BalaKrishna Reddy was a kid in rural India when he discovered his love for growing plants.

Now an adult in the United States, he grows a variety of roses and dahlias in what could be considered a unique location — a gas station.

The owner of Hobbs Street Minimart has a garden at the station, which includes 52 rose bushes, five dahlia plants and two jasmine plants. Red, pink, purple, orange, yellow, white and bicolor roses brighten the concrete landscape, and people can truly stop and smell the roses.

The varieties are grown at the location from spring through the first frost.

The plants are not for sale, though. Instead, they are BalaKrishna’s hobby. He compares taking care of plants to taking care of a family pet.

He feels the plants give him a sense of belonging. Growing them makes him happy.

Many people have asked BalaKrishna to sell the plants. He’s been offered upwards of $300 for a single plant.

“No, no. They are just my kids,” he tells them.

BalaKrishna has lived in Athens since 2013 and said he likes it. He describes the area as peaceful.

Before moving to Athens, he had another convenience store in Huntsville. He tried to grow his plants there, but they would end up broken and pulled apart.

“It would drive me crazy,” he said. “Here, no one touches the flowers.”

How it started

BalaKrishna’s love of plants started when he was rather young. He was brought up in a farming family in a remote village in India. It was an agricultural area, and farming was their livelihood.

BalaKrishna said the families didn’t know anything else but farming.

As a child, he would watch his grandfather, father and other members of the family go into the fields to farm. Sometimes, the crops would fail. Sometimes, there was too much rain. Other times, there wasn’t enough rain, or there was disease.

“If they got a good crop, they were all happy,” BalaKrishna said. “If they couldn’t get the crop, they were struggling. They were struggling to send their kids to school. They were struggling to eat. Some even had to postpone their sons’ and daughters’ marriages because they didn’t have the money.”

It made him realize how important plants are to life.

“They give you food,” he said. “They give you money and the things you need. Because of them, you are able to live.”

BalaKrishna started growing his own plants in the fifth grade. He grew mangos, banana, coconuts, vegetables and other plants for his family. He would farm during holidays and summer breaks.

He liked it so much, he decided to further his education at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Andhra Pradesh, India.

BalaKrishna was the first in his family to go to the university, a place where only the top students gain admission. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural science.

After graduation, he worked in the agribusiness industry in India. In 2002, he took a job in Chicago.

The United States was in a recession, and the economy was struggling. It wasn’t long before he was laid off.

After talking to his cousin, Mr. Mendis, who had a convenience store in Decatur, BalaKrishna and his family moved to Alabama. He started his own convenience store business in Huntsville in 2004, then moved to Athens less than a decade later.

Sharing knowledge

Though BalaKrishna’s career isn’t what he first had in mind, he enjoys the business.

“It’s dependable,” he said.

He also gets to do what he enjoys, and he is able to share his love of plants and knowledge with others.

BalaKrishna’s patrons bring in plant samples, and he helps them with their problems. Many ask him for the secret to healthy plants, but he doesn’t keep secrets. Instead, he asks customers how they are watering and pruning the plants and about any signs of disease. He will even write down information he feels they need to know.

BalaKrishna said one of his customers had a wife who loved roses. The customer planted a lot of roses.

The man’s wife died suddenly, and he came in to tell BalaKrishna the roses were sick.

“He was sad because the plants were memories of his wife,” BalaKrishna said.

BalaKrishna wrote down everything the man needed to know — how to water, where to buy the things he needed.

“He was so happy,” BalaKrishna said. “That was what he needed.”

BalaKrishna’s own plants are watered daily. He feeds them every two or three days and watches carefully for bugs and fungus. He said he rarely uses chemicals.

“We do it all organic,” he said.

Just like us

BalaKrishna said a lot of people treat plants like nonliving things. He said they act like plants are rocks, when in reality, plants are the food and oxygen suppliers for all of the animal kingdom.

“They are living,” he said. “It’s a living thing just like us.”

The individual processes may be different, but BalaKrishna explained plants have quite a lot in common with humans. They eat and drink. They express hunger through nutrient deficiency symptoms.

They breathe, mate, produce offspring and die. They sense heat, light, pollution and pain.

BalaKrishna said plants, like humans, use their senses to survive. They even know stress, he said.

“They don’t have a nervous system or a brain, but they can still sense,” he said. “They can also express things in their own way.”

He said, for example, when it’s very hot, leaves will go low and be small. If there isn’t a lot of light, they will grow tall and slender to reach the light.

Sunflowers move toward the sun, and touch-me-nots close up when you touch them. Water lily flowers open only at night, he said.

“Chrysanthemum plants are able to sense the day’s length,” he said. “They need shorter days to flower.”

Many have said BalaKrishna’s plants are healthy and beautiful. He has received awards from the Athens-Limestone Beautification Board and Alabama Master Gardeners Association.

He loves the English roses, grandiflora and hybrid tea rose, the Floriabuna and miniature rose varieties. He also loves dahlias. In fact, BalaKrishna loves any type of plant and believes they should all be loved and protected.

He’s been asked if he talks to his plants.

“Not really,” he said. “We’re not talking in English, not in Spanish, not in an India language. But, they do have a special language you can understand, if you pay attention.”

And to humans, he says, “Please plant.”

“They will protect you, your future generations and the whole planet,” he said.