New Delhi Municipal Council to start local cultivation of tulips for spring festival

NEW DELHI: With a successful Tulip Festival this year, conducted for G-20 beautification of the city, the New Delhi Municipal Council is gearing up to indigenise the flower specie for local cultivation as the council plans to showcase it every year.

Officials said that the flower will be grown locally. Wilted tulip bulbs will be collected and fresh ones will be created out of them as an experiment, they added. They said the bulbs will be allowed to dry up in the soil for one month and then will be stored in low temperature

The council imported 1,40,000 tulip bulbs this year from the Netherlands and planted them at Shanti Path lawns for the festival which took place from February 14 to February 26.  The NDMC is planning to collaborate with the CSIR Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology for the experiment. The researchers will study the survival period of the flower by exposing it to different climatic conditions.

“As the festival is expected to be held annually, the number of flowers will have to be increased. We plan to undertake the research and development process so that its production can be replicated,” a senior official said. Officials said that the move will save the money which the civic body utilises in importing the flower at Rs 30-40 per unit.

 The NDMC imported the tulip bulbs in December last year and planted them by month-end. Officials said that it takes 30-40 days for the tulips to bloom between February and early March. The early rise in temperature this March led to premature wilting of the flowers, they added.