Buoyed by the overwhelming response to the annual Rose Show, officials of the horticulture department are now actively working to make the 117th annual flower show a big success.

The key attraction of this year’s show will be a model of Secretariat in Chennai, say officials. The process has gained pace with 15,000 bloomed pot flowers being shifted from the lawn to the galleries.

Joint Director of Horticulture K Mohan inaugurated the shifting of pot flowers to the galleries on Monday. The shifting work would be completed before May 16 afternoon as the Flower Show is scheduled to begin the next day. Tourists will be allowed to see the flower galleries only during three days of the show from May 17 to 19.

This year, watering lawns and plants to ensure bloom proved to be a tough task for the Botanical Garden management as it had to source water from private agencies for the first time. All the ten ponds inside the garden had dried up. However, the officials made great efforts to apply black soil mixed with natural/bio fertilizer and bio pesticides to the main lawn of the garden.

The lawn, which was in a bad shape due to failure of rains,  now looks fully green, thanks to the hard work of the horticulture department officials. The garden, which is spread over 55 acres, has a sprawling main lawn in 15 acres and similar small space spread on another 5 acres.

Mohan said, “Totally, 15,000 pot flowers have been prepared for the flower show. The flower seeds were imported from England, Germany, Japan and USA besides Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Punjab and Pune. This year’s crowd puller will be a model of the Secretariat made of flowers. Arrangements are under way to design the model which will feature all minute details. The full model with fixing of flowers will be ready by May 16 evening.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service – Udhagamandalam / May 14th, 2013