Million Tulips Bloom At World’s Largest Tulip Garden
Srinagar: About 12 lakh bulbs in more than 60 colours will greet the guests in Siraj Bagh, one of the world’s largest tulip garden, situated at the foot of the Zabarwan Hills, being thrown open for public from March 20.
All these tulips will be in bloom in the first week of April, said an official adding, the garden will however, be opened for public from March 20.
From this year, we have decided to make it a round-the-year destination for tourists and locals, visiting the garden, he said.
The garden inaugurated by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in the last week of March 2008was rechristned as Indira Gandhi Tulip Garden.
The tourist season was extended in the Kashmir valley by about a month as tourists start arriving in the valley in the month of May.
The official said the tulip season generally comes to an end in the last week of April.
To make it attractive even when the tulip season is over, we have decided to grow other flowers in the garden. This, he said, will not in any way affect tulips but these flowers will bloom in other seasons also. Lakhs of people–local, students and tourists visited the garden last year. It also attracted Bollywood and a number of scenes of several films were also shot in the garden.
The Asia’s largest garden was completed after a workforce of about 400 labourers and gardeners finished the task by working round the clock in three shifts, to give the final touches to the garden, before opening its beautifully-built gate plaza for the visitors.
In all, 60 varieties of early, mid, late and very late blooming tulips will spread a rainbow of red, orange, purple, white, pink, parrot and yellow colours in the garden.