NEW DELHI: The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is set to plant three lakh imported tulip bulbs across the city in the coming season while working to reduce dependence on imports through local cultivation. The civic body harvested around 40,000 bulbs in previous seasons, of which 24,000 will be replanted. It also plans to develop a tulip garden at the Nehru Park.
Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Tuesday visited the NDMC nursery at the Lodi Garden. During the visit, he took stock of the tulip growth and storage chamber, composting facilities, cactus house and the machinery used for horticultural maintenance.
The NDMC came up with the idea of growing tulips locally and gradually reducing dependence on imports back in 2022. The initiative has yielded encouraging results. Approximately 40,000 tulip bulbs of different sizes that were harvested in previous seasons are stored in a growth and storage chamber at the garden. Out of these, approximately 24,000 bulbs will be planted in the NDMC area for flowering purposes, and rest will be utilised for trials to enhance the size of bulbs in growth chamber.
The civic body has a long-standing tradition of planting tulips in the areas falling under it. Approximately 4.67 lakh tulip bulbs are set to be procured for the NDMC and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) areas, comprising three lakh bulbs for the NDMC and 1.67 lakh bulbs for the latter.
