Lal Bagh Flower Show in Bangalore
The 202nd flower show recently concluded at Lal Bagh. Can you guess the number of visitors there yesterday, on Independence Day? It was close to 20,000 visitors! It took a while for the local police around to control the traffic and guide the visitors. Luckily I made a visit mid week, quite early in the morning when there were hardly any visitors.
Lal Bagh Flower Show
August 2015 Theme: Bangalore Palace
Flower shows are organized at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, jointly by Department of Horticulture and Mysore Horticulture Society. Public eagerly await this flower show.
More than 200 varieties of flowers and 20,000 flower pots were used for decoration. This time they created the replica of the Bangalore Palace. The replica covered entirely with roses and leaves. The mega palace, measuring 25-ft wide and 42-ft long, was decorated using 2 lakh Dutch roses. The contrasting color combination made it look strikingly beautiful. When I reached there early in the morning I could see people working hard to give it a fresh look. Old flowers were being replaced with fresh ones. Here are the pics of few people who work hard for putting up such a grand show.
Organic Waste from Flower Show
After the show, nearly 4 lakh dry roses, along with about 100 kg of other dry flowers, twigs, and foliage gathered from around the garden would be assiduously mixed with red soil and earthworms are let into the mixture at the compost units of Lalbagh. What emerges after a few weeks is nearly 500 kg of organic manure.
The Band
There was a band playing the music of patriotic songs. I listened to couple of songs before I moved on to the show. Glad I got the opportunity!
Sand Sculpture of APJ Abdul Kalam
At the entrance there was a portrait of APJ Abdul Kalam. Two sisters from Mysuru’s Sand Museum converted a truckload of sand into this portrait of APJ Abdul Kalam. Times Of India quotes: “We finished it in a day’s time and thought a flower show would be an apt place to pay tribute to the People’s President,” said Gowri MN, who with her sister Neelambika MN tried to immortalize the Missile Man in the sands of time.
Replica of Maharajas
There were five life sized replicas of erstwhile maharajas of the Mysuru dynasty. They were of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar III and IV, Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, Maharaja Chamaraja Wadiyar and Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar. The statues were made out of Plaster of Paris and other materials.
Finally when I was leaving I could see groups of school children entering the Glass House, the exhibition area. I thanked myself for being early there.
Ticket price: Rs. 40
Parking: There is no parking inside or around Lal Bagh. The Shanti Nagar bus depot 500m away has a multi storeyed parking facility. We parked our car there.
Twice a year the Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens of Bangalore hosts flower shows. They have an amazing collection of plants and display various models with flowers and leaves. One such display in the last flower show, August 2009, organized by them was of the crow dropping pebbles in a pot. This is based on the famous story of The Thirsty Crow.
Intelligent Crow Floral Model
Even the adults there must have traveled down the memory lane back to their childhood days when they would have listened to this bed time story. More than 5000 yellow roses were used to make just the pot alone, we were told. And they did well to use red rose buds to add to borders of the pot. There was a small white pebble hanging from its beak.
Bird’s Brain to Body Ratio
In one of my previous posts: The Battle of the Bird Brains, I had mentioned about avian intelligence and parrots and pigeons. The Crow family or the Corvids too ranks high in intelligence. In the Audubon Society of Encyclopedia of North American Birds, ornithologist John K. Terres says Corvids have achieved the highest degree of intelligence of any birds. The brain-body ratio of crows equals that of dolphins and is almost same as human beings.
Birds are known to have their genes programmed for various activities and some even have advanced learning capabilities. Of these species crows are credited to play tricks on each other, make tools to suit their requirements and even steal fish from the fishermen’s catch in pots. Many interesting videos are available on net which have recorded these so called intelligent acts of crows.
Intelligent Crows
And I present one art work by my younger daughter Arundhati, when she was six.
Thirsty Crow
Next time you call someone a bird brain, think twice as Carletta said in my previous post: “Being called a ‘bird brain’ takes on a whole different meaning. :)”
Wow!
I've never been to this event, I dunno why. 🙁
whenever I get a chance to be there in Bengaluru , I would like to go there Lal Bagh !! what a nice place . amazing pictures specially of Maharaja's
Loved the sand sculpture. Looks like a great event 🙂
That must have been very beautiful and interesting ! Brussels had a Flowertime on the Grand'Place over the weekend. I'll post about it tomorrow.
Love those images… they add beauty to this post <3
Wonderful photos, must be a nice event.
Never seen such flower decorations.Beautiful.
I really wish to check at least one of the flowers shows of Lal Bagh and I know how popular it was worldwide.
You got wonderful photos from the show and the floral palace is awesome. Great tribute to Kalam there.
Beautiful!
Superb photographs..great event to attend..
You were very smart to attend this festival on a less busy day! I love seeing all the school children.
WOW! Love the flower palace! Everything is gorgeous there 🙂
Wow, that looks amazing!
You are right Noopor Kothari, I'm totally agree with you.
It is not possible to remember his all the deeds in a day only however we can give him a heartily salute, He would always be in our memories and way of inspiration to us whole life.
Wow this is beautiful, specially the Kalam Sir's sculpture…
Fabulous gathering of people, and mine is the flowers, Indrani, they are marvelous.
Hello Indrani, what a wonderful flower show. The replica of the palace is grand. Thanks for sharing your visit and images. Have a happy new week!
Beautiful photos.
Great tribute to APJ Abdul Kalam Sir.
Beautiful Indrani, Thanks for sharing.. 🙂
A Great Presentation.. One of the best yearly Events of Bangalore.. We missed it this year! Thanks for sharing, Indrani!
Nice pics, I too went to see it, It is this time of year when lalbagh is all clean and pretty.
Lovely pictures Indrani 🙂 Brought back our childhood memories of visiting the flower show.
Some people are so enthusiastic and dedicated and inspire others. Thanks for the informative post and excellent images!
Beautiful show. Nice info.
What a nice expression – immortalizing the Missile Man in the sands of time! Sand portrait, POP statues and flowers make a nice combination for the event.
Oh! It's so awesome 🙂
This is an amazing event, well executed.
Thanks for bringing it to all of us, Ingrain.
Have a Great Week!
Peace 🙂
Fabulous Indrani
What a beautiful, colorful event, Indrani!! The mega palace is awesome!! A grand show indeed!! I would love to have been there, but your captures are the next best thing!! Thank you for sharing, as always!! Hope you have a great new week!!