Godkhali Flower Fields

Godkhali, on the road from Jashore to the Benapole border, is where Bangladesh grows its flowers: the villages around it turned to floriculture from the 1980s and now supply the bulk of the national cut-flower market, with fields of roses, marigold, gladioli, tuberose and gerbera in blocks of colour across the flat land, worked intensively and cut before dawn for the markets. The best time is the winter flowering, and the fields peak around the February holidays, Valentine's Day and the language movement day, for which the whole country buys flowers. An early morning at the Godkhali market, with cycle-loads of cut stems moving out, is the working heart of it. Growers are used to visitors walking the field edges.

What you actually see

• Blocks of flower colour - roses, marigold and gladioli across the flats.
• The dawn flower market - cut stems moving out by the cycle-load.
• Tuberose and gerbera fields - the range the villages grow.
• The February peak - the fields at their fullest before the holidays.

When to go

December to February, with the peak before the mid-February holidays; mornings for the market and the light. Half a day. The fields are private; walk the edges and ask before entering.

Honest expectations

It is farmland, not a garden, and spraying and working go on around you. The market is over by mid-morning. Outside winter the fields are ordinary crops. The road is the busy border highway.

Nearby

Jashore is east; the Benapole border lies west.