SRINAGAR: Asia’s largest tulip garden in Srinagar, housing a flower carpet of 17 lakh tulips of 74 varieties with different colours and fragrances, will be thrown open to visitors after March 20.
The tulip garden is spread over 450 kanals of land and is situated along the banks of the famous Dal lake and at the foothills of the Zabarwan mountain range.
“This year the garden will have 17 lakh tulips of 74 varieties including two new ones. The tulips will provide a new and more picturesque look to the garden,” said assistant floriculture officer (AFO) Tulip Garden Asif Ahmad.
Over 100 gardeners including casual labourers are busy preparing the flower carpet for over a month’s show.
“It takes 11 months of hard work to prepare the garden for the month-long Tulip show. Different processes and works take place during different seasons,” said a gardener.
“We work in harsh winters and summers and every flower here carries our sweat and soul.”
The gardener have planted early, mid and late varieties of tulips in the garden. “We plant the tulips accordingly to keep the garden open for a month and allow visitors to see tulips of different colours and varieties in full bloom,” said the gardener.
The carpet of flowers of different colours gives the feeling of paradise and the floral spectacle attracts tourists from across the country and abroad. “Tulips need low temperatures for survival. If temperature during bloom increases, then we have to irrigate the garden with care so as to not hurt the flower. We have to irrigate at night. We cannot spray water on the flowers or they will get damaged,” said a casual labourer.
According to AFO Asif, besides 74 varieties of tulips, there would also be daffodils, hyacinth, muscari, supreme blossomed bulbs and trees in full bloom in the garden during the Tulip season.
Asked when the garden will be thrown open, he said it would be thrown open “after March 20”.
On whether the present downpour in Srinagar will affect Tulip bloom, Asif said the precipitation in March is good for the flowers’ growth. “It needs overcast conditions because if the temperature increases it will bloom early and won’t last longer.”
The carpet of flowers, which gives a feeling of paradise, draws a lot of tourists and locals every year. In 2024, a record 4.50 lakh tourists visited the garden and saw lakhs of tulip bulbs of myriad colours in full bloom.
The Tulip garden has become one of the major tourist attractions of the valley since it was inaugurated in 2007 by then Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. The opening of the garden has advanced the tourism season in Kashmir and it signals the arrival of spring.