KARACHI, Dec 22: An exhibition featuring hundreds of chrysanthemums in full bloom opened at Bagh Ibne Qasim in Clifton on Saturday evening.

It was after a decade that a chrysanthemum show was held in the city by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

The event will remain open for the public till Dec 26.

Though a small-scale initiative, the exhibition holds attraction for nature lovers and for those looking for a quiet, cool evening amid flowers and fragrance. More than 60 local varieties of chrysanthemums, a species native to Asia and northeastern Europe, have been aesthetically displayed at the Jahangir Kothari Parade. Some of them are: double, singles, brush, pompons, sprays, reflexed, anemones, incurved, anthemon and buttons.

Most plants are grown in the KMC’s Clifton nursery while others in a Gulberg Town nursery, which has put up an eye-catching floral arrangement at the show.

Speaking about the efforts that had gone into preparing the plants, Abdullah Mushtaq, director for the KMC’s parks and horticulture department, said that care was required the whole year to prepare a chrysanthemum (often called mums) plant for an exhibition.

“This is so because we want to grow the plant in a certain fashion. Like in this case, we had wanted hundreds of flowers that have bloomed to their full potential. Hence, small buds that would produce small flowers are cut off while larger ones are kept,” he said.

“The flower blooms only for a month and the plant dies as soon as winter is over. However, it returns from their root-stock the next season once they get favourable conditions,” he said, adding that the plant loved cold climate and it was an uphill task to grow them in large numbers in Karachi, where the weather rarely got too cold.

“You can see that it’s the end of December and still we haven’t experienced the chill that one would have expected in the winter. It’s only the weather conditions which make mums happier and prolonged their life,” he said.

Answering a question that what made chrysanthemum so popular across the world, he said the flower was available in many different colours, shades, shapes and sizes all over the world. Over 400 species of the same plant were available in Pakistan alone.

Expressing high hopes for the future, the director-general of the KMC’s parks and horticulture department, Niaz Soomro, who was visiting the show, said the KMC planned to make the city greener, improve its parks and hold flower shows regularly.

“The corporation will hold a flower show by the end of January and another in the summer. Our target is to increase the number of plants up to 10,000 at the next show.

“Hundreds and thousands of saplings of flowering species have already been planted in the 130-acre Bagh Ibn-i-Qasim, where the public would see a riot of colours in the coming months,” he said.