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Light Orange Daliya flowers at Botanical Gardens, Hakgala. Botanic garden at Hakgala is the second largest gardens in Sri Lanka situated in salubrious environment near the capital city of the hill country. It provides charm and cold atmosphere with picturesque beauty by its own landscape and many blooms seen in various sections in garden. It enhances natural beauty by small water steams run across the garden and wooden bridges built over them. The main reason caused to establish the garden at Hakgala was cultivation and promotion of Cinchona, a tree of commerce in Sri Lanka. The garden was established in 1861 with the auspices of Mr G.H.W. Thawaites then director of Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya and M.R. W. MacNichholl was the pioneer curator of the gardens. Later, the garden was used for experimentation of tea cultivation in up country and then garden was developed to a botanical direction since Mr William Nock was appointed as a curator in 1884. Many sub tropical and some temperate plants were introduced and planted in the gardens.