What began as a hobby has become a small business for Altaf Hossain, who keeps about 120 varieties of cactus and succulent in his village alongside his job. The garden now brings him an extra Tk 15,000 to 20,000 a month on average.
He started collecting after seeing others' ventures online. A sale post on social media brought an order worth Tk 3,700, and that sparked his interest in selling. His garden now holds cacti worth Tk 200,000 to 300,000.
Spiny succulent plants are cacti; smooth, spineless ones are sold as succulents, and the latter are in greater demand. His plants sell from Tk 150 up to Tk 800 for rare imported succulents. He also arranges five varieties in a small pot as a mixed table piece and builds terrariums, miniature landscapes in glass jars.
For seedlings he mixes ordinary loam with sand, using less sand and more soil for plants of the Stapelia group. Cacti suffer little disease, but he sprays a fungicide regularly against fungus and a balanced feed of nitrogen, potassium and copper every 15 days.
His nursery has double-petalled kalanchoe in seven colours brought from India and Thailand, rather like roses, and a "peacock tail" cactus of the night-queen family.
Using shaded spots, he has also begun growing orchids: oncidium, known as dancing doll, sells for about Tk 1,200, and dendrobium and vanda for Tk 300 to 500. He plans to collect and propagate 100 to 200 species of rare medicinal plants that are disappearing from the country.
Photo: Lionel Allorge / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Dinajpur TV
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