Srinagar: Asia’s largest tulip garden just got larger, and this year is opening earlier than usual for visitors – on the 25th of March. Officials of the Floriculture department said on Wednesday that almost 1.5 million (15 lakh) tulips, three lakh more than the 12 lakh flowers seen in past years, will be in bloom at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden, among them 12 new varieties of tulips which have never seen before in this garden.
Every year, the garden is opened for the public in the starting week of April. Last year, 12 lakh flowers and 50 varieties of tulips bloomed in the garden. This year, the authorities with the help of gardeners, labourers and other workers are going to open the garden for visitors early, on 25th March.
Ever since it opened, the tulip garden has given a boost to tourism in Kashmir. Though last year due to the pandemic, it hardly saw any visitors, but this year the authorities have added new varieties of flowers and installed new fountains to catch the eye. Officials said they hoped that a large number of tourists and locals would come and enjoy the scenic beauty of the garden.
Farooq Ahmad, Director of the Floriculture department, told Kashmir Reader, “We have made some changes in design and also added new varieties of tulip flowers in the garden. Every year, 40 to 50 varieties of flowers which comprise almost 12 lakh flowers bloom in this garden, but this year for the first time 1.5 million (15 lakh) tulip flowers are ready to bloom, among them 12 new varieties.”
He added, “This year the weather has been good and the mercury has risen early, so the authorities decided to open the garden earlier. The tulips are almost ready and now it depends on the weather how long they stay in bloom. The average life of a tulip flowers is 20 days and it starts to fall by late April.”
The tulip garden is situated in the heart of Zabarwan mountains of Srinagar and spans across an area of 120 acres.

Naveed Ahmad Najar