The New Delhi Municipal Council Tulip Festival – 2025 was on Tuesday inaugurated by Delhi Lieutenant Governor V. K. Saxena and Ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands Marisa Gerards at Shanti Path, Chanakyapuri.
The two also participated in a Tulip walk and visited a Tulip exhibition.
After inaugurating the NDMC Tulip Festival, L-G Saxena congratulated NDMC Chairperson Keshav Chandra and Vice Chairman Kuljeeet Singh Chahal for their efforts to plant 3.25 lakh tulips this year.
Apart from Shanti Path, tulips have also been planted in 20 parks of DDA this year. As many as 15,000 tulip saplings were nurtured in Himachal Pradesh before plantation in New Delhi.
Potted tulips are also available for public sale at Shanti Path and other NDMC parks.
“Our aim is to minimise the dependence on imports in the next four years,” he said, adding that “we must make Delhi more beautiful for which such efforts will continue”.
He thanked the Netherlands for the cooperation and said as a gesture of gratitude, a tulip plant has been named ‘Maitri’.
Ambassador of Netherlands Marisa Gerards said that we’re planting the tulips to celebrate, the friendship between our two countries.
“We could see that the city of Delhi was doing so well by growing the tulips. But, of course, there is much more that binds our two countries together than just tulips. We share a strong and friendly relationship that goes back a long way. We collaborate in many important sectors, such as agriculture, health, water management, and innovation. We are very strong partners in these areas,” she added.
The NDMC began planting its tulip bulbs in 2017-18 as a trial to assess the seasonal suitability. Starting with 17,000 bulbs, this initiative has since grown significantly becoming an annual tradition of floral beautification of New Delhi, said a statement.
This initiative has proved a great success, making the NDMC the first Civic Body in India to plant these precious flowers in public space, it said.
This year, the NDMC imported 3.25 lakh tulip bulbs and planted 2.25 lakh in open space of which 1.46 lakh tulip bulbs were planted at Shanti Path alone, said an official.
Tulips are blooming in different locations of the New Delhi area like Central Park at Connaught Place, NDMC Convention Centre Lawn, Lodhi Garden, Talkatora Garden, Sardar Patel Marg, Mandi House, Windsor Place, Shershah Suri Marg and many roundabouts.
As a trial through storage and multiplication, 10,880 large bulbs were produced and these also have been planted, said the official.
In collaboration with the Institute of Himalayan Bio Resources Technology – CSIR, 14735 bulbs were produced at Palampur in Himachal Pradesh and received to plant in this Tulip Festival.
For the first time, the NDMC has made the potted plants of one lakh tulip bulbs and has put it up for sale to make them available to the public at Shanti Path Lawn, Lodhi Garden, Nehru Park, Talkatora Garden, Central Park, and NDMC nurseries (Safdarjung Madarsa, Gurudwara Park, Purana Quila Road etc), the official.
