Bangladesh is a country of six seasons, and trees can be planted here all year round. But the monsoon brings gathering clouds and heavy rain, and autumn brings clouds drifting like cotton and sudden showers. This rainy season is the best time to plant saplings. Ashar-Shrabon and Bhadro-Ashwin — these four months of ample rain are the ideal season for planting trees.
With the planting season ahead, the “National Tree Fair 2026” has again begun at the old trade fair ground at Agargaon in the capital.
World Environment Day and the Environment Fair 2026 and the National Tree Planting Campaign and Tree Fair 2026 were opened on the theme “Let us adorn the country by planting trees — Bangladesh before all.” Prime Minister Tarique Rahman opened the two events at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the capital at 11.30am on 9 July. The National Tree Fair 2026 is open every day from 9am to 9pm. It began on 9 July and will run until 8 August.
The fair and what to know
Good-quality saplings are needed for new planting, and the tree fair is one of the main places to meet that need. As in every year, the month-long national tree fair is running again. Lovers of greenery will find saplings of many kinds of fruit, timber, medicinal and ornamental trees here. The fair ground is busy with an abundance of green. This year’s fair has around two and a half thousand species of plants.
According to the forest department, 120 stalls are taking part in the national tree fair in Dhaka this year. They include 22 double nursery stalls, 47 single nursery stalls, 14 non-nursery stalls and 10 government nursery stalls. For visitors’ convenience, the fair ground also has a forest department control room, an information centre, medical or first-aid facilities, a breastfeeding corner, a rest room for the elderly and a media corner. One of the main attractions of this year’s fair is the variety of domestic and foreign fruit, flower, medicinal and ornamental saplings. The fair has been arranged in particular around indoor plants — those suited to enclosed spaces inside the home.
At the fair it is the colourful fruit hanging on the trees, rather than the flowers, that catches every eye. On entering the fair this year, rows of mango trees hung with ripe and unripe mangoes draw everyone’s attention. Among the mangoes are many colourful varieties — the red and pink Chiang Mai, King Ab Chakapat, Japan’s Miyazaki and the American Red Palmer. There are also colourful rambutan, latkan, pomegranate, blackberry, avocado, Egyptian fig, star fruit, sapodilla, dewa, velvet apple, custard apple, sharifa, lemon, pomelo, litchi, guava, dragon fruit, strawberry, kiwi, cashew, persimmon, Vietnamese jackfruit, abiu, Amazonian yellow sapodilla, amla and various other fruit trees.
The fair also has around a thousand species of ornamental plants and foliage, of which the indoor plants are catching buyers’ eyes. Among the ornamentals are sansevieria, petunia, anthurium, aglaonema, monstera, lucky bamboo, huperzia, air plants, exotic orchids and bougainvillea. There are also rare medicinal plants, cacti, bamboo of many kinds (about 60 varieties) and saplings of various wild and timber trees.
As a special attraction there are elegant bonsai trees as much as 40 years old. Bonsai at the fair are priced from six thousand taka up to one lakh 80 thousand taka depending on the type.
Among the flowers are roses, hibiscus, gerbera, allamanda, frangipani and bougainvillea, as well as aquatic flowers such as lotus and water lily. There are orchids in many colours that hang without soil. There are also green cacti ringed with thorns and cacti with colourful crowns.
It is not only plants: there are also the things needed for planting them — organic fertiliser, sickles, weeders, spades, gloves, watering cans and various other garden accessories. There is also the chance to take free gardening advice. Buyers and visitors at the tree fair are delighted at the sight of the many kinds and species of fruit and flowering plants. Some express amazement at the elegant display of greenery on such a broad scale. The number of buyers and the love of plants rise every year, a positive sign of public awareness and interest.
Fuad Mallik and Monira came to the fair from Uttara with their whole family. Monira said they come to the tree fair three or four times every year, and enjoy it when they do. They have a rooftop garden, and everyone in the family, young and old, loves plants. They are a tree-loving family. They came to the fair to buy plants for that garden, and bought litchi, mango and orchid plants.
One plant lover who came to the fair from Jatrabari said they had come to buy saplings from the fair mainly to build a rooftop garden. A buyer from Azimpur, Mahidul Islam, said he was moved to see such a collection of mango trees at the fair this year. He came to buy saplings of year-round fruit. Many nursery stalls can be found together at the fair, which is why he is more interested in it. He too came to the fair with his wife and daughter.
Samira, a student who came to buy plants to brighten her balcony and her own room, said: “I really like looking at plants, so I came to the fair. I would like to buy some pretty flowering plants and cacti for my balcony.” Several nursery owners who had come from Rangpur, Kishoreganj and Savar said their nurseries have around 500 species of plants in all.
Asked about prices, they said they sell plants at the fair every year at far lower prices than at the nursery.
Sellers are selling plants at prices ranging from 100 taka up to 30 thousand taka depending on species and age.
Nirab Ahmed, who is taking part in the fair, said: “It has been raining a good deal since the fair began; buyers and visitors come as soon as the rain eases. They walk round the fair and buy some plants they like. This year’s fair can be expected to be better than last year’s.”
The conservator of forests on duty at the fair from the forest department, Omar Faruk, said: “It has been raining since the fair began, but even so there is considerable interest among visitors. We hope this year will go much better than the target.”
You can visit with the family and see more than a hundred stalls set out with green and varied flowers, fruit, creepers and trees of many kinds — the elegant setting of the open ground in front of the stalls and the dense arrangement of greenery. You can enjoy the fruit of many colours and kinds, domestic and foreign, hanging from the branches. The fair has a wealth of fruit. The sight of hundreds of kinds of flowers, named and unknown, will delight the eye and charm the mind, which will lose itself in the touch of many kinds of beautiful and near-extinct trees.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report