Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bangalore: Part 3: Topiary garden, Tree fossil, Maharaja statue, Floral clock, Glass House and 4th National Flower show 2008
You can read the previous posts on: Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bangalore: Part 1: Ancient Watch Tower and Organic Cultivation. and Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bangalore: Part 2: Bonsai garden, Lotus Pond, Lalbagh lake and Rose garden.
After Rose garden I went to the other side of the park where I found a huge tree. I think it is the biggest tree I have ever seen:

Just near to this tree lies the Topiary garden. Topiary is the art of creating sculptures in the medium of clipped trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs. The shrubs and sub-shrubs used in topiary are evergreen, have small leaves or needles, produce dense foliage, and have compact and columnar growth habits.

Then, I found something very interesting, a tree fossil. Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. This tree fossil is a collection from the National Fossil Park, Tiruvakkarai, South Arcot, Tamil Nadu. It is supposed to be 20 million years old and it is of petrified coniferous tree. Fossils of this park can also be seen at Guindy Park, Chennai, Natural History Museum, Kerala, Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad and National Museum, Delhi.

Next to see was the statue of Sri Chamaraja Wodeyar. This statue was dismantled from Curzon Park of Mysore and installed here in 1908:

After that I took shots of floral clock. The floral clock surrounded by snow white and the seven dwarfs is also a major attraction of this place. The clock was gifted to the Lalbagh Botanical Garden by the Hindusthan Machine Tools, a leading manufacturer of watches.

Then, I went to the Glass house to see the 4th National Flower show 2008. John Cameron, the Garden’s Superintendent in the 1870s, initiated work on Lalbagh’s famous Glass House. The Glass House was modeled on London’s Crystal Palace and conceived as a venue for horticultural shows. It is surrounded by champaka trees and pencil cedars.

Inside the Glass House, it was all colorful. I have never seen integration of so many flowers in a single place.

There were different patterns made from flowers by contestants. A semicircle of flowers was my favorite:

If you are staying in Bangalore and have not seen the flower show yet (well, I was in the same category few days ago) I would seriously recommend checking it out and I guarantee that you will have a great time. For online ticket bookings and other information you can visit the official site: http://lalbagh.org/
For more photos of Lalbagh Botanical Garden, click here.
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Priyank:
So many flowers!
30 August 2008, 7:44 pmCrafty Green Poet:
What wonderful shapes in the topiary! Amazing fossil tree too!
1 September 2008, 11:40 pmDave:
Wonderful photos!
5 September 2008, 5:48 am