गुल मेहंदी - Garden Balsam !

             It is a common flower of worship in Hindu religion. Flowers of different colors and shades bloom on it that looks very attractive. Devotees select flowers of a particular color to offer to gods who like that color. Common colors that this flower have are white, pink, purple and red in different shades. White flowers may be offered to God Shiva and Goddess Saraswati, red flowers to Goddesses Lakshmi, Durga, Kali or Gouri, pink and purple flowers to Krishna and other gods and goddesses.

White Garden Balsam

It is commonly known as "Gul-Mehandi" (गुल मेहंदी) in Hindi. Common English names are garden balsam, rose balsam, garden jewel-weed spotted snap-weed etc. The scientific name is "Impatiens Balsamina". In eastern Bihar and Jharkhand state of India, it is also known as "Chira-Mira" (चीरा -मीरा).

Balsam flower plants
in flower pot

          This flower is native to India and this sub-continent. In different languages, it has different names. The plant is a herb with a soft stem that grows to a height of 2 - 3 ft. In addition to its attractive flowers what makes it so popular is the ease with which it can be grown. It requires water and sunshine and easily grows from its radish-like seeds. Generally, the seeds are put into the soil in the rainy season. They grow fast and start flowering when getting a height of six inches.

Lovely 'Gul-Mehandi'
flower

 Some varieties of flowers have few petals and are small, so they are called "Ekhari" (single layered) in Hindi, while other varieties have lots of petals and called "Dohari" (double or multi-layered). If the flowers are not plucked, they are pollinated by insects and subsequently replaced by pods that have many seeds inside it. When the seeds inside are ready, the cover of the pods get stressed naturally and explode by curling itself, thus the dispersion of seeds take place. For storage of seeds for next season, the ripe pods should be plucked carefully because it can explode open by touching. 

Pink Balsam flower

The flowers and the plants of Garden Balsam have also some medicinal values. Traditionally the juice of leaves is used to treat warts and flowers are applied on burns. Koreans use it for constipation and gastritis. In Vietnam, people wash their hairs with the extract of its flowers to grow it longer.  

Flowers and buds
of balsam

          So plant these flowers in your garden in rainy season onward to have lots of "Puja flowers" for worship. You can even plant a few plants in flower pots in the balcony of flats in apartments. Its seeds are easily available in all seed shops but if do not get it there shop it at Amazon at THIS LINK.

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