Srinagar: Waterfalls, fountains & 1.5 million blooms to add to Tulip Garden’s allure

At least 60 gardeners are working round the clock at the iconic Tulip Garden, one of the biggest in Asia, to make sure that the bloom of the sea of flowers starts by March 20

With 1.5 million tulips of 68 varieties expected to bloom in Srinagar’s Tulip Garden, the visitors will also be enjoying water features as gardeners and engineers are busy extending the channels to add waterfalls and a high-rise fountain on the top of the terraced garden.

Gardeners at work at the Tulip Garden in Srinagar. The garden, said to be Asia’s largest, is scheduled to open after March 20. (Waseem Andrabi /Hindustan Times)

At least 60 gardeners are working round the clock at the iconic garden, one of the biggest in Asia, to make sure that the bloom of the sea of flowers starts by March 20.

“We have more bulbs this time than the previous year. Over 15 lakh bulbs of 68 varieties have been laid besides other spring blooming plants like hyacinth, daffodil, muscari, cyclamens,” said Inam ul Rehman, incharge (Tulip Garden), floriculture department.

“The central fountain channel has been extended to the upper terraces. Work on the high-rise fountain is in full swing. It will be inaugurated with the commencement of the tulip festival,” he added.

The garden is divided into 36 plots with 16-18 beds in each. There are three parks inside the garden as well, where visitors can sit and have an immersive experience in a sea of colours flanked by Zabarwan mountain range. Various small ornamental plants adorn the sides of numerous by-lanes of the garden.

The newly added features will augment the magnificent 30-hectare terraced tulip garden at Siraj Bagh on banks of majestic Dal Lake.

Usually, the tulip bloom starts by late March. The average life of a tulip flower is 20 days and can stretch up to 25 with overall bloom getting extended by adding late-blooming varieties of tulips.

The temperature-sensitive flowers need mercury to stay above 15 degrees and below 25 degrees.

Rehman said they are hoping that the weather remains warm, so that the bloom starts early. “The opening of the garden depends on the climate. A few weeks of February were warm, but the past few days were chilly and wet. The garden can open any day after March 20,” he added.

The garden played an important part in wooing more tourists during the spring last year, particularly after the Covid disruptions in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the garden saw 3.6 lakh visitors, including tourists and locals, against 2.3 lakh in 2021.

Last year, over 26 lakh tourists had visited Kashmir, and the arrivals this year are also looking encouraging. February itself saw more than one lakh tourists thronging Kashmir, especially its three known destinations of Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonmarg.

The opening of Tulip Garden in March is expected to open the flood gates of tourists into Srinagar as well. The authorities are also mulling to add the proposed cherry blossom garden on the pattern of world-famous Japanese sakura parks. “There will be a requirement of about 2,500 cherry trees in the first phase, for which certain varieties have been identified that will suit our place. The plan is to have the sakura park as an extension of the Tulip Garden,” Rehman said.

Kashmir’s connection with tulips traces its origin back to hundreds of years when the flowers were grown on muddy rooftops of houses. Gradually, people started planting them in kitchen gardens and flower beds till 2005-06, when the then state government decided to convert Siraj Bagh into a regal tulip garden, keeping up with Kashmir’s historical ties with the flower variety.