Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip garden, previously Model Floriculture Center, is a tulip garden in Srinagar, India. It is the largest tulip garden in Asia spread over an area of about 30 hectares. It is situated in the foothills of Zabarwan Range with an overview of Dal Lake. The garden was opened in 2007 with the aim to boost floriculture and tourism in Kashmir Valley.
The garden is built on a sloping ground in a terraced fashion consisting of seven terraces. Apart from tulips, many other species of flowers - hyacinths, daffodils, and ranunculus have been added as well.
This garden cradles in the gentle slopes of the mighty Zabarwan hills. It is flanked by a manicured lush green golf course in the north and the pristine Dal Lake almost washes its entrance to the west.
Antiquity and an ambience of timeless regality are bestowed by the nearby Chashme Shahi and Pari Mahal complexes to this Tulip Garden.
An entry into this garden is akin to savoring paradise as God intended it to be. The eye gets riveted to the numerous PARALLEL running rows of more than a MILLION multi-colored tulip flowers.
The garden is full of red, orange, yellow, purple and mauve tulips to name a few. Apart from them there are numerous multi-colored hybrid flowers too. Nature has liberally run riot with the color combinations of these hybrid flowers.
The flowers too have their own distinctly varied shapes. Some are hemispherical like turbans, others are elongated, many have scattered petals or simply loose and upward flowing petals and sepals that look like erupting flames.
A gentle uphill climb brings us to the delightful fruit trees that dot the rim of this garden. The slender branches of these trees are covered with different coloured buds and flowers. Since these trees at this time have not yet re-grown their leaves after the winter; the abundant luscious flowers look divine when viewed against a dazzling blue sky.
Beyond the trees, further upslope, the Pari Mahal benignly smiles at the tulip scapes, much like an aging queen smilingly admires her feminine progeny coming of age. Gazing downhill the eye runs along the striped mosaic of tulips, created by compactly laid complimentary and contrasting colored flowers that appear to reach all the way down to the shore of the Dal Lake.