Government Rose Garden, Ooty
Establishment
The Rose Park was established at Vijayanagaram in Ooty town to commemorate the Centenary Flower Show in the Government Botanical Gardens, Udagamandalam in May 1995. The flowers are arranged in five curving terraces covering four hectares. The garden is maintained by the Tamil Nadu Horticulture Department.
Features
Ooty has a unique tropical mountain climate, hence the garden has the ideal climatic conditions for growing roses. Temperature variation is low and the rainfall distribution is uniform, which results in a long flowering season. The garden is visited by thousands of tourists throughout the year, even in winter when it is not the flowering season.
The Government Rose Garden located in the heart of Ooty is one of the largest rose gardens in India and also a popular tourist attraction. The garden is spread across 4 hectares of land and houses some of the largest collections of roses in the country including miniature roses, hybrid tea roses, floribunda, ramblers, black and green roses and many other unique varieties.
Initially, when the gardens were developed, 1,919 varieties of roses with 17,256 rose plants were planted. Today there are more than 20,000 varieties of roses of 2,800 cultivars. It is one of the largest collections of roses in India.
The collection of roses includes Miniature Roses, Ramblers, Hybrid Tea Roses, Yakimour, Polyanthas, Papagena, Floribunda and roses of unusual colours such as green and black. The varieties of rose plants planted here were assembled from different sources around the world.
The garden has been laid out with rose tunnels, pergolas and bowers with rose creepers. The slopes of the garden also features the Nila Maadam, an observation platform. From the Nila Maadam, tourists can observe the entire rose garden. The garden also features a statue of an angel amidst the roses.
Recognition
The rose garden received the Garden of Excellence Award for being the best rose garden in south Asia, from the World Federation of Rose Societies in May 2006, in Osaka, Japan. This garden is one of the 35 gardens worldwide to have received this award.
See also
References
- ^ "World Federation of Rose Societies". Archived from the original on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
- ^ "Rose Park to be renamed". The Hindu. India. 23 May 2009. Archived from the original on 24 May 2009.
- ^ "A rose garden by another name causes confusion". The Hindu. India. 17 May 2008. Archived from the original on 20 May 2008.
- ^ "Tourism - Ooty". Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Retrieved 22 January 2011.
- ^ "TAMIL NADU-Rose Garden". Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Retrieved 22 January 2011.
- ^ "Tamil Nadu Horticulture Department". Retrieved 12 January 2011.
- ^ "Nila Maadam". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
- ^ "List of award winners". Worldrose.org. Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
- ^ "Ooty Centenary Rose Park wins Garden of Excellence award", The Hindu, India, 19 January 2007, archived from the original on 11 June 2007
External links
- Ooty – History and Tourism Page Official
- 360° Panoramic View of the garden Archived 1 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine