Fruits, vegetables and flowers at Onam Fair 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The premises around the green hillocks at Kanakakkunnu are brimming with diverse colours of flowers exhibited by Athmanilayam Nursery Gardens as the part of Onam Fair 2011. Around 3,000 plants are featured at the expo.  The exhibition also contains Malaysian fruit varieties such as mangostein, rambutan and filosan. “There is a huge demand for the Malaysian fruit plants and we have imported almost 300 saplings from Bangalore to meet the demand. The Malaysian fruit saplings cost Rs 700,” said R Jayakumar, owner of the Athmanilayam Nursery at Cheruvarakkonam, Parassala.   Other foreign fruit saplings like milk fruit, wood apple, custard apple, velvet apple, and egg fruit are also in demand. Not only the foreign fruit saplings but our indigenous plants like jackfruit, mango, guava, papaya and fig are also exhibited in the fair. ‘’Seventeen varieties of jackfruit saplings like ‘gumless jack’, ‘thamara varikka’, ‘koozha’, ‘varikka,’ ‘Malaysian’, Thailand’ and ‘Ceylon’ are exhibited by the nursery. Fourteen varieties of mango saplings, namely ‘nadan’, ‘neelan’, ‘ peru’, ‘Mexican’, ‘Brazilian’, ‘Alphonso’, ‘Ratnagiri’ and  ‘Devgadh’ are also exhibited. These days, people prefer indigenous fruit saplings to foreign saplings. Almost 350 mango and jackfruit saplings have been sold at this fair,’’ says K Raveendran, accountant in the Athmanilayam Nursery.   Winter season vegetables are also featured at the exhibition-cum-sale Onam Fair. The seeds and saplings of cabbage, beetroot, radish and cauliflower are also a huge attraction. “My father S J Rasalam started this nursery in 1962 and imported winter season vegetables from Ooty and high ranges in Idukki district.  The demand for these type of vegetables has not dipped since then,” says  R Jayakumar.  Eye-catching and fragrance-spreading roses have always been in high demand and more than 1,000 varieties of rose have been exhibited here. Four hundred varieties of anthuriums and 250 varieties of orchids are also moving like hot cakes at the fair.  The ornamental plants like bleeding hearts, 13 varieties of cypru, cacti, ficus and creepers are also on display.