KARACHI: A chrysanthemum show organised by the Horticulture Society of Pakistan at the HSP Garden Centre in Defence Housing Authority coincided with the inauguration of a library here on Saturday.

“December is the month when chrysanthemums bloom so the timing for holding the show is just right,” said HSP’s Salman K. Khan, son of A.K. Khan who founded the society back in 1948. A.K. Khan, respectfully known as Khan Sahab, was also present on the occasion.

About chrysanthemums, Mohammad Jamil, who supervises the gardening at the centre, said the flower was better known as Gul-i-Dawoodi here. “The flower is originally from China and Japan but is grown all over the world now.”

The gentleman, who has been working under A.K. Khan for years now and retired from the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) as assistant director in 1999, said the chrysanthemum had many varieties. “And there is no shortage of colour in any of those varieties,” he said.

The varieties include the incurved, reflex, incurving, anemone, pompoms and singles differentiated by their size, look and texture. Some have closed blooms with firm regular incurved florets forming a perfect globe, some have reflexed or semi-reflexed florets, for example blooms with outer florets reflexing and inner florets curving, others have tubular disc florets forming central cushions and just four or five ray florets and a visible central disk.

In Karachi, Mohammad Jamil said that chrysanthemums do well during the cold weather. “This recent cold wave is ideal for chrysanthemums, which are in the form of a plant throughout the year that flowers during this time of year. At the most they will bloom until the first week of January,” he said.

Then the varieties are also classified as early flowering or late flowering as some also grow better indoors or outdoors according to their type.

Near the entrance to the Garden Centre is the HSP library that was also inaugurated on Saturday. The library will be housing all of Khan Sahab’s books on gardening. Besides, their will be other books on gardening with research journals and papers on horticulture.

The library has an open-air wing to its right bearing the plate which read ‘Smokers’ reading corner’ with the message ‘Smoking seriously endangers health’ under it.