Plant library
What can I grow now?
18 plants can be sown in February in Himalaya & the hills. Narrow it further by space, goal or region — or step through the months below.
Frost, snow and a short season. Sow six to eight weeks earlier than the plains, and only frost-hardy kinds.
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Bird CherryपइयांPrunus cornutaA Himalayan cherry with long fruit racemes that thrushes and bulbuls strip in weeks.Blue PineकैलPinus wallichianaLong soft needles in fives; the pine of the mid-Himalayan slopes.
Blue Vandaनील ऑर्किडVanda coeruleaThe blue vanda of Meghalaya — tessellated flowers, and protected in the wild.Chir Pineचीड़Pinus roxburghiiThe resin pine of the lower Himalaya, and the needle litter that makes those fires.
ChirataचिरायताSwertia chirayitaAn intensely bitter Himalayan herb of mid-altitude meadows, slow and particular.
Chow Chowइस्कुसSechium eduleThe squash that covers a whole roof in one season across the eastern hills.DendrobiumसंचारीDendrobium nobileCane orchid of the eastern hills, flowering along last year’s bare canes.DeodarदेवदारCedrus deodaraThe Himalayan cedar — a slow, magnificent, cold-climate conifer.Hill Gooseberryकिलमोड़ाBerberis asiaticaA thorny yellow-wooded Himalayan shrub with blue berries and traditional root use.Himalayan CherryपदमPrunus cerasoidesPink blossom in November, out of season by every other measure — the hill wild cherry.Indian Horse ChestnutपांगरAesculus indicaBig palmate leaves and white flower candles in the western Himalayan valleys.Indian ValerianतगरValeriana jatamansiA hill herb of stream banks with aromatic roots and heads of small white flowers.JatamansiजटामांसीNardostachys jatamansiThe spikenard of the high Himalaya, aromatic-rooted and strictly a mountain plant.KutkiकुटकीPicrorhiza kurroaA high-altitude Himalayan herb — only worth trying in the hills, and only from nursery stock.Lady’s Slipper Orchidलेडी स्लिपरPaphiopedilum insigneA pouched terrestrial orchid of the eastern Himalaya, cool-growing and slow.RhododendronबुरांशRhododendron arboreumBuransh — scarlet trusses across the mid-Himalaya in March.