BENGALURU: Bengaluru is known for its avenue roads, lined with wide-canopied raintrees and gulmohars. They were planned by the German botanist GH Krumbiegel, who is also credited with meticulous detailing of the city’s greenscape and bringing many exotic plants to Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens. But his great granddaughter Alyia Phelps Gardiner knew little of him and thought he was a regular “gardener” in Bengaluru.
55-year-old Alyia was speaking at an interaction arranged by The Mythic Society on Tuesday. She said that her family had no idea little knowledge about the legend Krumbiegel was and now she wants to actively work on educating her grandchildren about him.
’It’s Too Late’
“We never really dicussed how great he was,” she said. “So much history has been lost. My grandmother (Hilda, Krumbiegel’s first daughter) is not here now. I always knew about him but maybe not to the extent that I should have. I think my grandmother never wanted to come to the UK. She did not like England. When she came back, she did not share enough history and maybe I should have pushed her for more... it is too late.”
Krumbiegel, a German by birth, was appointed by Krishna Raja Wodeyar, the then ruler of Mysore, to work on developing the layouts of gardens in the city. Krumbiegel succeeded to the post after John Cameron. Krumbiegel has worked on numerous gardens and structured a layout for a green belt which was called ‘eco zone’.
Alyia came upon his legacy by chance. “I was reading up on history, swiping on the tablet, when I suddenly saw this headline, ‘Looking for Krumbiegel’ and that’s how it started.”
That was in 2015 and she realised that she had “just missed” the Lal Bagh flower show, which was dedicated to Krumbiegel. “If I had seen it earlier, I wouldn’t have missed the show,” she said.
Letters and Photographs
Alyia forgot to carry her family’s possession of Krumbiegel’s letters and photographs before coming to India and is sorry for it. “I had left all of them at home,” she said. “I have got letters, envelopes, everything in it.” There were only four photographs with that bunch. “When my great grandmother and grandmother had to leave the country, they were only given a little time,” she said. “So they just grabbed what they could. This was when they all had to leave after Independence. They had to get out of the house very quickly.”
Krumbiegel’s great granddaugther’s possessions include a couple of letters addressed to Lal Bagh, the horticulturist’s address during his stay in the city. Since her discovery, Alyia got in touch with Narayana Swamy, former senior assistant director of Horticulture, who met Alyia at the ‘Krumbiegel Show’ in Dresden in 2016.
Discovering an ‘Amazing’ Man
Her family members rarely discussed Krumbiegel’s work. Alyia said, “I always knew that he was here “(in Bengaluru), but I never knew the extent of it all (his work).” Hilda, who was twelve at that time, the first of Krumbiegel’s daughters used to a lot of typing for her father. “I never pushed her for more stories. I think she was always very upset about leaving,” said Alyia about her grandmother.
“I kept seeing photographs of him,” said Alyia, “I always thought he was a gardner. That’s what I thought. And that he is not so much more than that. He was an amazing man. He did so much.”
Alyia designs interiors for kitchens, bedrooms and washrooms in London. No one in the family has shown an inclination for gardening. “I want this history to continue,” said Alyia. “I want to document everything. I want to bring my three grandchildren here.”
She plans to visit India every year and plans on attend the flower show. “I would like to carry on his vision. I am not sure how yet, but I’ll work on that,” she said.
Krumbiegel was married to Katie Claira, who was from Wales. They had three daughters, Hilda, Freeda and Vera. Krumbiegel is said to have had seven brothers and a sister but Alyia said that any attempt to trace them might be in vain. “If I go by his letters, he didn’t seem to have any lasting links with Germany,” she said.