The laburnum in Hoskote

The laburnum ( Cassia Fistula) in Hoskote
 

The Laburnum near the gate of Bella Vista.

As kids I absolutely loved Grandpa Micks Laburnum in the Baroda garden. What a tree that was right at the front gate of his garden and adjacent to the front balcony that we hung out in. I remember Mum telling me to read My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier. What a book and that's where the toxic seeds of this glorious laburnum makes for interesting reading. Mum loved Du Maurier and Georgette Heyer romances and I was named after a heroine in one of Georgette Heyer's books -- "The Quiet Gentleman." Mum would always say the difference in your name is it is not  spelled the usual British way --Marion, or Marian, but the French way -- Marianne.

The tree that's growing just within the gate and behind the beautiful chapdi walls. It seems to be growing all over the land and outside, self seeding itself. No matter how many times I try to dig out a young plant to take to fellow gardeners longing for the tree, it just dies on me. The tree is blooming all over the village and I see kids picking the flowers and not knowing the danger of its poison.

Toxicity: All parts of the Laburnum tree, especially the seeds, are poisonous.

Symptoms of Poisoning: Ingestion can lead to severe symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, sweating, and in extreme cases, respiratory distress.

Precaution: It is advisable to wear gloves when handling the seeds or pods and to ensure they are stored out of reach of children and animals.

  

I do not  want to touch or collect the seeds, but it seems thats the only way forward.

Avocados in Hoskote

 

Trees are loaded and need heavy watering now

Ten years ago I wanted to plant some avocado saplings which I had germinated in the apartment balcony. I was rudely told by an ignorant sibling that NO, you cannot plant it as we can buy them from the market. Unable to beat down such ignorance I took the  four saplings to Hoskote and planted them there. The years passed and I thought these guys need to fruit now. Its already 10 years since I grew and nurtured them. Maybe they heard my grumbling cause the next thing I knew was the four trees got loaded with flowers! 

 Heavy flowering of the trees!

I had just had the joy of seeing the lichie fruit and eat them till I got sick of lichies and now the avocado decided to stir itself and flower! So I loaded the pictures on my Goa gardening group which has many, many professional gardeners and farmers on it. I was worried that the flowers may not get pollinated. Fogging has killed all the bee pollinators so trees flower but without pollination, fruit cant appear. I need not have worried! Because there were four trees, fairly close to each other they cross pollinated with the bees, as Hoskote is far from dirty foggers and hundreds of baby avocados appeared, to my great excitement.

Trees not very huge.

I was concerned because I remembered grandpas trees in the compound and Dads purple avocado along the side of the house. They were HUGE and tall and we had to get labour to climb them to remove the fruit. Anyway there are three trees which are fairly huge and tall but this one guy is just above my height. The cuteness of the baby avocados filled me with joy and I told the caretaker to load them with compost.

The twins which made a cute picture!

We go every week to look after them and tell the caretaker what to do the rest of the week on the phone. For us we hope and pray there is no huge storm to drop them in the high winds that beat us a few weeks ago. Yes we lost some fruit, more mangoes than avocados. But with the crazy price of avocados going at Rs 60 a fruit, I plan to be very careful of our crop and hope that we get at least a few growing to maturity.