(From left) Radhachura, Phurush, Amaltash and Krishnachura

Summer is often thought to be a dull, dry time, with little to relieve the eyes from the glare of the hot sun. But look out of the window, and summer is also the time for a riot of colourful flowers. Big trees like Radhachura (Peltophorum), Amaltash (Cassia Fistula), Phurush (Lagerstroemia) and Krishnachura (Delonix Regia), create patches of yellow, red and mauve everywhere. All these are tropical trees and flower in the summer sun. While Krishnachura flowers between April and July, Radhachura blossoms between June and August, Amaltash between early summer and September and Phurush from June to September.

l these are very sturdy trees and need very little care. Along the road they grow on their own, but if you are planting them in your garden, you can just keep watering them and add dung manure from time to time. Their roots spread very deep very fast and soon reach the ground water. It takes three years for the plants to mature and start flowering, but these trees have a long life — at least 50 years — and once they mature, they flower every year.

Unfortunately, in our country they are not planted in a planned way, but in all south-east Asian countries, there are rows upon rows of these trees which look beautiful in summer.

Krishnachura has red flowers, whereas Radhachura has bright yellow flowers. Amaltash looks like pale yellow bunches of grapes, while Phurush, which blossoms in many colours like pink and mauve, look like cherry blossoms. They all flower very thickly, and almost no foliage is visible when the trees are in bloom. They have wide-spreading branches and form an extensive canopy.