Tulip extravaganza

Tulips in bloom in Shiraz Bagh, at the foot of the Zabarwan hills in the Kashmir valley.-

Tulips on thirty hectares in Shiraz Bagh make Kashmirs spring more colourful this year than ever before.

SPRING is always colourful in the Kashmir valley. Tiers of yellow mustard fields are lined by green-leaved poplar and chenar trees. The purple white flowers of almond make way for the white and pink blooms of the apple and pear trees respectively.

But this spring Kashmir has more colour than ever before, added by 1.2 million giant-sized tulips in more than 30 colours and their variegated combinations, tantalisingly arrayed over 30 hectares. One can see 10,000 tulips at a glance, and in more vivacious colours than William Wordsworth could have ever imagined.

Above the eastern bank of Srinagars Dal lake stands the Zabarwan mountain; the famed Chasma Shahi Mughal Garden and Dara Shikohs Observatory called Pari Mahal are located here. At the feet of the mountain sprawls Shiraz Bagh, thoughtlessly renamed the Indira Gandhi Tulip Garden recently. Shiraz, who laid the foundation of this garden, was a general in the Dogra Army about 150 years ago.

Ever since it was opened to the public in the last week of March, thousands of people have been visiting this incredible garden every day. It is worth the Rs.50 entry fee for adults. At the entrance, there is a screen hiding the view to the vast garden. But as one walks past this screen, one lets out an involuntary gasp of astonishment at the heady sight. Row upon row of tulip beds, 50 metres long and 2.5 m wide, stretch far into the horizon. Pink to begin with. Then yellow and red, followed by all colours imaginable. Even black. Then there are variegated tulips in the most fantastic and unimaginable mixture of colours.

To relieve the monotony of tulips, the architects of the park have put in a bed here and there of giant pansies and fragrant hyacinths. But few give them even a side glance. The tulips hog all the attention. Nearly everyone wants to be photographed amongst the tulips, though most do not tiptoe through them but clobber their way through despite the army of gardeners blowing whistles to warn them off.

At the south-eastern end of the park, overlooking the lake and fountains of the adjoining Nehru Botanical Gardens, are a couple of apple trees. This corner looks like a heaven on earth the apple trees with their dark trunks and white abundant blossoms are lapped by a sea of white, red and yellow tulips.

For an all-encompassing view of the tulip park and parts of the Dal lake, one can drive past the adjacent Brin village to Kral Sangari hill. From two bends on this road, the park looks like a handsome carpet. To its south-east and west can be seen the tall fountains in the blue-green lake of the Botanical Gardens and in the slightly murky Dal lake, which is about 500 m away. In between are chenars, willows and poplars, apple trees and even some dark green firs, which were rare in the valley earlier.

It is hard work that has made this tulip garden so beautiful. But surprisingly, those who toil to keep excited sightseers away from the tulip beds and inspect, stake, prune and attend to each of the flowers do so at a daily wage of Rs.70 with no leave or holiday. No uniforms either. And there are 170 of them.

Their work begins in September when they prepare the 7.5 acres (1 acre is 0.4 ha) of beds. Digging, lining them with lime, and manuring them. In late October, they manually plant 1.2 million tulip bulbs. Throughout the freezing winter, they watch over these precious bulbs. If a tulip wilts, they cut it. Some of them are so involved that they can identify most of the varieties of tulips in the garden.

The State Department of Horticulture is planning a rapid expansion of the park to quadruple its size in two years. Next year, there will be several more tiers of plant beds. It will also provide a few amenities that are taken for granted in other parks. Right now, there is hardly any place to sit down, very few trash cans, and no toilets. The only place for refreshment is under a shamiana and it is overflowing with paper cups and tin foils. Some visitors feel that the tulip beds should be arranged more imaginatively. This year all of them are placed in rigid conservative straight lines. And the gaps between the beds are rather large. The present arrangement looks easy for maintenance but a denser plantation would be a mind-blowing experience even though it will be a tough calling for the gardeners. Imaginative and beautiful arrangements are common in many gardens in Holland (the Netherlands), now considered the home of tulips.

There have been visitors from every part of the country to see this amazing garden. About 4,000 people come here each day. The awe and sheer joy that mark their faces are a tribute to the garden.

Tulips have grown wild in the valley for centuries. They are generally called gulal or lalle. One variety is known as takee butin or a Panditains bindi. It has been crossed with other bulbs to produce some hybrid variegated tulips.

There are 15 groups of tulips the world over. Each has several varieties. In Shiraz Bagh, 11 of these groups delight people with 66 varieties. The shortest and the tallest tulip groups are here. From the dwarf Kaufmania or water lily, bi-coloured tulips that are barely 10 to 25 centimetres to the 65 to 80 cm tall Single Late Tulip, amongst which is the almost-black Queen of Night tulip. Such a tulip was the inspiration for Alexander Dumass book The Black Tulip.

In one bed in the park, black tulips have been immersed amongst a sea of white Mount Tacomas, which are about 40 to 60 cm tall.

Many of the tulips at Shiraz Bagh have been imported from Holland. In fact tulips were brought to Holland from Turkey in the 16th century by a Dutch Ambassador. The Turkish name for it is tulbend, meaning muslin and gauze. The English, in the 16th century, called it turban, since a fully open tulip flower resembles a turban. Many of the hybrids developed now have strains from Kashmir and Central Asia. The tulip Kaufmania is actually from Turkmenistan and is named after a Russian botanist.

Tulips have been grown in Shiraz Bagh for more than three decades. They were introduced in the late 1960s by the then Director of Horticulture, who was only known as mamaji (since he was Prime Minister Indira Gandhis maternal uncle). The people of Srinagar also call the park Gul-e-lala Bagh. It is only this year that the park has burst into such an abundance of hues.

The driving force behind the garden, which has been developed as Asias largest tulip garden, is Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. He is the most frequent visitor to the park, and he micro-manages every arrangement.

Next year, the area covered by tulips will be increased to 20 acres and there will be 2.6 million of them. A stunning and magnificent extravaganza worth waiting a year for.