I did actually have other stuff to post - pics from tram ride in Kolkata, rivers pics from Assam, and some nice pics of a marathon trail

But I’m too lazy for the accompanying ‘prose’, so here goes instead...

Every November or thereabouts Bangalore turns a nice pinkish purplish shade for a few weeks, because of the Tabebuia avellanedae. One of the best places to catch that is the ole favourite run site - Cubbon Park. I hopped over a little later than the usual morning run time and just before the Sunday morning traffic time and managed to get a few pics…

( clicky for the pwettiness )

It's flowering season for the gulmohar! Yippee!

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The Gulmohars are abloom in Bangalore...

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Once upon a time, I had a green thumb. I don’t know if I still do. We found Iris bulbs by chance in the government nursery in Delhi in ’97 or ’98… I forget when. We went there looking the usual gladiolas and phlox and calendulas and other stuff that we planted every winter in the old house with the back and the front garden, and the lily pond.

And in the process, found the iris bulbs. Irises were then and are still reasonably exotic of course, and the only ones I’d seen till then outside of photographs were these dark blue ones planted in a pot outside one of those overpriced ‘flower boutiques’ that keep opening and shutting shop in Khan Market.

Now that blue iris was this really deep blue thing... the sort that you look at and find screaming ‘murder mystery / spy story set in exotic locale'. They were naturally priced exorbitantly.

These bulbs promised nothing of the sort, but they were still exotic enough for moi. They were also *gasp* not priced exorbitantly. They were in fact downright cheap. So the iris bulbs joined the shopping bag, and I planted them in a pot, and one of them survived and flowered – two years in a row I think.

And then we moved to a first floor flat, away from the house with the back and front garden, and took along the bulbs and a bunch of rose and lemon cuttings with us. The bulbs didn’t survive the pots in the new place… nether did most of the other cuttings for that matter.

If I ever go back to somewhere with a winter, I’m growing irises again! Even if I have to hunt down some old government nursery to buy the bulbs from.

( Iris )

Tags: flowers, pics