Passionate about plants

Adding color and charm to gift-giving on festive occasions is the Gift-a-Plant scheme from Bandra’s Green Grower. "Plants are a much better option than bouquets since they last for years. They not only add color to the room, but also reduce stress and create positive energy,” states Mahrukh Khajotia who has been associated with Green Grower from its inception four years ago.

A variety of flowering and foliage plants such as poinset­tias, chrysanthemums, syngoniums, etc are available, attractively gift wrapped in a presentation box with ribbons and bows, from a price range of Rs 200 onwards. Accompanying the gift are ‘basic care’ instructions to ensure the gift remains healthy and bloom­ing.

Besides Gift-a-Plant, Green Grower has a host of choices for corporate or personal gifts. The Garden Basket has an assortment of flowering plants flourishing in a cane basket, Miniature Landscapes has an assortment of verdure artistically arranged amidst pebbles and other embellishments in a flat container, Plant Solitaire has plants like orchids, while a selection of bonsai provide the exotic touch. Prices range from around Rs 550 onwards to Rs 1,500 for the rarer bonsai. Green Grower’s own nursery at Karjat known as Dev Dutt Farms has over 1,000 varie­ties of frond, shoot, floweret, sepal, tendril, flourishing over 25 acres.

Green Grower: artistic gift-giving

Passionate about plants, Khajotia focuses her energies on marketing and striving to make people aware of the satisfaction derived from botanical pursuits and the greening of the environ­ment in homes and offices. "We have a Rent-a-Plant scheme too, where our technical staff first visits a prospective client’s premises to assess the prevailing conditions — the air and light, air conditioning, etc. After the plants are in place, our mali (gardener) attends on a regular basis to tend the flora. Supervisors pay a visit if required. The plants are rotated after some time, with new ones being brought in and older ones removed so that the client is not stuck with the same greens for months on end,” explains Khajotia. Undertaking landscaping and supplying of plants on a wholesale or retail basis, Green Grower’s roster of clients include the American and Australian consulates, companies like Reliance Industries, Wockhardt Life Sciences Limited, The Leela, the Hiranan­dani group of companies, K. Raheja Developers and others whose environmental consciousness has seen many an apartment and concrete block cocooned within colorful garden areas.

Khajotia also executes orders for floral decoration — be it a Parsi navjote or a Hindu wedding or birthday or anniversary, at varying locations, outdoors, in hotels, clubs, gymkhanas, etc. She can be contacted on telephone numbers 6415985, 6427094 or on e-mail ggrower@vsnl.net

Green Grower was the dream of N. S. Rao, the founder of Pest Control (India) Private Limited, states their website www.green­growerindia.com. Green Grower is a member of the Indian Nursery­men’s Association, The National Society of the Friends of the Trees as well as the Rose Society of Bombay. "Mine is no routine, boring nine-to-five job,” says Khajotia who is a graduate in commerce from Narsee Monjee College. "Each day presents a new and interesting challenge. I am completely happy and couldn’t think of doing anything else.”