Srinagar, Mar 18: Come spring
and they prepare to reap the rewards it brings for them.
The sapling and seedling sellers at the city centre here
call it the best season for their business.
“This is the best season for selling plants, seedlings,
and saplings and it starts from late February and lasts
till May,” said Muhammad Nisar, a vendor at Lal Chowk
here.
“Although the profit margin in our business is not
high, the high quantum of sale helps us to gain handsomely,”
he said, adding that every day hundreds of customers visited
him.
“The customer rush is amazing,” exclaimed Mushtaq
Ahmad, a vendor. “There is huge demand for different
varieties of saplings and plants we sell,” he said.
According to the vendors most of the items in demand are:
Rose, Tulip, Pansy (flower), Dog Flower, Phlox (sapling),
Juniper (plant), Evergreens, Cuprous plants, Fruit plants
like apple and peach.
“Plants and seedlings sown in the beds are sold the
most. Pot plants are not preferred this time,” said
Nisar.
The second best season for plants, as per the vendors, is
October-November, when people mostly buy flower bulbs, like
Anemone, etc.
Mohammad Saleem of Raj Bagh said he never missed visiting
a flower vendor in every season to plant them in his garden.
“I have a passion for flowers. I keep on changing
the variety of the flowers in my garden,” he said.
Another buyer Shaheen of Baghaat Barzullah said she would
not mind spending more this season to bring home her choicest
varieties.
The vendors said they remained busy for ten months in a
year. “We have no business in December and January,”
they said.
Many vendors said: “We sow the plants in the nursery,
besides buying some of the varieties from others.”
Apart from selling the plants on the footpaths, many of
the vendors also supply them to many parts in and outside
the state.
“We supply pot plants and bush plants to places like
Islamabad, Sopur, Varmul, Jammu, Ladhak, Bangalore, etc,”
said Mushtaq’s brother Imtiyaz Ahmad, a vendor.
“We usually sell the plants in wholesale,” he
added.
Imtiyaz and Mushtaq belong to a family that has been in
this business for decades together. But both are not happy
with their occupation. “We are not happy with selling
the plants on the footpath. We do have our nursery at Naupora,
but we cannot sell these items there,” they said.
They said the pedestrians face trouble while walking on
the footpath because of them. “The government should
help us out and provide us with some good space for carrying
out this business,” said Imtiyaz.
“This is an important business. The more you sow plants,
the better it is for your health and environment. Besides,
flowers add to the beauty and fragrance of the gardens,
hence this business should not have been restricted to the
footpaths,” he added.
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