The flower show by Bidhannagar Horticultural Society received overwhelming response this year, with the number of participants nearly doubling. The show took place at the entrance of Central Park over the extended weekend.

“Last year we had about 35 participants while this time it was 63, and everyone submitted multiple entries,” said secretary Goutam Kumar Paul. “There were individual as well as corporate entries and the judges, who usually take about three hours to reach their verdict, took around five hours.”

“The standard of competition shot up this year, especially in categories of Petunias, fruits, vegetables, Chrysanthemums, Dahlias...” said Prabir Chatterjee, a judge from the forest department. “And the bonsais were extraordinary,” added another judge, Kartik Misra, a veteran green thumb formerly with Calcutta police. The third judge was Tarun Kanti Mondal, another seasoned grower formerly with KMC.

The show was inaugurated on Saturday by ENT specialist Dr Tushar Kanti Ghosh and prizes were distributed on Monday by Indian Oil general manager Siddhartha Bhattacharjee and film director Satarupa Sanyal. Bhattacharjee spoke of how greenery was the solution to pollution and the way to a sustainable future, and Sanyal encouraged residents to grow plants wherever they find space to spare.

The highest honour of a rolling trophy went to KMC that won 12 first prizes alone.

Here are some of the sights at the show-

Visitors were spellbound by a rare Adenium entered by Satyabrata Das of EC Block. “Most Adeniums we see in the city are Adenium Obesum, whose slender base looks intertwined but this is Adenium Arabicum, whose base looks swollen,” said Das. “This is a 25-year-old plant and during season, in February or March, pink flowers will fill it up. I brought it for competition here for the first time this year.” Experts guessed that this plant would be one of the few of its kind and quality in the country.

Rajat Boobna impressed with as many as 14 entries in the bonsai category. “I love plants but specialise in bonsais,” said the CG Block resident whose eight-year-old tamarind won first prize. He had also got bonsais with innovative themes and decors, including one growing on a tyre. “This was difficult to execute but I used special adhesives and sand to stick containers to the tube.” Another pot has a solid piece of glass, through which Boobna wants to insert lights. Yet another had a granite backdrop to give it an old zamindar house look.

One of the most attractive corners was the section where corporate houses took up space to decorate pots freestyle. The first prize for this went to KMDA. “We have used over 15 kinds of plants for this, giving it a border of white Alyssums while inside were rows of Marigolds, Dahlias, Salvias, palms in ascending order of height. We know visitors love this section so wanted it to be as colourful as possible,” said Prafulla Dhal on behalf of the group.

Mitali Puitandi won the top prize for bi-coloured Petunias, in two shades of purple. “Petunias saw lots of competition this year and every plant looked like it deserved a prize. Perhaps my plant won as it had the most number of flowers in bloom,” said the New Town CB Block resident. “Next time I shall submit Dahlias for the competition too.”

The first and second prizes for Marigold went to the Paul household of CG Block. “We also won first prize in Rose and special prize in Chrysanthemums,” smiled Mithu Paul. “People complained this year that early January was too cold but it was a blessing for these flowers, that got the right temperature after many years.”