SRINAGAR: As autumn in Kashmir has traditionally been associated with the sight of fallen Chinar leaves carpeting the landscape, the theme-based chrysanthemum garden in Srinagar featuring 12 million blooms is set to offer visitors a colourful new attraction in autumn and extend the Valley’s floral tourism season into early winter.
The garden, a flagship project of the Department of Floriculture, has been expanded and upgraded this year with larger flower beds, landscaped spaces, a decorative plaza, a water feature and selfie points to enhance the visitor experience. The bloom is expected to last until early December.
Known as Bagh-e-Gul-e-Dawood, the chrysanthemum garden at the Nehru Memorial Botanical Garden in Srinagar is offering visitors another reason to explore the Valley beyond the spring tulip season.
According to Kashmir's Director of Floriculture, Mathoora Masoom, the department has worked to improve the garden compared with last year, increasing both plantation area and number of flowering plants.
“The chrysanthemum garden is the dream project of the Department of Floriculture. This year, we wanted to make it better than last year. We have increased the bed area and planted 3.5 lakh plants, which are expected to produce more than 12 million flowers,” she said.
The department has improved the garden’s infrastructure and aesthetics, including the addition of colourful floral displays and designated selfie points.
“We have tried our best to make this garden a beautiful experience for visitors,” she said.
Describing the garden as an effort to bring spring-like colours to the autumn season in Kashmir, she said the department wanted the attraction to gain popularity comparable to the famous Tulip Garden in spring.
“Our aim is for the chrysanthemum garden to become as popular as the Tulip garden. We do not want any season in Kashmir to be lacklustre. Spring should be associated with tulips and autumn with chrysanthemums,” she said.
Unlike conventional gardens featuring a variety of seasonal blooms, the chrysanthemum garden is a themed garden and is designed around a single flower. Its landscaping incorporates trees such as maples and ginkgoes, whose autumn colours complement the chrysanthemums and add to the seasonal landscape.
The garden is expected to help bridge the tourism gap between summer and winter, when the changing colours of chinar trees were Kashmir’s main attraction.
People are enquiring about the chrysanthemum displays even before the garden’s opening.
Masoom expressed hope that the theme-based chrysanthemum garden would lure more tourists to Kashmir during autumn, offering them a reason to explore the Valley beyond its spring and winter destinations.
According to the Director of Floriculture, the chrysanthemum flower is different from tulips and its time span is long enough.
“It will last at least one and a half months. It can last till December 5 or 6. And even if there is a slight snowfall, it can withstand that as it is a hardy flower and its life span is longer than tulips,” she said.
The Floriculture Department hopes the chrysanthemum garden will establish autumn as another key tourism season in Kashmir.