The Hindu Business Line : Weeding out plastic flowers with anthuriums

"I WOULD like to banish all plastic flowers from China from the Indian drawing rooms," says Yashwant Mody, a nature enthusiast and a flower-growing hobbyist.

And he is on his way to doing just that by starting a huge farm to grow not just cut anthurium blooms but potted anthuriums for the drawing rooms. But why anthurium? "Because it has a long life indoors and needs no care." And besides, "when people see this floricultural delight, they ask if it is plastic. I tell them replace plastic flowers with these."

In India, flowers "are mostly for God and I tell people, have some for yourself. Have an anthurium!" And there are others growing Dutch roses, gerberas and orchids and carnations. Though most Indians may not be ready yet, "something new had to be tried. This is a memorial bouquet, not something you receive and toss away but keep."

After three years of work, his first batch of produce is ready to enter the market. He intends to sell about four lakh cut flowers and one lakh potted anthuriums from his farm located close to where Enron's Dabhol plant had operated."Now Dabhol will be in news for different reasons," Mody says. Mody has on hand 27 varieties of anthuriums — 19 as cutflowers and eight potted varieties — with names such as Maxima, Elegancia, Monet, Casis, Sante, among others. One called the Choco is actually chocolate brown. And all of them draw their sustenance from the moisture in the humid air. Anthuriums need no sunlight and the area where it is grown has to becovered and then helped with controlled irrigation. Underneath, on long strips of medium coconut fibre, the plants are tended to by some 200 workers.

Mody's pride is in being "Asia's largest." Of the country's 3.5-hectare land under anthurium , Mody's effort covers all of 1.5 hectare, making it the biggest endeavour. "I can deliver in 24 hours of an order," says Mody who does not intend to export them "for no letters of credit are opened for this business and no bank gives guarantees".

Anthurium needs little care and can remain in one's vase for up to 30 days without withering. As a potted plant, it has a minimum life of five years. During the marriage seasons, cut blooms could cost around Rs 30 to Rs 35 and during off-season, Rs 20 per bloom. The plant costs Rs 700.

Mody buys the mother plants from Holland's Anthura, a family which is a world market leader, growing 15 crore plants annually. They send to`Mody's Exotica' farms four-months-old mother plants which are reared for 12-13 months before being put into the market.

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