Beyond Chinar, Gul-e-Dawood Offers New Postcard Image Of Kashmir Autumn

In the fall, it's a riot of colours and blooming flowers decorating the landscape in the lap of the Zabarwan hills in Srinagar. The chrysanthemum garden, locally known as Gul-e-Dawood or David's flower, is the second theme garden in Kashmir, and it transforms the Valley's autumn.

When everything else starts turning grey, chrysanthemums or mums are offering a spectacular splash of colours and fragrance. There are 50 exquisite varieties of chrysanthemums in the garden developed adjacent to Srinagar's tulip garden.

Officials are hopeful that the garden will have a similar effect on tourism and local visitors as the tulip garden that was developed about 2 decades ago. Tulips have literally advanced the spring tourist calendar in Kashmir and have become a major attraction for tourists. Gul-e-Dawood or mums are expected to be another postcard in autumn alongside the fall of chinar leaves, which literally lay a golden carpet on the Srinagar landscape.

The new garden is expected to be thrown open for people in the next few days, officials said. It has taken J&K's Floriculture department just 11 months to develop it.

“We have worked very hard to come up with the garden. All workers, particularly gardeners, worked day and night to establish it,” said Javid Masood, a senior official.

Masood said the garden will be a major attraction in the autumn season. “It's spread over 5 hectares and features more than 50 exquisite chrysanthemum varieties with around 30 lakh blooms”, he said.

The project was started in November last year after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah laid the foundation stone for the garden. Officials say that, despite challenges, the department has ensured a timely completion of the second theme garden after the tulip garden in 2007.

Many tourists have already started visiting the garden and witnessed an unexpected gift of nature in autumn.

“I was always thinking of visiting Kashmir to see tulips in March and April. I had never thought that we could see such a flower garden in October in Kashmir,” said a tourist from Surat in Gujarat.

Officials say chrysanthemum will last till December when the temperature plummets several degrees below freezing point.

“It's going to offer visitors another reason to experience Kashmir's natural beauty beyond the traditional spring and summer seasons. The garden adds another dimension to Srinagar's floral landscape,” said an official.