Florists laughing all the way to the bank

Kathmandu, November 2:

Take a trip around the Valley and you will see the true colour of flowers and denizens here. Dipawali is the festival of lights and flowers, and this is when you see Kathmandu Valley and all villages and cities across the nation ablaze with colour and lights.

Sellers and buyers are bargaining to get the better of each other. Shops at Kalimati, New Road, Ason and major road intersections are choc-a-bloc with flowers.

People are trying to get the best to decorate their homes to welcome Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity.

It’s all business these days for flower-sellers. As matters stand, it is every minute counts because the flower prices are shooting up as goddess Laxmi’s arrival time approaches.

“I have to pay Rs 100-150 for a garland of marigolds and chrysanthemums and I sell them at around Rs 200-250 so its hay day,” confided a flower-seller Raj Lama at Ason.

“It is only because it is the festival of Dipawali that flowers are selling at such high prices” he said.

Another flower-seller at Kalimati, Ram Prasad, said that though he could have sold flowers at a high price he decided not to charge much or to gain an unreasonable profit.

“There is, however, only a small difference in the price rate of flowers at Ason and Kalimati.”

Flowers at New Road, the marketing hub of the Kathmandu, cost as much as those in Ason.

Flowers for Kathmandu these days come from as far as Nuwakot, Godavari, Jiri, Banepa, Dhulikhel and Panchkhal.

Varieties of flowers range from golden marigold, makhamali to chrysanthemums of all varieties.