HAPPENING -- 8:

DHANUSH’S  SAPLING NOW BEARS PEACH FRUITS

P S SUNDAR

This summer, there will be a celebrity addition to the flora at The Gateway Hotel in Coonoor in the form of a peach tree bearing tasty peach fruits.

Three years ago, film actor Dhanush was staying at this hotel along with Amitabh Bachchan and others to shoot the Hindi movie ‘Shamitabh’ where Kamal Hassan’s daughter Akshara Hassan did her debut lead role. 

That time, Dhanush brought his family and relatives also for prolonged stay at the hotel belonging to the Taj group.

“Coinciding with this, Dhanush obliged our request to plant a peach tree sapling in the middle lawn”, Gateway General Manager R Muralidharan told me. 

“And, in such a short span of three years, the tree has come to bearing stage with peach fruits now handing on some branches”, he recalled.

“Most peach trees in our campus had taken many years to bear fruits but this tree is short, just like an adolescent plant, but already fruits have come up.  They will reach ripening stage next month and in the peak summer month May, we foresee the tree with full of peach fruits”, an elated Muralidharan disclosed.

Horticulturists opine that if the sapling passes through chill winter, sometimes lasting over 600 chill hours, the peach tree may break its dormancy early and come to bearing in the summer that follows.   The Nilgiris had a severe winter with chillness prevailing even now in the nights.

The flora collections at Gateway are extraordinary – there is even ‘Kurinji’ (Strobilanthes kunthianus) which normally blossoms only in the wild over an interval spreading up to 12 years.

“We grow organically vegetables and fruits which are used in our kitchen and restaurants.  Our flowers and lawns have won prizes in Government competitions”, noted Housekeeping Manager Nagaraj.

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