Oranges streaks on a green canvas!

Wherever the land is not cropped, an orange blaze is seen.

Each season brings a new colour or fragrance to our campus.  Over the past month, banks of tall orange wild flowers have grown in a number of places. One kind is a bright orange bloom at the end of tall stalks, all of which may be seen looking up to the sun in admiration.

A field full of Cosmos.

This is the common garden flower, the Cosmos sulphureus, which has escaped the clutches of formal gardens and established itself in many places around Pune district.

Cosmos! A beautiful bloom indeed!

Last year, banks of Cosmos could be seen edging the cricket field adjoining the OI,  near the D Flats, behind F Combat, en route to the Lake Park and on many other grassy verges around CME. This year they are resplendent off the main driveway from the gate to HQ building and along the road from Bopkhel to the Subway.

The other kind of orange flower which is blooming in the wild after escaping from captivity, is the Tithonia rotundifolia, which is a darker orange and more conventional in looks.

Tithonia, a darker and different flower highlighting CME.

It can be seen near the Lake Park, on the road to the Engineer Regiment or on the Bopkhel-Subway road.

They add such a blaze of colour which reminds of the summer and monsoon are almost gone and spring is around the corner.

Let us take a lesson from nature’s swathes of orange against the earthy canvas.  Our gardens are a part of nature around us. We can keep out the wild weeds which enter the gardens from outside, but you cannot stop nature completely.  She can and will move plants across the garden fence into the wild yonder.

Tethonias frame a few weaver bird nests! This year the weavers are busy, busy, busy!