Andra Pradesh > East Godavari > Kadiapulanka
Kadiapulanka, abutting the National Highway-5 and 20 Km from Rajahmundry is the hub of nurseries of myriad varieties of flowers and fruits. It is only since four years that flower festivals are being organised thanks to the then District Collector, Satish Chandra, who took keen interest in the development of nurseries in these parts.
But in January 2003, the all India Nurserymen's Conference is organised at Kadiapulanka and it has become a mega event, with people in tens of thousands visiting the flower festival daily. Kadiam nurseries are spread over a radius of about 10 Km comprising the villages of Kadiam, Kadiapulanka, Burrilanka, Veeravaram, Pottilanka, Venkatayammapeta and Damireddipalli. The nurseries in Kadiam are as old as 100 years and at present there are more than 600 nurseries, the extent of each ranging from just 0.5 cents to 200 acres.
In India, there are about 20,000 nurseries employing 60,000 people. But in Kadiam nurseries alone, more than 25,000 people are engaged in the 600-odd nurseries. It was some 80 years back that one Ravi Chinna Rao started grafting of fruit plants and flowers as a hobby, but production on commercial lines was initiated by one Akula Subbarao, a name that is inexorably linked with the development of nurseries in these parts. KADIAPULANKA (EAST GODAVARI): `Brahmakamalam,' popularly known in the west as `Fragrant Queen of the Night' or `Golden Heart' grows only in `Manasa Sarovaram' of Himalayas. The same flower, which was bought from Himalayas, few years ago has blossomed in this village, known for floriculture.
The specialty of this flower is that, it blossoms only in two seasons -- winter and spring -- and that too just 48 hours before `Sravana Pournami' (full moon day in Sravana Masam) in winter and another full moon day in between December and January. One more interesting thing is that, Brahmakamalam starts blossoming after midnight and its fragrance spreads some half a kilometre. After 3 a.m., no camera lens can pick up a photo of this exotic flower.
Brahmakamalam - the word we might have heard in mythological books (or in Puranas) is the rarest flower specie in India. Botanical name of this flower is `Epiphyllous Chrysocardium' and the owner of a nursery brought this spice from Himalayas about a decade ago, but never saw a flower in 10-15 plants bought from Himalayas, all these years. After going through the books and getting information from florists in Kashmir, the staff of the nursery kept a vigil on the 15 plants from Tuesday midnight and noticed the blossoming of the rarest flower.
| 
