Boom Time For Exotic Blooms

NALINI Kapadia is applauded as "the most creative wedding car decorator" in Mumbai. At almost all VIP weddings, she is commissioned to decorate vehicles in the most creative manner for the bridal couple. She also has contracts for pandal decoration, flower arrangements for corporates and celebratory bouquets and gift arrangements sent by clients to their customers during the festive season. "In the recent New Year season, I sent nearly 700 arrangements made in imported Chinese vases for a client," she says, "The recipients were famous people like Amitabh Bachchan, the Birlas, the Singhanias, and Sachin Tendulkar. I worked round the clock for four days and made the deliveries on time. I have been in the flower business for 22 years. But never have I experienced the kind of boom, which I saw in festive season of 2002.

"When I started, there were only phoolwalas in the flower markets of Mumbai, who sold traditional flowers like roses, tuberoses, chrysanthemums and marigolds. Floral decorators offered torans of marigolds, tuberoses, chrysanthemums and greenery. There were a just handful of shops selling bouquets and sheafs. But now, literally thousands of men and women have come into this business and reaped the benefits of the flower business boom."

The reasons for this blossom boom in Indian cities are many. Most important among these is that floriculture has become an exceedingly lucrative business. "Urban Indians have become increasingly westernised," says Nalini, "They send bouquets for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and other occasions. Sending flowers as seasonal or festive gifts has also become a common practice because of the growing awareness of fitness. No one today wants mithai or chocolates. Flowers and plants are preferred. And even among flowers, rare and exotic blooms are preferred because they express the taste and status of the sender. These flowers last a week or even a fortnight and are thus good value for money.

"Add to this fact that today India grows a huge variety of internationally popular flowers and you have a beautiful situation where flowers are used to send messages of love, celebration and festivities. The rise in the observance of new days dedicated to friends, mothers, fathers, teachers, Valentines, brothers and sisters too have added to the demand for flowers. In the bouquets sent on these occasions, anthuriums, carnations, gerberas, orchids, lilium, tiger lilies and even tulips are now in demand. With globalisation, western or Japanese-style arrangements made with European flowers are available in most shops. The skill of designing arrangements and bouquets has also attained world class and thus, affluent families, which want to create memorable gifts, prefer flowers to traditional gifts of silverware or sweets. Weddings have become the favourite theme of Indian life.

Most urban wedding planners now want European flower decorations for the bridal mandap as well as the entrance and the car. Roses, marigolds and other flowers have lost their place in the race. Traditional flowers are grown only for religious ceremonies and pujas.

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