Showcasing flora

VIBRANT BUDS

An elephant holding a garland in its trunk, a pair of ducks and a peacock fanning out its tail welcomed the visitors at the recently concluded 26th Garden Tourism Festival at Garden of Five Senses near Saket. The three day festival was filled with enthusiasm of visitors even though rain played spoilsport.

The blooming flowers brought smiles on the faces of all present. Especially kids,  who enjoyed the theme of the 26th Garden Tourism Festival. How could they not, for it was Special Gardening Fun for Children this year. The young ones participated in an on-the-spot painting competition and were introduced to the world of gardening.
“A garden is an important part of every household. Everybody plays an important role in rearing a garden at home including children. This is why we decided to educate children about gardening and even introduced tray gardens this time for this purpose,” said Sudhir Sobti, spokesperson, Delhi Tourism, the entity that organised the event
A number of government departments such as DDA, NDMC and Delhi Jal Board presented beautiful displays of miniature gardens based on the theme. While NDMC labelled all the plants in order to teach kids, Delhi Jal Board had real fishes in the artificially created miniature swimm­i­ng pool along with swings.

A separate section included a display of cut flowers and vegetables for competition. Few kids chose to buy and take home similar souvenirs.

Nisha Singh, a mother of 8-year old shared, “My son has bought lilies and pansies from a seller from Nainital. He got interested in gardening after seeing these colourful flowers. I am now hoping that he will help me with gardening at home too!"

The plethora of flowers including dahlias, bougainvilleas, roses, carnations and chrysanthemums to name just a few adorned the Mughal Garden structure at the venue. There was also a large display of seasonal plants, cacti, bonsai and medicinal plants which made the place a hub of foliage.

The hanging baskets turned out to be a favourite among all visitors who found them exquisite. Rekha Bhargav, a regular visitor from Jaipur said, "This year the hanging baskets are the best. I and the members of my Kitchen Garden Association have bought these to be displayed at our show in Jaipur."

Visitors had a lot of options to choose their garden accessories from vertical arrangements to fancy flower pots.

There were also terracotta garden accessories such as fish shaped hanging and bird houses to decorate gardens along with equipments to maintain the lawns and books on gardening.

Among these, what caught the fancy of buyers was the cacti seller from Shirdi who displayed around 200 varieties of cactus.

Many visitors confessed that they buy the plants and seeds from this festival which last them till the whole year!