In full bloom, but Ooty gardens miss crowd

Udhagamandalam: Tourism might be banned in the Nilgiris, but not the blooms. Different varieties of flowers and fragrant roses have, of late, been budding and blooming in the government botanical and rose gardens in Ooty, which usually draws a large number of tourists in April and May, one of the peak tourism seasons in the hill retreat.
As in the past year, this time too there aren’t any tourists to enjoy the enchanting beauty of the major gardens, which are in full bloom, in the hill town, as the government has closed the Nilgiris for tourism activities in the wake of the recent sprout in Covid-19 cases.
While the flower show committee had last year announced the dates for the annual flower and other shows in the Nilgiris as part of the summer festival, they were cancelled to contain the contagion. This year, the flower show committee did not convene a meeting, which was supposed to be held in February.
The botanical garden won’t be hosting the annual flower show for the second consecutive year since its introduction more than a century ago. Shiva Subramaniam Samraj, joint director, horticulture department, said, “Unfortunately, this year too we could not conduct the flower show. The gardens are, however, being maintained as usual. The summer blooms have started and the gardens are filled with colourful and fragrant flowers.”
The botanical garden hoses more than two lakh flower plants of 176 varieties, while the rose garden, one of finest in Asia, has more than 40,000 plants of 4,200 varieties. The rose garden is spread across four hectares.
The botanical garden is also home to more than 680 rare botanical species, of which 340 are rare trees that are more than 100 years old.