Balakrishnan E has been passionate about plants since his childhood. However, designing a garden of his own was not a ‘bed of roses’. Still, he persevered, and now, the 67-year-old has two gardens totalling 2,500sqft — one on the terrace of his house and the other on that of his printing press — where he has a collection of over 3,000 cacti.
He nurtures more than 500 species of the plant on his rooftop gardens. Cacti of different shapes, sizes and colours, including red, yellow and orange adorn the space. “Gardening was always a hobby. I found solace in seeing plants grow, or a favourite one reviving after a long wait. Though the hobby prevailed, it was only a few years ago that I could find time and create a garden on a large scale,” says the Kozhikode native.
Balakrishnan’s tryst with gardening started with a bunch of roses. To his dismay, the efforts proved futile as the climate of his hometown didn’t let the buds grow. Undeterred, he switched to hibiscus only to see them wither as that variety only thrived in cold weather. The sexagenerian then went ahead with other ornamental plants like aglaonema, Zanzibar gem plants and orchids.
Balakrishnan found his love for cacti quite unexpectedly six years ago. Testing with a few ordinary ones initially, he soon created a jungle with the spiny plants. Luckily Kerala’s hot climate made the plants grow quickly. Without further ado, Balakrishnan began sourcing exotic varieties from Indonesia, Brazil, Poland, China, and Japan.
“When I started seeing their growth, I began sourcing different species. Cacti are beautiful. Though they are irregular in structure, they are attractive and can thrive in any space. When I started collecting cacti, there weren’t many species available in India. Not many were aware in Kerala also. Now the demand has increased and some of the foreign varieties I sourced earlier are available here as well,” says Balakrishnan. The majority of his foreign collections is Euphorbia cactus — Euphorbia Confinalice from Rhodesia, Euphorbia Septula from China and Poland’s Euphorbia Verigated. Irrespective of the variety, the care and treatment given to each are same. These thorny plants require 50 per cent sunlight. To prevent overexposure to sunlight and keep them safe from rain, Balakrishnan has set up a UV sheet covering on the terrace of the two buildings.
Though Balakrishnan claims cactus to be a low maintenance plant, it should be dealt with care. He has planted all of them on a mixture of river sand, which prevents water retention, and cocopeat and cow dung, which promotes growth.
“The plant has to be watered only twice a week. During rainy season it shouldn’t come in contact with any moisture as it would form fungal infection,” he says. He spays fertiliser 19-19-19 every month and fungicide every 15 days. Rather than implanting the seed, Balakrishnan propagates cacti through grafting. It has been a routine now for him to check on his spiny friends. His day starts with examining the species. So far he has been selling the excess of his production through social media platforms.
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