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For the love of flowers

ZAHANGIR Shah, Manikganj
Engineer Khan Mohammad Aftab Uddin's love for flowers has flourished into a profitable business venture in Manikganj.
Aftab Uddin, chairman of Spectra Group, started Spectra Garden on 16 bighas of land at Dhutrabari village, near Paturia ferry terminal, of Shivalaya upazila in Manikganj in July 2012.
More than 50 kinds of flowers are grown on the land, including garbera, gelo deulux , tuberose, rose, china rose, Irani rose, local rose varieties, hybrids of China rose, afarbia, ediniam, chhoto patar rongon, boro patar rongon, China white flower, gandharaj, evening jasmine, noyon tara, hasnahena, marigold, botam-ful, wood rose, jasmine, jui, madhobilata and dopati. There are also more than 20 types of fruit trees including mango, lichee, malta, sharifa, pomegranate, orange, papaya, guava, grapes, coconut, lemon, Thai lemon, cashew nut, pistachios and cloves.
Alongside those who come to buy flowers and fruits here, the garden attracts a huge number oflocal visitors everyday.
The man-in-charge of the garden Amiruzzaman Choudhury said he buys saplings from different areas of the country and from India forthegarden.
There are 10,000 garbera plants ontwo flower beds in the garden. The saplings were bought from India at Tk 225 each. Five thousand saplings were planted two years ago and another 5,000 added this year.
There are eleven types of garberas here of different colours. The origin of these flowers is the Netherlands.
Two thousand garberas are sent to Dhaka by bus for sale at a time. A total of 8,000 garberas are sold a week from this garden. The average income from this garden is around Tk 2,56,000 a month from the sale of around32,000 garberas.
These flowers are sold at varying prices from Tk 8 to 10 per piece during winter while the price may fall to as low as Tk 2 per piece in Ramadan.
The bulk sale of other varieties of flowers hasn't begun yet from the garden.
Flower seller Fazlu Chowdhury of Shahbagh in the capital said he buys garberas from the garden in Manikganj.
Alongside the manager, there are eight full-time employees in the garden. They cultivate, nurse, pluck and pack flowers.
Although the garden began its journey out of the simple aspect of a man's love for flowers, Spectra Garden is now a full-blown business venture and has created jobs for locals, Amiruzzaman said.