Tulips: From Kashmir with love

“The ‘Kashmir Tulip’ was introduced as cut flower on commercial scale on Christmas eve and the first order was supplied to Florista – a flower chain in Mumbai,” says Javed Ahmad Shah,in-charge of the garden.

The bloom in extreme harsh winter was possible due to the introduction of hi-tech poly-houses – – an experiment started last year – – which bore the results this year,he says.

“Earlier,tulips in India were mostly imported from Holland. But,if everything goes as per plan,we shall have Kashmir tulip catering to all the markets in the country,” he said.

The Kashmir tulip,as the Floriculture department is trying to brand the flower from the valley,is currently being sent to markets in Delhi,Mumbai,Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Shah says the private growers,who are very few in number at the moment,got orders even on Valentine’s Day from these cities,indicating that the ‘rose’ might soon turn red by the competition it will face from tulips.

According to Shah,more and more farmers in Kashmir were taking to tulip cultivation due to the high returns of cut flower business.

“The cost of rearing a tulip bulb into a cut flower is Rs 20 to Rs 22 including all expenses like labour,transportation and heating facilities. The average return per tulip cut flower at present in not less than Rs 35,” he says.

“Around 30,000 bulbs can be cultivated in a 200-sq m area which can fetch a profit of Rs 3-4 lakh to the farmer.”

Shah says an expert from Holland had recently visited Kashmir to train the tulip farmers from the valley in cultivation and post harvest techniques.

“The expert was of the opinion that Kashmir has the best climate,soil and water for tulip cultivation. The colour of Kashmir tulip is also brighter and intense compared to Holland tulip due to these reasons,” he says

Tulips were introduced in the state in 2007 when the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had the Siraj Bagh turned into Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden.

The aim of setting the largest Tulip garden of Asia was to give another option to tourists and to advance the tourism season,which begins in May,by two months.

The garden has been a success story with thousands of tourists thronging it every year during the three weeks when tulips bloom.