Y.S. Rana, Chandigarh, Feb 10: About 32500 plants of 850 rose varieties and crore of rupees novelty of two musical fountains have been lined up by the Chandigarh Administration to enhance the beauty of this garden and greet the visitors at the Rose Festival slated to be opened at Leisure Valley here on February 25-27.
The Ministry of Tourism, GOI, has sanctioned Rs 2,69 crore for the up gradation and all-round development of this garden. The preparations of the festival are on full swing. Work is already underway for the collection of various varieties from different parts of the country.
Lending an aesthetic look to the big event, the Rose Garden is being refurbished on a unique concept given by Dr.Satish Kumar Narula, PAU Senior horticulturist cum Consultant and adviser to Tourism Department on theme Gardens UT ,Chandigarh Rose Garden is one of the most frequently visited gardens of the city. The garden has been divided in 10 sections. While designing, care has been taken to include various sections planted with different kind of roses, children’s corner equipped with modern child friendly swings etc. and the experiment area.
The planning has been done keeping in view the domestic visitors, foreign tourists and local residents. The garden has been planted with various kinds of ornamental and medicinal trees, shrubs and climbers too to keep the garden in color during the off season. Fragrant shrubs have been introduced along the paths. Various rose climbers have been planted along the periphery on specially designed structures along the path to spread fragrance.
Section of Roses are named after renowned Personalities like Dr M. S. Randhawa, Queen Elizabeth, John F Kennedy,Gen. Vaidhya, President Giri, Lady Di, Lal Bahadur whereas Section of Roses With Funny/Unusual Names are Only You, Dulhan, King’s Ransom, Hippie Girl, Love Me Tender, Careless Love, Lover’s Meeting in addition to this Roses Named After Countries/States: Delhi Prince, Oklahoma, American Heritage, Louisiana, Canadian Centenary, City of Belfast, Section of Roses Named after Fruits are Fragrant Plum, Wild
Plum, Cherry Perfait, Dorothy Peach. An exclusive section on PRIDE OF INDIA will be made where varieties developed by Indian Scientists will be planted. Besides there are sections of Hybrid Teas, Floribundas,
Miniatures and Climbers.
It is the endeavour of the Chandigarh administration to create a back up facility for the rose garden so that there are no gaps left in the garden in future. For this a modern nursery is being developed keeping all the varieties introduced as mother plants. A quick method of multiplication, the ‘PAU Buddage/Cuttage method’ has been introduced.
The garden has devoted a small portion for research purpose too. So as to avoid future decline in rose garden, an experiment has been laid in collaboration with Institute of Himalayan Bio-resources and local unit of Punjab Agricultural University to identify alternative root-stocks. This is for the first time in the world that some of the rootstock species located in Himalayas is being tested in the plains.