If a piece of land with blooming flowers and plants is a feast for all eyes, a village fully blanketed with greenery and flowers will sure be a wonder for all.
Pallivetta village in Aryanadu, 30 km from here, has 42 nurseries as per panchayat records, six of them major nurseries with the poly house facility. Among them, many are specialised in indoor plants- the foliage plants, orchids, anthurium etc.
Most of the land in Pallivetta has been converted into gardens growing various flowers and plants. Pallivetta is now exporting plants to Bangalore, Hyderabad, Rajahmundry, Pune, Thane, Delhi and other cities across the country. One an average, three-four loads of plants valued at total `3-10 lakh are exported from the village.
The story of this village started with Jamal Hameed, a man who took the initiative to strike gold with plants and flowers.
“I have more than 40 years’ experience in gardening. I was working at a garden in Vithura. Then I started a nursery on a 22-cent piece of land here with the help of my three brothers. We had taken a loan of `50,000. There were seven employees who later went on to start their own nurseries. Now my brothers are running our first nursery and I have another one,” said Hameed.
The price of the plants in the nurseries at the village ranges between `6 and a whopping `10,000. Most of these nurseries use coco peat, cow dung and other manure as fertilisers. Pallivetta is famous for the rare collections of Dracaena (succulent shrubs), red plants and a variety of Ixora (thetti) plants. “Pallivetta has more than 100 acres of land and half of it has been made gardens.