Asia's
largest Tulip garden in Srinagar has been thrown open for public. The garden in the foothills of Zabarwan Range was opened for visitors today despite
inclement weather have delayed blooming of most of the bulbs.
An
official of the Floriculture Department said only about 50 to 60 ,000 bulbs
have bloomed but they expect about 10 lakh bulbs to fully bloom in the next
five or six days.
Formerly
known as Siraj Bagh, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip garden was opened in 2008
by the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. The garden has 120 varieties in
the 15-hectare garden. It has a total of 1.5 million tulips. Its opening marks
the beginning of a new tourism season in Kashmir Valley.
Facts - Tulip
ü Currently,
there are around 75 wild species of tulips and 150 species in total with over
3000 varieties.
ü The
word tulip is derived from a Persian word called delband, which means turban. It is generally believed that it was
called this due to the turban-shaped nature of the flower. However, this might
have been a translation error as it was fashionable to wear tulips on turbans
at the time.
ü Tulips
are perennials (a plant that lives for more than 2 years), they bloom in
spring, usually for only 3-7 days.
ü Tulips
grow from bulbs and being native to mountainous areas the tulip needs a period of cold dormancy, known as
vernalization. So they should be planted in the fall (Autumn) and thrive best
in climates with cool springs and dry summers.
ü Tulips
normally have one flower per stem, however a few species have up to 4 flowers
on a single stem.
ü Tulips
are a part of the lily family.
ü The
tulip is native to central Asia and eventually made its way to Turkey. But it
was when the flower was first cultivated
in the Netherlands that it really came to prominence.
ü The
Dutch obsession with tulips began with Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius. When he was made director of Leiden University's
new Hortus Botanicus (botanical garden) in 1593 he planted some of his own
tulip bulbs. As a result, 1594 is considered the official date of tulips first
blooming in Holland.
ü Carolus
Clusius was also the first person to identify "broken tulips" which
is a viral infection that caused beautiful streaks in the petals. Clusius would
go on to create many new color variations of tulips.
ü Today,
the Netherlands is still the world's main producer of commercially sold tulips,
producing as many as 3 billion bulbs annually, mostly for export.
ü Tulip
petals are actually able to be eaten, during the Dutch famine of 1944 in WWII
people often had to resort to eating sugar beets and tulips.
ü The
tulip is the national flower or Turkey and Afghanistan.
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