I planted bitter gourd (karela) and bottle gourds this year in my vegetable garden. The vines are creeping in all directions and bearing lovely flowers.
Bitter gourd and Bottle gourd
Bottle gourd creeping everywhere
I am getting a very nice produce from the bitter gourd plant starting with small pretty yellow flowers and converting into pretty spiky karelas. One of my colleague at work even described it as "kind a like dinosaur" due to its spike.
Spiky Karela - Bitter gourd
But all the baby fruits on the bottlegourd plant appeared to be rotting or dying on the vine or falling off the plant before developing into a fully grown fruit. I did a lot of search on Google and found out why the baby fruits were dropping off. The reason for this disaster was inadequate pollination. The bottle gourd plants produce both male and female flowers and are not self pollinating. They need help from pollinators to carry pollen ...
Wow....these are so lovely!
ReplyDeleteDid you make them Poonam?
@Neha: Yes I did make the "Ganesh murti". I have been making them since last 2 years for the Ganesh festival.
ReplyDeleteWoww....that's so amazing! It's so gorgeous....all the detailing. Will you be painting it too? Would love to see how it turns out...
ReplyDeleteDo you make other things with clay? do share.
@Neha: Thanks a lot! I will be coloring it after it dries and will upload the pics!
ReplyDeleteHey Poonam , that's really nice work...Even I would love to see the finished look ...Can you tell me which clay you use, and where is it available?
ReplyDelete@Sharkara: Thanks. I have used a terracotta clay which i got from my pottery class. But you can also find the same in hobby stores like Michael's /Hobby Lobby / Pat Catan's.
ReplyDeleteYeahh..!! Ganpati bappa is here....and so so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteKudos poonam!....khoob sundar...
@Dida: Thank Dipali. Kashi ahes? Come over sometime..
ReplyDelete