Lucknow: With beautiful names like Begum Sikander and Mary Palmer, hundreds of bougainvillea varieties bloomed in the lawns of CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute during Bougainvillea festival held on Sunday. “The institute has been organising two flower exhibitions annually and in the third Bougainvillea festival, we opened the exhibition to general public/government/private organisations for participation in various competitions,” said S K Tiwari, chief scientist. He said 19 exhibitors participated in the show with 46 entries.
The competition was in eight categories. NBRI also displayed more than two dozen bougainvillea varieties developed by the institute, namely Begum Sikander, Shubhra, Dr B P Pal, Arjuna, Archana, Mary Palmer Special, Los Banos Variegata, Aruna, Dr P V Sane and others. CSIR-NBRI director Ajit Kumar Shasany said, “Being a national Institute, it is our responsibility to take floriculture and agricultural technologies from lab to farmers so that their income and livelihood can be improved.
The CSIR-Floriculture Mission is being implemented with this objective, across the country and CSIR-NBRI will continue its efforts to help farmers generate higher yield and income.” Indiranagar resident Namrata Tripathi scored highest marks in the competition and was overall winner for the best bougainvillea bloom..
