Marigold torans for Dasara and Diwali
How to choose, hang and keep fresh marigold torans for doors and balconies in the festival weeks.
Five in the morning at Gultekdi flower market
What we buy at dawn, how we judge a bunch of roses, and why we never stock up for the week.
Rutuja leaves the studio at 4.45 am, and by five the flower section of the Gultekdi market yard is already loud. Tempos from Purandar, Saswad and Maval unload marigold in sacks, roses in bundles of twenty and mogra in wet cloth bundles. The best stock goes in the first hour.
She starts with the order list from the night before, then adds a little for the studio counter. Roses are judged by the head: it should be firm when squeezed gently, with the outer guard petals still in place. Soft heads or blackened petal edges mean the bunch has been sitting. Lilies should have closed buds with only one just showing colour, so they open in the customer’s home rather than in our cold room.
Prices change every morning. In wedding season a bunch of twenty red roses can go from ₹180 to ₹400 in a week, and marigold doubles before Dasara. We price our bouquets for the month, so on expensive days we earn less, and on cheap days we earn a little more.
By 6.30 the flowers are in buckets in the tempo, and by 7.15 they are back in Koregaon Park, stems cut under water and standing in the cool room. Nothing is bought for later in the week. That single rule is why our roses last five to seven days rather than two.
