At this Dubai market, a Dh1 flower-plant is the most popular item

These are the flowering plants we see on a regular basis during winters, mostly on the motorways in the UAE. They almost make it seem as though the city has embraced a colourful outfit. Interestingly, these plants are available for just Dh1 at Al Warsan Flower Market. Yes, a tiny pot which is as big as a teacup has various flowering plants on offer here.

Shoppers buy these plants in bulk to make their gardens appear colourful. There are more than a hundred types of varieties available based on their scientific properties and ornamental appeal.

If you are looking to décor your garden or balcony, you will be spoilt for choice at this oasis in the desert bordering Ras Al Khor-Al Awir Road and Emirates Road.

Types of flowering ornamental plants

Among hundreds of flowering plants available here, petunia is available in 10 colours, vina in six, portulaca in six and alternanthera in three.

There is also a robust variety in colours with flowering plants like ruellia available in pink, purple and white. Other plants available for Dh1 are celosia, gomphrena, dianthus, marigold, gazania, zinnia, setcresea and sesuvium.

Petunia comes with multi-coloured flowers with about 35 species of flowering plants in the nightshade family (solanaceae), native to South America. The common garden petunia is an ornamental plant whose showy trumpet-shaped flowers make it popular for summer flower beds and window boxes

These plants need adequate sunlight or they become spindly and don’t tend to flower well in shade. Petunia seeds are very small (almost dust-like), and need lots of light in order to germinate. When the young plant has three leaves, plant it outside because they are likely to grow best in sunlight and fertile soil that provides good drainage and is slightly acidic.

Like petunia, there are other varieties available in portulaca, a herb native to southwestern America and has weedy species of the desert at higher elevations. It is easily distinguished by the prominent margin on the fruit capsule.

A succulent, low-growing prostrate plant which is up to 15 cm high, its leaves are green, linear in shape and the ascending stems are fleshy, hairless and often reddish in colour. The red flowers are 2 cm across with rounded petals, yellow at their base. They are in bloom from spring to autumn.

White, yellow, light pink, rose, red, scarlet and apricot — cultivar is also available in a wide range of colours. It thrives in hot and dry conditions, and spreads rapidly to reach a breadth of 50 cm. Plants will reseed themselves in late spring; they are killed by the first heavy frost. A slow-release fertiliser in mid-summer or fertilising every two weeks is necessary.

The plant requires moderate watering to look good and will grow in either average or poor, well drained garden soil in full sunlight.

Spoilt for choice

Apart from flowers, the market has over hundreds of varieties of ornamental plants, herbs, fruits and vegetables on offer.

When it comes to fruits, you name it and the market has it. It is during the winters that seeds and plants of some fruits are grown in the UAE. One can find plants of pulpy fig, mango, jamun, banana, chikoo, grapes, custard apple, watermelon, orange and much more.

Horticulturist Harish Gowda of Sunscape Gardening says he has grown the aforementioned fruits at his nursery and adds that the fruits are tastier and evidently organic, and much easy to grow in the garden or even balcony.

What about watermelon plants? “Watermelon requires a relatively long growing season extending to 90 days from the time seeds are sown and it thrives in hot weather,” says Gowda, adding that many fruits take just 20 days to two months from seeding to flowering.

Gowda adds that vegetables too can be grown in the balcony. “We have got over 30 varieties of vegetables that grow perfectly in winters in the UAE.”

"The market offers plants and seeds of nearly every vegetable we consume in our daily diet. Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, chillies, tomatoes, brinjal, capsicum, lettuce, coriander, fenugreek, ladyfinger, mint, rosemary, spinach, pumpkin, drumstick, bittergourd, radish, potato, sweet potato, carrot and cucumber among others can be grown easily in the UAE," said Javed Ahmed working at a nursery in the market.

If you want to spice up your garden with veggies, fruits and herbs or simply want to give it a nice ornamental look, Al Warsan Flower Market is the place to head to.

ayaz@khaleejtimes.com

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