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If you want KR Market’s flower lanes at their best, go before 7 am, when the market is still running on muscle memory and not mundane tourist curiosity. This is Bengaluru’s big wholesale heart, and the action starts early because temples, weddings, pujas, and florists across the city all buy in bulk before traffic properly wakes up.
The first thing you notice is the inventory. Heaps of orange and yellow marigolds dominate the scene, while jasmine (mallige) is everywhere, being turned into gajras and long, tight strings at a speed that looks unreal. Roses and chrysanthemums show up by the sack, and on heavy festival weeks, you will also hear vendors talk rates for kanakambara (fragrant golden flowers used in garlands), which can spike when demand is high.
The flower activity sits inside the KR Market complex and around its flower lanes, where many sellers operate from numbered stalls. For example, listings inside KR Market include No. B-46, Shop No. 106, and other marked spots like B-103 and 65B. These numbers help when you are trying to return to the same vendor, or when you want to ask a seller for “that shop number” instead of waving vaguely into the chaos.
For concrete navigation, aim for the ‘Inside Flower Market’ stretch along Krishna Devaraj Road, where many shops are numbered and clustered together, and the lanes spill outward into tight corridors where scooters and handcarts squeeze through. If you want an easy public-transport entry point, the Krishna Rajendra Market Metro Station is right here in Kalasipalya on the Green Line, so you can arrive without negotiating parking first thing in the morning.
The atmosphere is loud and practical, with sellers calling out prices and buyers inspecting flowers by the fistful. The floors are often damp from constant washing and crushed petals, so wear shoes that can handle a little grime, and keep your phone away because your hands will be busy dodging people, baskets, and the occasional scooter nose.
Grab breakfast afterwards at a darshini nearby and you’ll feel like you’ve lived a full day before most people have opened their laptops.
KR, by the way, stands for Krishnarajendra. It’s a tribute to the twenty-fourth Maharaja of Mysore. The bus stand near the market was once a key site during the Third Anglo-Mysore War, given that it was something of a buffer zone between Bangalore Fort – which was seized – and the town.
The vibe
Loud, colourful, energetic and unapologetically real.
The highlight
Watching jasmine and kanakambara get turned into perfect garlands in real time, while marigold piles sit like miniature hills all around you.
Good to know
The lanes can be slippery in the early hours because the floors are washed down and petals get crushed underfoot.
Time Out tip: Do one slow loop inside the flower market lanes first, then step out for a quick darshini breakfast nearby when the buying rush starts thinning out.
Address
K R Market (City Market), Kalasipalya, Bengaluru
Hours
4.30am to 8am for peak flower activity
Price
Free