​I inherited a love of plants from my mother. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area with its mild climate has opened up a lot of opportunities. I tend to enjoy growing more unusual or exotic plants. My wife is an Indian national and introduced me to the curry leaf plant. I originally received a plant from her cousin who resides in Orange County. Through that same cousin we got an Indian jasmine plant. The various other plants I have assembled from online sources, either via seeds or cuttings.
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Over the years I have grown a couple of curry leaf plants, but last winter I decided I would try to grow a lot of them. I grew ~80 plants. I also attempted to propagate the Indian jasmine. Of the curry leaf's that I planted, almost every one survived. Of the jasmines I tried to grow, only 2 survived (at first I thought none of them survived so I was very happy with 2:) ) I had so many plants that I had to go online and buy proper pots to put them all in.
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I figured out what I did to get the 2 jasmines growing so I tried starting a bunch more and had ~100% success. So now I am confident I can mass produce curry leaf and jasmines. Tulsi was something I knew I could grow relatively easily. We took a family vacation in June and I did not know if the plants would survive my absence, so I decided I had to try to give them to people. I sent a mail out to some coworkers and word spread and the plants went quickly. One thing I realized in giving these plants out was that my coworkers were really thankful and excited to get these plants. The cultural, religious, and culinary importance of these plants is very great, so I decided to go crazy and grow a couple 100 of *each* of these plants. But what to do with money raised from this endeavor? My wife suggested I donate the money to charity. I thought that was a great idea, so I will be giving 100% of the money raised to Udavum Karangal (Helping Hands). This way hopefully everyone wins: people get these important plants, some needy people get some money, and I get to grow plants and bring people a nice memory from their homeland.
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In India my mother-in-law also uses the parijat in pooja, so I have decided to add that plant as well to the plants I will be growing. I don't have much experience growing this plant so I am not sure how successful I will be. I have one plant now. I have limited growing space (basically a hijacked corner of the garage), so that is where I need some input. If you could kindly drop me a note with what plants you are interested in it will help me to plan how many of each plant to grow.
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I almost forgot that I will growing drumstick plants too. I plan on growing the firecracker plant as well, but I am not sure how much interest there is in that. This is the orange flower that they use to make those hair decorations sold on the street in India.​
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I am going to grow some non-Indian plants as well. Most notably, coffee plants. I am mostly growing one to replace a large plant I lost in a frost a few years back, but while I am at it I will grow a bunch more in case anyone wants them.
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You might be wondering how much I will be asking for these plants. My current plan is to offer them at 'reasonable' prices(some people might say they are too reasonable:) ). For curry leaf, I will most likely be asking somewhere ~$5, jasmine and parijat will be ~10, tulsi ~3, and drumstick ~5. These numbers are not set in stone. I am not trying to soak people, but at the same time I want to raise some money and also if they are too cheap then people might buy them just for the heck of it. I want people to take care of them and enjoy them. I would rather give a plant to someone at $5 who will enjoy and appreciate it than to someone at $10 who will neglect it and kill it. When you collect the plants, if you feel that you got a 'good' deal, you can always feel free to give a little more-- all the money will be going to charity anyway. ​​
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In the future I am looking for additional plants that people might be interested in. I don't think I will ever make 100s of a single variety like I will with curry leaf, but I would be interested in trying to propagate some of the plants I currently have as well as getting seeds to start others. I listed below some ideas I have. Feel free to let me know if you have any ideas. I also might grow some vegetable plants, but only if I know of interest beforehand.
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Quality is most important to me. Personally I would be very disappointed if I found a plant I wanted, only to have it die after I take it home. So I will only be selling plants that I deem to be healthy and hardy enough to withstand any slight mistreatment they might encounter initially.
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Whatever I grow will be distributed over the course of a few days (hopefully) in late spring. I will offer everything I have and hopefully will be able to find homes for the plants during those days. I want to minimize the time spent in distribution as it will be easier on me and on you since you won't have to come multiple times to pick one plant and then the next. I will limit quantities. I think some of these prices might be exceptionally low and I don't want someone coming and trying to buy them all for resale. I also would like to spread the plants around as much as possible so everyone who wants one can get one.
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I apologize in advance for the quality of this website. I am trying to minimize the overhead of this operation so this is what you get:) Here is my proposed menu...
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​Indian plants for Spring
Curry Leaf / Murraya Koenigii
Tulsi / Ocimum Sanctum (red & green variety)
​Parijat / Nyctanthes Arbor-Tristis​
​Firecracker Plant / Crossandra infundibuliformis
Sun-A-Jaji / Jasminum tortuosum
Non-Indian plants for spring
​Coffee Plant
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Plants considering to grow (in somewhat order of likelihood)
Chamelli / Jasminum Nitidum
Kamini / Murraya Paniculata
Madagascar Jasmine / Stephanotis Floribunda
Tea / Camellia Sinsensis
​White asian Guava / Psidium guajava
Ylang Ylang / Cananga Odorata
Sampige / Michelia Champaca ​​
​Screw Pin Tree / Pandan leaf / Pandanus odoratissimus
Jujube
Bananas (yes bananas)
