What’s with all these plants at Hatirjheel?

A curious huddle formed in front of Gulshan's Police Plaza in the capital from 9:00am yesterday. Beyond Hatirjheel's usual offering of greenery, the spot was graced with numerous plants and saplings.

This was part of an event, titled "BPLS Plant Exchange Event", organised by Facebook groups Bangladesh Plant Lovers' Society (BPLS) and Bangladesh Cactus Lovers' Society (BCLS).

It was exactly what the event's name suggests. Members of both groups came to the designated spot with various plants and seeds and exchanged them with those that others brought. Meanwhile, the organisers had some gifts to give away to new gardeners.

The idea may seem like a novelty, but the groups have been organising this for the last few years, first as a once or twice a year event, and now as a monthly gathering.

"Both the groups are dedicated to encourage and facilitate gardening," said Riche Akter, one of the organisers. "While BCLS is exclusively for cacti and succulents, BPLS is concerned with plants of all kind."

Through the groups, they provide everything from nursing advise to buying and selling opportunities, Riche said. "It's a wonderful place. The groups were launched from a place of love, but before we know it, thousands of others with a similar fondness for plants joined us."

BPLS currently has more than 87,000 members on Facebook, while BCLS has over 72,000. "There are some people who don't even live in the country, but through them, we get all kinds of support from abroad. They've helped us bring in rare or locally-unavailable varieties, and sometimes they've even given out plants and saplings to new gardeners for free."

This trend of gifts to encourage new gardeners seems to be a norm for the groups. Beyond migrant members, some experienced, "big-scale" local gardeners also help out the fresh and new in this way.

At yesterday's event, the organisers recognised 12 of them: 10 living in Bangladesh and two from abroad. They were awarded with crests that bore the moniker "Shera Bagani" (top gardener).

The event was executed with help from around 10-15 volunteers, Riche said, including group admins and moderators such as Asif Iqbal, who runs a plant-info page on Facebook named "Asif the Cacto Boy".

Around 300 people attended the exchange day event yesterday, some even coming from outside the capital. They brought with them numerous varieties of indoor, outdoor, seasonal and medicinal plants, such as ice plants, various species of cacti, katamukut, zebrinas, cotton bud lily, sedum, adenium and too many more for this correspondent to keep track of.

Riche said she started out with the groups as a member. But over time, she realised the demand for plants all across the country and began growing and selling some herself. "As you can guess from my story, the groups are encouraging not only gardening, but also entrepreneurship among the youth."

"At this point, these are not just two Facebook groups. We consider ourselves family."