bangalore passersby hurrying for work through mg road often miss a burst of refreshing colour located at the beginning of mg road is the mahatma gandhi corporation park even a glimpse will tell you the flowerbeds here can be a soothing sight after a hard days work this fairly big space is a harmonious blend of green and radiant colour from 10 am to 7pm the government has introduced a compulsory ecofee for every visitor its part of our maintanence the fee will discourage rag pickers and miscreants from misusing the park and throwing litter around says k jairam horticultural superintendant bangalore east the fee exists in just two public gardens in bangalore the other one being the hanumanthanagar park the corporation took over this park in 1955 and since then this has been one of the prime parks in the city a statue of mahatma gandhi stands in the centre of the garden and was inaugurated by the then president of the indian national congress many tourists are usually seen frantically clicking away to take home a piece of history divided by well paved and very clean pathways are squares and circles of green lawns filled with interesting trees and flowers right from asters dahlias zinnias sunflowers redblue salvias purple agiratum celosias holly hocks yellow cosmos ixoras canas roses and marigolds the place is filled with atleast 20 varieties of flowers and saying the flowers are huge would be an understatement with hues ranging from bright pink fuchsia red violet blue yellow white the shrubbery having been fed regularly with manure and fertilizer has grown to a large size some of the blooms are fragrant while others are merely ornamental everyone knows the night queen flower says jairam adding but no one knows the day queen or king as some people call it sixteen saplings of the cithralaxin zoobratum have been recently planted this is a white fragrant flower that looks and smells like the night queen but blooms only during the day there are plenty of sunflowers that can really cheer you up in case youre having a bad day you can also find a lot of shade giving trees like champaka polyalthia longifolia jackfruit tabubia avalanadae plumeria although these are just regular trees the bauhinia tree is noteworthy because it bears flowers of many colours ten new pine tree saplings have been planted here the reason pine cannot be planted along bangalore avenues is because it has camphor even a small spark is enough for it to catch fire says jairam plans are on for the rain tree here to be planted on highways since theres more space there according to the corporation the rain tree is extremely broad and is better off in large open spaces instead of the main city six travellers palm trees are spread in the park in the olden days there werent any roadside signs to indicate direction and this particular tree was used for that purpose the name has stuck with