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Yogyakarta garden owner speaks up about damaged flowers
Amaryllis flower (Kompas)Early on Sunday morning, Sukadi, 43, was sitting on his houseâs terrace, facing his orange amaryllis garden
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Amaryllis flower (Kompas) (Kompas)
Amaryllis flower (Kompas)
Early on Sunday morning, Sukadi, 43, was sitting on his house's terrace, facing his orange amaryllis garden.
Scores of people of all ages could be seen strolling happily around the garden, strategically situated on the side of Jl. Yogya-Wonosari at KM 18 in Ngasemayu hamlet, Gunungkidul regency, Yogyakarta.
The amaryllis garden has become a hot topic among netizens after it was damaged by visitors who allegedly stepped on the flowers and picked them in order to take more attractive selfies.
Sukadi, a farmer who sometimes sells toys at Piyungan Market, has become well known. Many people have contacted him regarding his flower garden.
'As the owner of the garden, I actually felt relieved about the incident,' Sukadi said at his home, as quoted by tempo.co.
According to Sukadi, the number of visitors to his garden suggested that there were still many people who loved amaryllis, which only bloom once a year and are generally considered weeds by locals.
'The flowers were once hunted and thrown away because they affected crops and often absorbed the main plants' fertilizer,' said Sukadi.
Since 2004, Sukadi has collected the wild flowers and planted them in groups on his arid 2,000-square-meter plot of land along with trees such as teak, flamboyant, coconut and sengon. Two years later, he started to collect amaryllis seeds and cultivated them in polybags before selling them on the roadside.
'Later in 2014, the district head brought a group of people to see my garden and started to spread the pictures on the Internet,' said Sukadi.
The garden was allegedly damaged due to selfies from visitors between Thursday and Saturday. Visitors have been arriving every day with up to seven tour buses daily.
'Even with only a hundred people, this garden is already packed. Imagine if there were more than one thousand people,' said Sukadi.
Amaryllis bloom around three weeks after being planted. The flowers can be seen for three weeks during the rainy season.
'Although we regret that the flowers were damaged so quickly, now we know how to maintain them when they bloom again,' said Sukadi, adding that he spent less than Rp 10 million (US$723.72) to cultivate the garden.
He added that he would make plans to avoid the flowers being damaged by visitors next year, such as by creating dedicated zones for people to take pictures and asking them to admire the flowers from afar rather than picking them. He also plans to construct footpaths to connect each of the zones.
'The district administration also supports the place becoming a tourist transit destination before visitors go on to other sites like the beach,' said Sukadi. (kes)
