Ooty Botanical Garden (Udhagamandalam) INDIA

Quite an experience, was that your first visit to India.

I think that yellow flower might be a justicia (not hardy)

wonderful experience and the gardens are beautiful. glad our pests aren't that big :o)

Yes, Bjs it was our first visit to India and probably our last! We went on a tour, we usually do our own independent travelling, so didn't get enough time to see the things which really interested us.
Hbird, an experience indeed, some things were really shocking, eg the slums on the beach and the poverty.
Thank you Andrew, for giving me a 'handle' to look up the Justicia. I do not grow any/many tender pot plants, but do enjoy their beauty/exoticness. I have pics of other tender lovelies, so please feel free to name them.

Nor their droppings!!!! Sbg

This brought back some lovely memories. The Savoy at Ooty used to be one of our regular Sunday lunch spots during our exchange year at Wellington. But that was back in the 90's. Our local shopping was done in Coonoor where the sewer ran right through the center of the market! mmm. Lovely! Golly, you've brought so many things back to mind from our year in that part of India. Thank you.

And you survived Digginfit! Glad to have reminded you of India, the train photo was taken in Coonoor where we stayed 2 nights in the Taj Gateway. Travelled from Chenai SE coast via Bangalor, Mysore, The western Ghats ending up at Trivandrum on the SW coast.
Did you visit the Ooty Gardens? And the Sims Park in Coonoor, we unfortunately didn't have time for Sims.

The Taj was another of our Sunday lunch haunts. Yes I often used to walk around Ooty gardens. I think we went to Sims Park during our orientation tour, but to be quite honest, I don't really remember it. We didn't get to Trivandrum. But one of our favourite places was Coconut Lagoon on the backwaters of Cochin. A year in India was definitely an experience. We loved it, even though it was particularly frustrating at times. It has changed a lot though since we were there. Much more civilised!! We didn't have internet, mobile phones, had to take a years worth of toothpaste, soft loo roll, decent shower gel etc. We had to share a land-line phone with two other couples (and it was in our flat!). But it was often out of order because the monkeys had been swinging on the outside line! Oh, the stories I could tell!

I expect you could tell a tale or two. We had one night on a house boat in the Kerala backwaters, from Alleppey, masses of Kites, and the duck farmers. The tour, however, had packed too much in, to enjoy the experiences. The tourist hotels, inside were excellent, except for the water quality (don't drink). Loads of complimentary soaps, shower gels etc, own toothpaste though, and we always travel with loo paper. UK says anti malaria precautions now not necessary in Southern India, although our fellow Australian travellers were given them.

Oh I'm glad you were bored, I really enjoyed reading this blog and your photo's are a treat to see, I would never display bedding out in that way at home not even on a small scale, I go more for the natural look but love to see them in parks and the huge gardens that I have visited, I do like that gorgeous yellow flower, the last pic is a sad sight, I don't think I'll ever complain about any of our beaches again.
Thankyou Siris for sharing, I'm another gardener relieved our pests are smaller....

Thank you lincslass. I too like a loose cottage-y type of gardening.

That last photo unfortunately is indicative of a large part of the world. Traveling around one is most likely to see the lovely facade of the front garden. I'm glad that you included that last photo of the terrible reality of the back garden.

Thank you Loosestrife, My own back garden is neater than the front, but in the UK we do have rubbish (trash) collections from our property, and in my area if you don't want to compost your own green waste, you can opt for the council to remove it.
I am not sure the tourist revenue feeds down to those that need it. India is building modern overhead tram rail systems in some cities so the streets are dug up, but still the open sewers are being left! India is investing in education, and in these gardens there are many parties of school children, (more interested in having their photos taken on tourists' cameras than the gardens.)

Lovely blog Siris really enjoyed it :-)

Thank you, Simbad.