Where every flower at Udhagamandalam’s rose garden tells a story

At the bosom of Udhagamandalam stands a garden, beautifully laid retired successful terraces with rose blooms, pergolas, and bowers with rose creepers. A stroll on the greenish plot with bays earmarked for colourful and fragrant roses is a sight to remember. According to folklore, determination is a specific rose believed to bring luck oregon emotion — the Blue Moon. It is said if you privation your wishes to travel true, you susurration your privation to one it and hold to spot it bloom astatine sunrise! While determination are roses named Black Gold, Sweet Promise, Black Magic, the amusement stealer is a rose named after the precocious J Jayalalithaa, a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. “The plot is celebrated for roses named after celebrities and historical figures, including roses dedicated to Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru,” says Dipali Sikand, laminitis of Club Concierge, who present runs MindEscapes successful Ketty, a creative retreat.

The beginning

The Government Rose Garden, located on the slopes of Elk Hill, established to commemorate the Centenary Flower Festival successful 1995, is renowned for being home to some of the rarest and astir beauteous roseate plants. The Horticulture Department organises an yearly Vegetable Show astatine Kotagiri, a Rose Show at the Government Rose Garden in Udhagamandalam, the Fruit Show at the Sims Park at Coonoor, and the Spices Show astatine Gudalur which draws tourists in huge numbers to the district each year. 

“We person 4,200 varieties of roses, and 38,000 plants. The Nilgiris territory collector Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneeru inaugurates the pruning of rose plants astatine Government Rose Garden successful February to formally inaugurate the preparations for the 20th rose show,” says an authoritative from the horticulture section adding that the roses, present successful afloat bloom, volition beryllium displayed crossed six terraces.

Officials accidental that roses would commencement blooming from April, truthful tourists visiting the garden over the summer volition get a chance to see them successful afloat bloom for implicit 2 months till July end. The highlight is the collection of uncommon colours arsenic good arsenic galore shades of azygous colour, for illustration varying shades of orange, blue and yellow. As 1 enters the garden, the  first rose that greets you is a green one. And, there are brown-coloured roses too. This year, rose installations themed connected dolphins and dugongs volition be the main attraction. “We person 11 installations of aquatic beings built utilizing implicit 2 lakh roses in six or seven colours. It highlights the conservation of aquatic species,” says the official.

A sweet whiff

According the horticulture section officials, tourists throng the hills conscionable successful time to take in the sights and smells of roses. Adds Dipali,“Gardeners use a special premix of integrated compost and cattle dung from section breeds combined with Nilgiri beverage waste, believed to enhance bloom richness. While the total number exceeds 20,000 rose bushes, they screen easy astir 2,800 positive antithetic varieties,” she says, adding, “There are roses from implicit 25 countries.”

Tracing the history, D Radhakrishnan, a retired journalist, recalls that the rose garden was created on a sloppy terraced portion of onshore extending implicit astir 4 hectares at the Vijayanagaram Farm.

The Department of Horticulture executed the project with a sum of ₹50 lakhs sanctioned by the then Jayalalithaa Government. “To start with, 1919 varieties of roses were planted. The number of plants was 17,256. Even astatine that time the collection was 1 of the largest successful India. It was named the Jayalalithaa Rose Garden. Later, the name was changed to Centenary Rose Park successful English and Nootrandu Roja Poonga successful Tamil. Then, it came to be called the Government Rose Garden,” helium says adding that over the years the number of varieties and plants person accrued and its popularity has grown considerably. Today, this plot has a captivating postulation of roses, 1 of the largest in the country, featuring hybrid tea roses, miniature ones, and roses of antithetic colours similar black. It has been recognised as a ‘Garden of Excellence’ by the World Federation of Rose Societies.