Delhi: City’s tulip gardens go local: 50,000 indigenous bulbs bloom this spring

New Delhi's Tulip bloom features 50,000 locally grown tulips, reducing imports and enhancing city aesthetics, as part of LG Saxena's vision.

New Delhi: This year, the Tulip bloom in New Delhi incorporates 50,000 locally grown Tulips as part of the indigenisation of the Tulip cycle and reducing the import bill, officials said.

The initiative to grow tulips locally was launched in 2022.  (RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO)

The LG secretariat in an official statement on Wednesday said that the blossoming of 50,000 locally grown tulips this spring marks a significant step towards fulfilling LG Vinai Kumar Saxena’s vision. “A visionary idea was to grow tulips locally, reducing our dependence on imports and enhancing the city’s aesthetic appeal for tourists, adding colour and charm to Delhi’s cityscape,” the Lok Niwas stated.

An NDMC official said that out of 50,000 indigenous tulip bulbs, 29,000 were developed at NDMC’s Lodhi Garden climate-controlled chamber, while the remaining 21,000 bulbs were developed by the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT-CSIR) at Palampur in Himachal Pradesh.

NDMC began importing tulip bulbs in 2017 at a cost of ₹25 per unit. The initiative to grow tulips locally was launched in 2022.

An official said that once the bulbs are harvested after blooming in February-March, they are stored in a climate-controlled storage chamber at 15–20 degrees Celsius for three months until July

. “They are later kept under low temperature of 5-6 degrees Celsius for 10 weeks till first week of October. Around the first week of October these bulbs are put into the production chain by sowing them in a growth chamber at a temperature of 17-20 degrees Celsius with the aim to increase the size of the bulbs to at least 10cm,” the official explained. In the first unit, NDMC claimed to have achieved more than a 70% survival rate in the facility; however, it faced issues with the size of the flowers from reused bulbs.

The NDMC began tulip plantation in 2017 with a pilot project of 17,000 bulbs. It purchased 62,800 bulbs in 2021, 140,000 in 2022, 200, 000 in 2023, and 325,000 in 2024. An NDMC official said that a total of 517,500 tulip bulbs have been procured this year, out of which 325,000 bulbs are for NDMC and 192,500 bulbs are for the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

“Of the NDMC share, approximately 225,000 tulip bulbs are planted at locations such as Shanti Path, Central Park at Connaught Place, Convention Centre, Lodhi Garden, Talkatora Garden, Sardar Patel Marg, Mandi House, Windsor Place, Sher Shah Suri Marg, and roundabouts near the Vice President’s House, while around 100,000 tulip bulbs are planted in pots and made available for purchase by the general public,” the official added.

NDMC was planning to launch its Tulip festival on February 17; however, the event was postponed indefinitely citing “strict security measures for India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi area.”