Whether it is to mark a celebration, lure in your loved ones, honour a celebrity at a function, or simply visit a sick friend, bouquets can be a source of great happiness for the recipient. Bouquets are made colourful, appealing and aesthetic by using different types of flowers.

Although roses always attain a central and visibly important position in bouquets, most bouquets appear incomplete without the presence of some sleek, fragrant white flowers. These flowers, commonly known as tuberoses, add to the aesthetic appeal of the bouquet by acting as a filler and providing a decent highlighting background for the roses, while also adding their sweet fragrance to the overall floral collection.

The knowledge of osmosis from roots to the stems, leaves and flowers is used for their own benefit and visual appeal by those selling these floral bouquet arrangements to their customers. A drop of red, blue, green, orange or any colour of choice is placed in the water in which these white tuberose stems are kept. The stems imbibe the same water and, within no time, the flowers begin to show the lighter shade of the ink on their petals. This provides the sellers with even more colour options to come up with.

New floral arrangements, with many different flowers placed alongside the newly developed shade of the tuberose, can be prepared with this minor innovation. Thus, the tuberose belongs to the cut-flowers category, which are used to prepare garlands, bouquets and other floral arrangements.

Tuberoses thrive in warmer regions and are a fairly easy plant to grow and attend to

These tuberoses continue to live longer than the other flowers and are usually decorated by the recipients in different vases. The tuberose flower is very easy to grow. It is usually recommended to grow it in portable pots so that these fragrant flowers can be shifted from one room to another as per your liking or as per the occasion.

Tuberoses are also edible and often consumed in a few cuisines. The oil of the tuberose is useful in aromatherapy and coming up with sweet scents and fragrances. They thrive in warmer regions and are seasonal plants. Ideally, the bulbs are sown during the spring season. In most cities in Pakistan, the months of March and April would be ideal for this.

The small, ginger-like bulbs of the tuberose are planted into the soil so that the root portion is facing downwards and the upper portion, from where the shoot will sprout, is just over the soil surface. The bulbs are planted half-an-inch into the soil, with a gap of at least three to four inches between the bulbs. The container should be a 12-inch-sized pot or a raised bed or open ground.

The bulbs can be small, medium or large. Depending upon their sizes, the gap between the bulbs being planted can be reduced or increased accordingly. While choosing the location to plant tuberose bulbs, exposure to direct sunlight should be ensured for healthier growth. It is better if the plant receives maximum sunlight from morning till evening, since it is a sunlight-loving plant. The soil medium should be well-drained. The bulbs and plants may rot and die off if there is waterlogging in the soil. Watering has to be done daily.

With all these factors taken care of, the plant is likely to blossom with flowers within three to four months of planting the bulb. The plant should be supplied fortnightly with an equally balanced fertiliser of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK). The nitrogen helps to improve foliage growth, the phosphorus helps to produce better quality bulbs for the next harvest and also nourishes the current ones, and the potassium helps to improve flower size and growth.

Once the plant wilts and dries off after living its life, the bulbs are left behind. These bulbs of the tuberose are harvested for the next season. These are to be kept in a cool, dry place with enough shade. The inexpensive way is to keep these in a box filled and covered with dried soil. The bulbs can also be left behind and planted in their original pot, if they are not being watered throughout the year. These left-over bulbs are then watered once the next season approaches, ready to blossom once more.

Please send your queries and emails to doctree101@hotmail.com. The writer is a physician and a host for the YouTube channel ‘DocTree Gardening’ promoting organic kitchen gardening

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 13th, 2023