The Mystery Of Jaipur’s Missing Marigold Flowers

News travels rapidly in Jaipur’s frenetic Johri Bazaar, on e-rickshaws upto the external reaches of City Palace and on foot via loquacious traders who run the market. The bazaar is preoccupied with the trade and acquisition of gems - precious and semi-precious - nothing else ever made the news here. Until all of Jaipur’s marigold flowers ran out.

Johri Bazaar’s wholesale Phool Mandi (flower market) is a dusty stretch of road brimming with turbaned vendors, who peddle a shock of vibrant flowers swaddled in coloured cloths. Through 2021, the market consistently reported an unexpected deficit of marigold. There’s a perennial demand for marigold - a flower whose festive significance and status in India remains supreme - from Jaipur’s expansive palaces and lavish residential homes.

News of the paucity of everyone’s beloved marigold shook the royals and the more modest residents of Jaipur.

Residents of The Johri, on the other hand, were oblivious to the panic that had seized Jaipur. The year-old boutique hotel, a gem of Johri Bazaar in its own right, continued to replenish its grand stone urlis (large flower vessels) with marigold petals, in the skylit courtyard at the break of dawn. It’s part of the intimate and curated breakfast ritual for the guests of The Johri.

Housed within the lovingly restored 19th century Lal Haveli, itself an icon of Johri Bazaar, The Johri ensured that the Haveli’s twin courtyards never saw a day without this decorative flourish of marigold.

Narratives of gems are par for the course in and around The Johri, however, the marigold heist brought to light the property’s parallel affair with fresh flowers.

The stately five-storied building is furnished with five tasteful suites - Manek, Neelam, Sona, Panna and Moti. Here, guests grow accustomed to the flourish of rose petals, the enchanting and pervasive fragrance of tuberose and a surplus of marigold, a hallmark of The Johri.

Despite 2021’s many curveballs, we will always fondly remember it as the year of fresh flowers at The Johri. In this, we suppose, lies our admission and ownership of Jaipur’s Marigold Heist.

We have no regrets.
The Johri