Saumik Das (52) says his first encounter with bonsai plants was sometime in the early 90s, at a horticulture festival in Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium. “It was something straight out of a movie, like a magic wand had shrunk the trees,” he recalls. “Being the curious 12th grader that I was, I couldn’t help but touch them. An elderly gardener reprimanded me, pointing out how expensive the plants are. When I got back home, I couldn’t stop wondering how one even went about planting them.”
Decades of deliberation later, the proprietor of a Vaishali-based barcode manufacturing firm now also runs a thriving small business of bonsai and penjing plants, tending to over a thousand of them at Grow Green Bonsai, his nursery in Noida.
“I began growing bonsai plants purely out of my love for them. It’s living art in its truest form: if you take good care of them, they’ll survive up to 400 years and you can pass them on to future generations. At some point, I had 200 of them on the rooftop garden of my previous residence. This helped me prove the genuinity of my interest to the Indian Bonsai Association, which took me on board as a member around 2010,” Saumik tells The Better India.
“Eventually, I was introduced to a network of horticulturists in NCR and other metro cities and began showcasing my creations at horticultural festivals across the country. My friends and family pointed out that this was a rarity, and encouraged me to venture into business in late 2018. By next year, Grow Green Bonsai was operational. We grow and sell succulents, cactus, and other exotic plants as well, but for me, their purpose is only to popularize bonsai among plant enthusiasts who may not be familiar with the incredible art,” he adds.
The bonsai nursery provides doorstep deliveries to homes across NCR and encourages corporate employees to use the plants as home decor presents for their loved ones. “A good bouquet costs around Rs 1,500, so why not give people a sustainable symbol of good luck instead?” asks Saumik.
Read the complete article at www.thebetterindia.com.
