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Spring bloom: Sapling sales pick up in valley

FARZANA SYED. Dated: 3/25/2015 12:01:26 AM

SRINAGAR, Mar 24: With spring almost knocking at the doors in valley the sale of saplings has started picking up these days. Pertinently with the onset of spring season Kashmir witnesses the blooming phase as flowering of plants mostly takes place with the onset of this season.
The sale of seasonal plants is fetching the people associated with this trade a good business these days. At the same time the customers can be seen flocking the vendors to buy the saplings of different choices and varieties.
The officials at department of floriculture said that March is the ideal season for the flowering of plants. They said off late the sale of plants has flourished into a descent business with people across the valley preferring to decorate their houses and lawns with plants of different varieties.
“This is the best time for the plants to blossom. With the beginning of spring, seasonal plants and saplings attract a good demand in markets. Seeds are usually sown during the month of November and with the start of March flowers start blooming. Though sometimes it gets delayed due to prolonged winters yet sapling sales pick up during this month,” Pran Dulloo, project officer at floriculture department said.
For past few years sapling business has well flourished across the valley as more people are coming into it and many have started their own nurseries.
“Over the years many people particularly youth are coming into this trade and are doing a good business. In coming years this trade is going to flourish more since the demand increases every year. People are constructing news houses and decorating them with different varieties of flowers and plants so it has a lot of scope,” project officer said.
Manzoor Ahmad who sells different varieties of saplings at Residency Road in Lal Chowk said they do brisk sales in the month of March.
He said, “Due to recent snow/rains we started late but customers are coming in good numbers. People are asking for different varieties like petunia, acacia, tulips etc. We hope that weather remains good and the demand picks up more in coming days.”
People in valley have started developing an interest vis-a-vis plants and flowers with the result this business has started growing.
Moreover, the floriculture department is also encouraging people towards this trade by providing them with required amenities.
“We encourage people particularly farmers to grow flowers and form more nurseries. We educate people about this. We brief them by organizing awareness camps. We brief them on the benefits of adopting the floriculture and its scope. We provide them with irrigation facilities also besides offering them subsidies to grow more flowers,” Pran Dulloo revealed.