Landscaped gardens welcome visitors at IK Gujral Punjab Technical University

Jalandhar, April 1

Enter into the campus of IK Gujral Punjab Technical University on Jalandhar-Kapurthala road these days and beautiful bloom of variety of flowers and properly landscaped multiple garden areas will welcome you.

There are around 15 gardens in the campus in an area of 10-12 acres, which our team of 42 people is maintaining. Other than flowers, we have a lot of varieties of ferns, foliage, indoor potted plants, trees and creepers. We also have a number of fruit trees of guava, ber, kinnow, pomegranate, fig, mango, orange, amla and plum. — Rakesh Sood, campus landscaping and horticulture Incharge

As many as 26 varieties of flowers of at least eight different colours can be spotted on the campus. While dahlias, calendulas, petunias, phlox, sweet williams, marigolds, chrysanthemums, larkspurs, nasturtiums, ice plants, salvia, dianthus, red poppies, gazania and jasmine flowers are already blooming, there are several summer varieties too, including zinnia, cock comb, pink and yellow cosmos, pagoda, vinca, kochia bushes, magnolia, amaltas, gardenia, gulmohar, bottle brush, bougainvillea, hibiscus, red/yellow kaner etc.

The flower beds have been created aesthetically. The short height plants, including calendula, ice plants and phlox, run in furrows along the edges. The taller varieties, including dahlias, marigolds and salvias have been planted along the walls. Another major attraction these days in the campus is the heavy bloom of beautiful trumpet vine hanging from the walls of the building.

Campus landscaping and horticulture incharge Rakesh Sood said: “There are around 15 gardens in the campus in an area of 10-12 acres, which our team of 42 people is maintaining. Other than flowers, we have a lot of varieties of ferns, foliage, indoor potted plants, trees and creepers. We also have a number of fruit trees of guava, ber, kinnow, pomegranate, fig, mango, orange, amla and plum.”

He said: “We have even set up our own nursery within the campus. We are saving the seeds of all flower varieties. We preserve them by using drying methods and then save them in sacks in our stores. We prepare our own flower saplings indigenously in the next season from these seeds. It is only for a few hybrid varieties of flowers that we need to buy plantlets from outside. The number of plants that we ready sometimes becomes so large that we also distribute them free of charge to neighbouring gurdwaras and temples.”

Sood said: “We are also readying our in-house flower bouquets from garden areas on daily basis for the guests visiting the campus. Our team is also expert in doing flower arrangements in halls for functions and in rooms of higher officials on regular basis.”