Bought the imported bulbs from a nursery and lined the pot with cowdung manure, sand, light soil and plenty of Agnihotra ash. In a few weeks, the flowers are here.
The baby cuckoos are artists in the art of cajoling their step parents! At midday I hear them at their loudest. Two young cuckoos in a crow nest in a thicket across my home make sure they harass the crows enough to get a good supply of food through the day. I set out boiled rice for them in a bowl, and it is enticing to watch them sit near the rice, and vociferously call out to their crow-parents to come and feed them.
A single plant can give you hundreds of new plants in the next season if the seeds are preserved in a dry, airtight container. And there’s no saying where the new plants will pop up from previous year’s seeds scattered by the plant itself.
Sunflowers, Mexican sunflowers, portulaca and cochea saplings are now to be planted to replace the fading winter seasonals. Portulaca is particularly great as the succulent leaves preserve moisture despite the strong sun.