MCO project: Seven months and some 1,000 Japanese roses later, Perak family creates beautiful flower garden

PETALING JAYA, April 7 — Hard work paid off for a family in Perak who planted Japanese roses everyday for the past seven months.

The result is about 1,000 flowers dot their fully-bloomed rose garden resulting in getting the attention of passersby and social media users.

Perak-born Linda Sanusi and her family had planted the roses everyday for the past seven months to beautify their abandoned garden and as part of a movement control order (MCO) project.

While Japanese rose is the plants’ common name, its botanical term is Portulaca grandiflora.

Linda told Malay Mail that the rose garden initiative came after the family moved from Penang to her traditional childhood house in Perak last year.

“My dad worked as a immigration officer in Penang and decided to return to our childhood home in Perak after he retired last year.

“But the house in Perak had not been occupied for 20 years so a lot of work had to be done such as repair and maintenance work.

“Even the grass was overgrown and unkept so my family spent a lot of time cleaning up the entire house.”

Linda and her mother also embarked on a project by buying the plants’ stem cuttings and began planting the roses at home in September last year to decorate their garden with flowers — mainly Japanese roses.

View from outside Linda’s home with the garden filled with colourful flowers. — Picture courtesy of Linda Sanusi

“I even bought some of the rose stem cuttings from Shopee and my mother and I began our work every morning because we had all the time in the world thanks to the MCO.

“The beautiful part about the roses is that they bloom from nine till five and are always attracted to sunlight — which is suitab;e with the climate in our country.

“My family and I were overwhelmed with joy seeing our garden filled with the colourful roses — it reminded me of my childhood where there were many flowers and plants surrounding our home,” she said.

In the end, the garden was dotted with only Japanese roses instead of other flowers, and the family is now maintaining the garden by constantly pruning the roses.

The Japanese roses in their garden come in many colours such as purple, white, orange, and yellow.