KMC ready to cater to city's flower demand ahead of exhibitions
Kolkata: With a series of flower shows scheduled to be held in the city throughout January and February, the Parks & Gardens department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is gearing up to meet the spike in demand of the flowers needed for the exhibitions.
The nurseries under the civic body are now busy arranging for the seasonal flowers that are an integral part of these flower shows.
"This year we will begin our itinerary of flower shows from Borough X where an exhibition will be held to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on January 12. We have already written to all the 16 boroughs to hold flower shows and the order of flowers have already started coming," a senior official of KMC's Parks & Garden department said.
Member Mayor in Council (Solid Waste Management) Debabrata Majumder organises the flower show in Borough X every year.
There are 14 nurseries under the KMC and ten of them grow quality flowers in winter to cater to the various flower shows held across the city. KMC with its plethora of seasonal flowers take part in flower shows at the state Assembly, Calcutta High Court, Agri Horticultural Society of India (AHSI) in Alipore to name a few. The flower show at the state Assembly has already been held in December end 2019.
All these flower shows attract a lot of people and the variety in KMC's collection is highly appreciated.
Talla Park in North Kolkata also hosts the central flower show every year in February, and this year it will be no exception. There are several competitions associated with the different flower shows and the KMC has been winning prizes regularly in the exhibitions.
"We have a team of contractual gardeners who are engaged in our different plantation programmes throughout the year. We mobilise the better-performing ones from this team. They put in extra time and effort in the nurseries to grow flowers. Proper nursing of flowers is of utmost importance which includes timely exposure or non-exposure to sunlight, spraying of insecticides and other such nitty-gritty," the official added.
