Evergreen Nursery, Lalitpur, Nepal

Well, it has certainly been awhile but, at long last, I am back and quite eager to be posting again!

Approaching our next destination, we exited the bus at a location known for retail garden nurseries. Praful's mom had found out we would be in the general vicinity and requested that he stop to purchase a few plants for her... It was quite a delight for me since this was right up my alley (I worked for 5 years at a small nursery in my hometown!)...

The sign along the road...

Along the bucolic road traversing Godawari, we stopped at the somewhat small, but exceedingly charming Evergreen Nursery. I was overjoyed to see the diversity of plants for sale. There were many garden favorites such as Pentas, Petunia, and Euphorbia pulcherrima (aka Poinsettia). These plants, treated as annuals in the temperate climate of the Mid-Atlantic U.S., thrived as perennials in the sub-tropical environs of Kathmandu Valley. A gardener's paradise for sure...

Some of the nursery's bounty!

Some of the Poinsettias for sale.

I was quite fortunate to have two native speakers handy to inquire of the workers on my behalf -I definitely had many questions! Eventually, after some rather technical questions were asked, we were joined by the nursery's owner and managing director, Mr. Hari Ram Shrestha, who proudly showed us around his family business. I never cease to be amazed at the universality of a gardener's passion... Despite the language barrier and our quite disparate backgrounds, our mutual love for horticulture transcended all of that. As he exuberantly explained the development and expansion of his business and the enjoyment he had for propagating and disseminating not only his phytological wares but also his immense gardening knowledge, I was struck by our instant bond and mutual affinity...

The nursery is expanding to include aquatic plants!

One of the most impressive aspects of the nursery was its extensive offering of orchids. The most common genera that I could see were Cymbidium and Paphiopedilum, but there was a noticeable abundance of others as well. I learned that Mr. Shrestha was the Vice-President of the local Cymbidium Society. He learned a lot of his propagation and growing techniques through collaborations with a professor from the University of Mississippi (I believe) and several from Japan. He received citrus cuttings from Japan which he grafted for local sale, while his Japanese counterparts took cuttings from several of his plants for conservation and research purposes in their own country.

Mr. Shrestha with his orchids.

In case you wondered, the plants for sale were quite a steal. One could buy 8 of the bedding plants for about 150 Rupees (approx. $2 US). However, the Paphiopedilum orchids were about 300 Rupees ($3-4 US) each, while the hybrid orchids were about 100-150 Rupees each. Upon further inquiry, the special growing media required for the more particular orchid species was the main reason for their higher prices. Mr. Shrestha overviewed the finetuning process that was necessary to determine the right balance of materials in his orchid growing media... composed primarily of pinebark and coconut fiber.

8 Primula for only $2!

I was quite struck by the immense conservation potential that nurseries such as this one have. Not only can they help in a direct way by preserving plants ex situ in their own collections, or by assisting with in situ conservation further afield, but with the sheer volume of people that they come in contact with in the local community, perhaps their greatest potential is in their invaluable educational activities and in the legal propagule dissemination of threatened plants. Hmm, it seems like there might be a dissertation or at least thesis imbeded in here somewhere!

Success! Praful & Bishav's plant acquisitions...