Flowers – Marigold

Morning time is rush hour. Wake up by 6 am.. . and listen . If the birds are singing , it means it is not raining. If it is kind of silence, it means, one can sleep due to drizzle.. But I regret later for having not being out of bed and on the terrace when the day breaks. It is lovely upstairs, to see all those hundreds of birds circling around and calling for food. The bees make an appearance only by 7.30. One bee, / his assistant come over daily and pollinate my Karela plants. Some times one blue coated wasp(?) also visits. It is not afraid of me standing nearby. I feel sorry for the insect, poor thing, to search bitter flowers? Next time I have to grow some good sweet scented flowers may be!

But they don’t care, after finishing with the flowers that are in bloom, they simply go the tree which has all the sweet nectar in its slender bunch of orange flowers. I don’t know the name, but it attracts the bees and small birds. During daytime the birds are busy sucking the nectar out of the flowers.

Flowers remind me of my Marigolds. I had read that they are good companion plants. So off I went and bought the seeds, and with gay abandon, I sprinkled the seeds in every any veg pot I was preparing. The tomatoes and Brinjal had to contend with them,( along with pods of garlic too). They shared all the nourishment given to the main plant and in no time, I had flowers , in time for Navarathri and Deepavali . I was a little sad when the rains were on in Hyderabad for many days. I would check the plants and look for major droop, with water laden flowers. Luckily, most of them could withstand the moisture.

Even today they add colour to my terrace. The smell of the plants are pleasant and of course, the pests were driven away . ( I hope).

The photographs were taken sometime back, but holds good even today.