“At present, our repository stores around 110 varieties of gladioli found in Sikkim, Darjeeling and several other parts of the country,” said an NBRI scientist.

Head of NBRI’s floriculture section Dr B K Banerji said, “Under our trait-specific flower breeding project, we are developing novel varieties of gladioli through hybridisation techniques. We intend to develop gladioli with unique colours that do not exist in nature.”

For producing designer flowers, NBRI has chosen ‘snow princess’ — a gladiolus with silky white flowers. The reason behind the selection is, said scientists: “Firstly, snow princess is not prone to diseases. Secondly, its vegetative growth is good. Third, owing to its white-coloured flowers we get more opportunities for designing different-coloured flowers.”