The department of floriculture these days is busy giving final touches to the garden ahead of its opening, which has been for the past decade now signaled the start of Kashmirs tourism season.
More than a million tulips are about to bloom alongside scented hyacinths in Asias largest tulip garden at the foothills of Zabarwan mountain in Srinagar.
The garden was ranked the fourth among the worlds biggest tulip gardens by the World Tulip Society in 2017.
“If it remains sunny, we are expecting tulips to bloom anytime between last week of March and first week of April. This season we are expecting 2 lakh visitors to the garden,” said Sheikh Altaf, assistant floriculture officer and in charge of the garden.
About 50 varieties of tulips of varied colors and hues will be at display. Continuing with the past practice, the department has imported 5 lakh tulip bulbs from Holland, while the rest have sourced from the departments own stores.
This year additional attractions are ornamental plants on the top terrace of the garden, tulip trees along the sides and a lighting system so that visitors can stay beyond evening hours.
Also, this season, about 15000 scented hyacinths have been planted in the garden.
“This season we have installed ornamental plants section on one hectare of land on the top terrace of the garden. It includes forsythia, quince japonica and other ornamentals of plum, apple and peach for added decoration which will bloom alongside tulips in the garden,” said Altaf.
A ramp for the disabled has also been built, he added.
“Tulip garden has an important place in our tourism. In fact all our tourism campaigns mention it. Our ads in national dailies are all about tulip garden,” said director Tourism Nisar Ahmad Wani.
Wani said the department will also organize "Tulip Festival" to attract visitors