Flower show a huge draw on Day One

The main attraction of the programme was the new variety of chrysanthemum,Himanshu,developed by NBRI,which was launched on the occasion. With more than 100 blooms at a time,the flower is white in colour with a yellowish centre. Transgenic virus resistant variety of Kundan,the bright yellow pompon type of flower,also attracted many viewers.

While the largest flower on display was the white coloured Snowball — a ball type large flower with single flower on a small plant called pot mum,with a diameter of 25 cm — the smallest flower was Little Darlings,which was less than one cm diameter.

Mini-culture of chrysanthemum,a technique developed by NBRI that allows the ornamental flower to be grown in the form of an ice-cream cup and be used more efficiently for decorative purpose,was an additional attraction. The huge biodiversity of coleus was also seen in the show. While the basket-type coleus plant had the smallest leaves measuring less than 1 cm,the largest were Mammoth coleus with leaves measuring up to 25 cm.