A garden that's always blooming

Najma Majeed is the quiet type, one who converses in very few words and more smiles, but not until she enters her world — her beautiful garden, Nandanam. Among her dearest plants, bonsais, flowers and terrariums, she is another person. At 58, Najma is very energetic, always busy in her nursery and backyard, tending to her rare fauna, excited about the new blooms, experimenting on bonsais and grafted plants or otherwise, working on her terrariums.

Her lovely home in Kochi sports a vertical garden, custom-made garden décor, a huge shelf at the entrance showcasing her terrarium collection, a vegetable garden in the backyard and a nursery — everything single-handedly managed by this lively lady. No wonder she received the State government’s Udyana Sreshta award in 2014.

“It’s not a hobby for me; it’s more than that,” says Najma, who spends most of her time amid the plants, taking care of those and experimenting on grafting and budding techniques. She has a display garden, one she wouldn’t let anyone touch, full of bonsais — of mangoes, strawberry guava, gooseberries, Bangkok rose apples and so on; some of those as old as 40 years and still bearing fruit. Then there are various plants also. She explains the  specialties of all the species with its botanical names.