Planting a rainbow: Meet Kerala’s globally recognised water lily hybridiser

Viji Abi’s creation has been accepted as a new cultivar by the International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society. I faced numerous failures first, she says.

She calls it her tranquil obsession. It crept up on her when she wasn’t looking, and is taking her in new directions, opening her up to new worlds.

Viji Abi, 34, began breeding water lilies in 2018. She had just given up her career as an accountant to care for her two children (Abron and Abria, now 9 and 7).

Five years on, one of her cultivars has received global recognition from a jury of her peers.

Nymphaea Sree, a

The excitement of sowing seeds and waiting in anticipation, giving it your best but having little control over the outcome, is a bit like taking a big exam, says Abi, laughing. “Except, it’s a source of immense joy to me.”

The climate in Kerala was too dramatic for some of the more delicate varieties. Then, each time she succeeded in creating a hybrid, she discovered that it had already been named and listed.

On a crisp day in late 2021, she stepped into her garden and knew she had a winner. She had never seen anything like the intricately layered pink and orange Nymphaea Sree (named after a friend).

She sent a photo to her mentor, Somnath Pal, a 39-year-old project manager turned aquatic gardener who runs a nursery in Badlapur, Thane district. The variety was certainly unusual, possibly unique, he said.

She submitted her application to IWGS, with details of the plant’s progeny, precise measurements, and colour data (based on the RHS colour chart used by horticulturists worldwide). And, nearly two years later, after extensive vetting, they confirmed that, in the eyes of IWGS, she had created a new cultivar.

In the world of Indian hybridisers, she is now something of a star. She can expect entreaties and enquiries via email, from strangers who admire her work. That is, in fact, how she first reached out to Pal, a celebrity himself, ever since he was named Hybridiser of the Month in the July 2017 issue of the Journal.

“He receives queries from around the world,” Viji says, clearly excited by the idea that she might too. Meanwhile, she has about 100 blossoms to care for, across her 2,400 sq m of land.

The excitement of sowing seeds and waiting in anticipation, giving it your best but having little control over the outcome, is a bit like taking a big exam, she says, laughing. “Except, it’s a source of immense joy to me.”