conocarpus and Eucalyptus trees as they are poison for our environment.

Anyway, for nature lovers out there, there was a dire need to attend this exhibition with a sack of money given the massive variety of plants. I got two orchid plants as they are my newfound love and since I am a proud cacti hoarder now, I got this lovely bowl of beautifully arranged by cacti plants from American Cacti. And their variety is Heavenly, not that there would supposedly be plants with thorns in Heaven but these species of plants are extremely beautiful ... yes these very thorny ones. This particular arrangement of cacti was for Rs. 1,500 which was very reasonable considering other cacti stalls and the price point these plants are usually sold at in the city. The interesting part is that their price was negotiable. You can check American Cacti's Facebook page for more plants and drop in to buy some.

Cacti bowl that I bought from American Cacti (picture snapped using my Samsung Galaxy Note 5)

My nephew fell in love the moment he saw the orchid plants that I got home. He knew it's something that I would have got so he came looking for me and happily gestured towards where the plants were. He's 16 months old and doesn't say much other than 'cat', 'orchid', or 'amma', interestingly, he addresses everyone as 'amma'.