In Rampura, Dhaka, a hobby rooftop garden has become a business. Yasmin Khan sells succulents, cacti and other ornamental plants through a Facebook page called Rangguli, and by her account sales now come to about Tk 2 lakh a month. Rangguli means a riot of colour, she told Prothom Alo.
Yasmin and her husband, K M Moinuddin, built up a plant collection on the roof of their own building during the Covid-19 pandemic. Short of space, and with the roof shared with other residents, they rented the roof of a neighbouring building for Tk 5,000 a month. Propagation, care, photographs and videos for online sales, and packing all happen there, with two workers to help.
The core of the business is cuttings. Stems cut into short pieces and potted grow into new plants, and some succulents sprout from a single leaf. Yasmin says a well-made cutting can be ready for sale in two to three months, so the collection grows without buying new stock. A hanging-pot Ruby Necklace sells for Tk 900 to 1,000 with the pot, depending on size.
The collection holds about 300 varieties of succulent alone, among them Purple Delight, Murasaki, Hakuho, crassula, mountain rose, aeonium and jade plant. Small succulents sell for Tk 100, while large and rare ones fetch Tk 20,000 to 30,000. Cacti start at Tk 150, and some sell for Tk 5,000 to 8,500.
Sales are mostly online. Inside Dhaka, same-day parcel services often deliver within hours or a day; outside the capital, Chattogram and Sylhet send the most orders. For distant districts, plants are taken out of their pots and packed in cartons. The couple also take a stall at a tree fair once or twice a year.
Yasmin's care advice: succulents and cacti store water in their leaves, so some varieties survive 10 to 15 days without watering. Instead of plain soil, the couple use a mix of sand, vermicompost, rice husk and brick chips. Rangguli shows how a city roof and little capital can turn plant propagation into an income. The report is by Yahya Nakib of Prothom Alo.
Photo: Ferocactus in a pot, Tangopaso / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Prothom Alo
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