Visitors watch the flowers on display at Shrikrishna Science Centre in Patna on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Feb. 10: Shrikrishna Science Centre, in association with the National Horticulture Mission, today organised a three-day flower show-cum-competition on its premises.

The competition was divided into two categories, institutional and individual. While 50 participants took part in the first category, there were about 30 participants in the latter. Carnation, cineraria, petunia, panji, gladiolus, dahlia, marigold, coleus and ester were showcased in the competition.

Rose was missing, though. Also missing were lily and tuberose.

Anurag Kumar, the project co-ordinator of Srikrishna Science Centre, said: “It is hard to find butterflies or honey bees in the cities now-a-days. Excessive use of pesticides has reduced the number of pollinating agents. The purpose of organising such a flower show is to create awareness on the environment among the people in the capital. We hope that visitors would be inspired to take up gardening after seeing these flowers.”

He added that with this competition, Shrikrishna Science Centre is reviving its culture of organising flower shows.

“Way back in the 80s, the centre used to regularly organise these kind of flower shows. It stopped after 1988,” added Anurag.

B.P. Yadav and Ram Kumar Singh, the technical advisors of National Horticulture Mission, were the judges today.

Singh rued the absence of flower shows and exhibitions in the city. “Around 15 years ago, flower shows used to be held by institutions like Agriculture Research Institute, Patna, and the horticulture department of Bihar. These organisations do not organise flower shows any more. This flower show-cum-competition will help revive the culture,” said Singh.

Talking about his parameters of judging the contest, Yadav told The Telegraph: “I will look for five elements — compactness, size and freshness of flowers, glaze of petals and the overall look of flowers.”

U. Mishra, State Bank of India’s assistant general manager (public relations and community service banking), said he was happy to take part in the competition.

“These kind of contests are necessary to draw the attention of people towards the environment. People would be inspired to take up gardening,” he said.

For visitors to the centre, it was a surprise, as most of them did not know about the competition.

“It was awesome to find so many varieties of flowers in the show. I loved the hybrids,” said Abhilasha Lakshmi, a Class XII student of Sir Ganesh Dutta Memorial College.

The organisers said the flowerpots would be kept on display for the next two days.