Prickly but pleasing friends!

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 6

Navtej Singh’s love for cacti and succulents knows no bounds. A proud parent of thorny beauties, he spends a considerable amount of money buying these.

A resident of Navapind village located on the Amritsar-Mehta road on the outskirts of the city, he is an owner of a Maruti Suzuki Service Centre. He believes these prickly beauties are very much a part of the ecosystem and contribute to it in their own way.

“Usually, people think that keeping cacti in the house brings misfortune. But I believe that people should shun this superstition and instead embrace these thorny beauties,” he said, adding, “Anything that is a part of mother nature can’t be harmful in any way.”

Hundreds of plants on the rooftop aesthetically placed on balcony and stairs of his under-construction house bear testimony to his love for them.

Navtej has a collection over of 1,500 cacti and succulents, which he bought from exhibitions in Delhi, Chandigarh and from famous nurseries in the last over 28 years. “I don’t really care about my expenses when it comes to spending on these,” he said.

His love for cacti dates back to the times when he visited his maternal parents and fell in love with a cactus plant. He then started collecting these from different sources.

Among different varieties of cacti and succulents that he owns include astrophytum, euphorbias, sedums, melocactus, echeverias, mammillarias, sansevieria, kalanchoe, moon cactus, cristate, golden barrel and silver barrel. He is also skilled in grafting technique.