lucknow always looking for stories that link britain and india it was a chance discovery of a name in the book that led historian rosie llewellynjones to a story untold till nowthe name was sydney percylancaster a passionate gardener and advisor at national botanic garden nbgnow national botanical research institutein lucknow the 1960s who had developed several varieties of bougainvillea and other flowers and made lucknow his homehowever sitting in london rosie could not find much information on lancaster and thus sought help from her friend and citybased educationist amrita dassas dass started looking for links she was more than pleasantly surprised when she came to know that an acquaintance of hers had spent years working with the the great gardenersc sharma former director grade scientist at nbri had had a close association with lancaster from 1964 to 1966 when sharma was appointed as the superintendent of nbg in 1964 at the age of 26 lancaster was the senior technical adviser in the garden and lived thereon wednesday rosie along with a group of british tourists and dass led by sharma visited what sharma remembers as the lancaster house in nbrilancaster joined nbg after retiring from the agri horticulture society of india in kolkata in the 1960s when india got independence lancaster chose not to leave unlike many of his peersa gifted horticulturist lancaster is credited with introducing many plants to india from abroad and developed hybrid varieties of several flowers found in indian gardenslancasters contribution is immense he had a practical approach to horticulture and believed in doing things he lived in the garden itself and and was loner but gradually started sharing his precious knowledge with us recalls sharmaone of lancasters most well known discoveries is the mary palmer variety of bougainvillea magenta in colour they are named after the english woman whose garden lancaster was looking after in kolkataafter his stint in nbg lancaster went to dehradun to live with his friends in 1966 a year later he visited sharma and lived with him in his house in butler palace colony before eventually returning to dehradun