A mango tree in a small 18-inch pot, ripe mangoes hanging from it. You might well be taken aback. Can such lovely ripe mangoes grow on such a small tree in so little space? You had no idea. Now that you know, you want one. It is a BARI-4 mango tree that can be grown in a pot or drum on a roof. The mangoes look beautiful and taste sweet. After getting all the details from the seller, you cannot wait and buy a sapling, as if this were the very tree you had been looking for. This is the tree fair.

The tree fair at Agargaon in the capital is full of plants: fruit, timber, flowers, whatever you want. On paper there are 131 stalls, set up by seven government and 90 privately owned organisations. This year the fair has a breastfeeding corner and a rest area for the elderly. Just inside the entrance are the Forest Department's control room and information centre.

The stalls are not like those at other fairs. They are much larger, spread over a wide area and neatly arranged, rather like a nursery, with plants laid out in order with their names. Point to the plant you like and the nursery staff will bring it out to show you. Nursery owners have come from all over the country, so there are many species and you can bargain over prices. Plant prices are a little higher this year, though, says school teacher Jamal, who comes to the tree fair every year and has a small rooftop garden.

People of all ages come to the fair. Some buy fruit saplings, some flowers; others like indoor plants. There are not as many buyers as visitors, says Nur Hossain, the owner of one stall, though he hoped sales would turn out well in the end.

Alongside fruit, timber and medicinal trees, countless flowering plants are one of the fair's main attractions: roses of many kinds, hibiscus, beli, togor, periwinkle, madhumalati, kamini, aromatic jasmine, bougainvillea, allamanda, frangipani, rain lily, crown of thorns, rangan nandini and more, too many to name. There are white, orange, purple and yellow roses, gerberas blooming happily in poly bags, and red, pink and brown hibiscus.

For orchid lovers, the fair has nearly 100 varieties, sold at many stalls. Thorny cacti are also much in evidence. Prices run from Tk 500 to Tk 50,000. One seller said varieties such as Dendrobium Sonia, Dendrobium Sakho Pink, Dendrobium Sakura Pink, Dendrobium White and Red Ball are selling well.

Interest in indoor plants keeps growing. At many stalls, indoor plants of countless varieties and ages may well win you over. Money plants, various crotons, lucky bamboo, inch plants and others can be bought already set in pots; just take them home and hang them in place. Buying a plant is not the end of it: it needs fertiliser and pesticide. There is no need to worry, though. All the country's big fertiliser and pesticide companies have stalls, where you can buy what you need a little cheaper and get the necessary advice free.

You will find almost every local fruit tree at the fair: mango, jackfruit, lychee, star fruit, karamcha, olive, amra, sharifa, pomegranate, jamrul, sapodilla, banana and custard apple. These are grafted from branches of mature trees, which has an extra advantage, says nursery owner Abbas. Grafted trees fruit quickly, which trees grown from seed will not, he says, showing a two-foot mango tree that already has tiny mangoes on it. Fruit tree prices vary by variety and age, from a minimum of Tk 100. It must be said that prices are comparatively lower at the sales centres of government organisations.

With little care, a rooftop can yield plenty of mangoes, and with seven or eight varieties you can eat mangoes almost all year. The biggest draw, though, is the Surjodim and Brunei King mango trees; a Brunei King mango is said to weigh more than a kilogram. Kerala coconut saplings are available at Tk 800, and betel nut trees at Tk 120 each.

The range of medicinal plants at the fair is truly eye-catching. There are said to be 129 species, notable among them akanda, phonimonsa, neem, arjun, basak, haritaki, amlaki, bahera, black tulsi, kasundi, lajjaboti and shatamuli. Spice plants include chilli, cinnamon, ginger, mint, cardamom, culantro and much more.

According to the information centre, an average of about 40,000 plants were sold each day, though the real number is likely to be higher. The fair began on 5 June and ran until 26 June. It was closed for a few days for Eid, reopened on 1 July, and ends on 12 July. It is worth a visit with the family. Nowhere but the tree fair can you see so many plants in one place. Plants can be taken home by rickshaw, van or CNG auto-rickshaw, and if you buy a large number, the nursery owner will arrange a pickup; you just pay the cost.

Written by Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman, a tree lover and private-sector official.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.