Green Update
TreeTake Network
The Horticulture Club, Agra, organised its fifth bougainvillea exhibition from 5th to 8th December 2025 on the beautifully manicured lawns of Verdant Acres. In the fifth edition of The Bougainvillea Exhibition, over a thousand specimens of 111 cultivars in different forms, viz. topiaries, trained shrubs & vines, miniature trees, bonsais and 70 exquisite multi-grafted bougainvillea plants were exhibited. During the opening ceremony, Lovely Kathuria, Founder-member of the club, reiterated that the objective of organising the annual bougainvillea exhibition was to make denizens of Agra aware that the bougainvillea is the ideal ornamental plant with vibrant colours for Agra’s harsh climate and simians do not destroy it. She said: “Let us put our best efforts in making Agra the bougainvillea capital of India!” The exhibition was inaugurated by eminent economist Prof VP Tripathi. On this occasion, the Horticulture Club, Agra, honoured two city botanists- Prof RKS Rathore and Prof Vijay Lakshmi Singh with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Biodiversity enthusiast Dr Mukul Pandya, curator of the exhibition for the past five years, presented a fascinating story of how the bougainvillea travelled from Rio de Janeiro via Europe to the shores of India. Dr Mukul Pandya mentioned that the bougainvillea shrubs create an ideal nesting habitat for house sparrows, and their tiny flowers provide nectar to the butterflies. And these plants help in mitigating city pollution. Dr Pandya has been collecting, propagating, and grafting bougainvilleas for the past five decades. He possesses a huge collection of bougainvilleas. Dr RK Roy, Sr Principal Scientist (Retd.) NBRI, Lucknow, spoke about different cultivars. Dr Roy said the exhibition was one of the largest bougainvillea exhibitions of South East Asia. Renu Bhagat gave a vote of thanks and mentioned that a Bougainvillea Vatika was created by the Horticulture Club of Agra, in association with the Department of Horticulture & Food Processing, in Shah Jahan Park near the West gate of Taj Mahal. The Horticulture Club, Agra, has planted over 300 specimens of 30 cultivars of bougainvillea there. Among the esteemed guests present during the opening ceremony were Colonel Apurva Tyagi, educationists Dipika Tyagi, Rubina Khanam, Hindustani classical music vocalist Dr Amita Tripathi, social activists KN Agnihotri, Anil Sharma & Jitendra Kumar, botanists Dr Achyut Saraswat & Ankush Dave, environmentalists Dr Manashi Roy & Erum, Gopal & Vandana Singh, garden enthusiasts Divya Goyal, Tanu Farsaiya, Dolly Madan, Vandana Khandelwal, Anita Munjal, Rajiv Wasan & Sudha Kapoor. In the Bougainvillea Competition held on this occasion, the 1st prize went to Vibha Gupta, 2nd to Kanchan Anuja and 3rd to Rashmi Mittal. The exhibition was attended by garden enthusiasts, floriculturists, botanists, nurserymen and students.
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