“This is my first visit to Bengaluru and it is unbelievable. The more I am exposed to the great work of Krumbiegel and people who speak of his foresight as a green man and town planning crusader, the more I feel bad that I haven’t been in the loop to learn about that great legacy,” said Alyia Phelps-Gardiner, the great granddaughter of the renowned horticulturist G.H. Krumbiegal. She was at the Mythic Society in the city on Tuesday, where she was invited to be part of a conversation on Krumbiegel.
Krumbiegel was involved in the birth of the Mythic Society and is said to have helped source funds from the royals of Baroda and Mysuru as its treasurer.
“It is only two years since we began getting exposed to information about him. When I was invited to come over to Bengaluru where Krumbiegel is respectfully buried, I felt overwhelmed. I packed my bags as soon as I received the invitation,” said Ms. Gardiner. “The love he receives here has left me speechless.”
Ms. Gardiner, an interior designer who lives in England, will also be a special guest at Lalbagh’s Republic Day flower show from January 20 to 28.
“Krumbiegel has left an imprint on a host of aspects such as town planning, creating tree canopies, and sourcing flora from across the world for the green cover of Mysuru and Bengaluru,” she said.
Ms. Gardiner does not remember her grandmother Hilda (Krumbiegel’s first daughter) telling her much about the great botanist. “I would often push her to tell me stories about India when I was a little girl,” said the 55-year-old, who is in possession of some letters from the time Krumbiegel and his three daughters had lived in India. “But my grandmother had to leave India after independence. She hated leaving ‘her favourite place’.”
S. Narayanaswamy, former Senior Assistant Director of Horticulture, who has chronicled Krumbiegel’s life, said it was at the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Krumbiegel at Dresden, Germany, in 2015 that Ms. Gardiner was witness to the sea of information on her great grandfather. On that occasion, a host of Germans and Indians had spoken of Krumbiegel’s contribution to Bengaluru’s greenery.
“That set her packing her bags to India in order to trace her great grandfather’s green trail,” Mr. Narayanaswamy said.
Ms. Gardiner plans to visit the city regularly and take forward “the green history sown by Krumbiegel”. “I will come back with my daughter and granddaughters to expose them to the work of Krumbiegel. After all, it is sad that so much history has been lost,” said an emotional Ms. Gardiner after visiting Krumbiegal’s grave.
The man behind the gardens
Bengaluru earned the sobriquet ‘Garden City’ because of Krumbiegal’s intervention, says Mr. Narayanaswamy.
“During the Maharaja’s rule, Krumbiegel was recognised and brought over to Baroda from the Kew Gardens of London in 1893. In a few years, Krishnaraja Wadiyar, impressed with the horticulturist’s work for the Baroda royals, brought him to Mysuru. Bengaluru became his home subsequently,” he said.
When the horticulturist died in 1956, the then Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar insisted that his mortal remains be buried at the Methodist Burial Ground on Langford Road, under his favourite African Tulip tree with the epitaph “Whatever he touched, he adorned”.
