The Rose Garden

    32,500 bushes of 825 varieties planted on over 40 acres of land -this is Chandigarh’s famous Rose Garden. Mind boggling isn’t it?

       The Rose Garden was being spruced up and readied for the Rose Festival to be held from Feb 19th-20th.  Artisans were busy making floral animals- sticking marigolds( both yellow and bronze) into wire frames of birds and animals; the rose bed borders,

benches and the compound walls were being painted, floral welcome arches were being erected. The whiff of the marigolds and rose petals used in the arches welcomed all visitors. No entry fee was charged as the intention was to have as many people as possible enjoy the beauty of the ’Queen of Flowers’.

      

         As we started walking along the path, in between the rose beds, our senses were overcome. The garden was a feast for the eyes. All around, as far as eye could see, were beds and beds of roses of various hues. There were unimagined shades in the usual red, pink, yellow, orange and white as well as black and multi- hued roses.  Also there were roses in various stages of blooming - from buds to fully bloomed flowers. The fragrance of the roses wafted on the breeze.

    

Ashwini-- Black Rose

        Words cannot express the beauty that was spread around us. Walking amongst these beautiful flowers, admiring their colours with many ‘oohs’ and ahhs’, breathing in their fragrance, feeling the velvety texture whenever the flowers brushed against us, we were transported to a fairyland of beauty.  The names of these beauties - Royal Fragrance, Queen Elizabeth, Cardinal Richelieu, Duke of Cheshire, Earl Poulson, Marilyn Munroe, and Raja Ram Mohan Roy added to the grandeur of the place, while names like Cup Cake, Only You, Ice Berg, Milky Way, Black Pearl, Arabian Nights etc. enhanced the romance of this wondrous garden.

Black Pearl

         This gorgeous garden made us travel back in time to Nandagiri, Brindavan and Boloor. We fondly recalled Taramhave’s fondness for button roses and the ‘rose lolle’ she used to make, Amma’s love for gardening and the roses she tended and cared for as fondly as she did us, and of course Mukundmam and his passion for roses. I could visualize Mukundmam in his banian and khaki shirts manuring, spraying or pruning the roses. He used to be very worried that ‘Baby’ would touch the plant or smell the roses after he had just sprayed them with pesticide.  Images of Mukundmam’s favorite ‘Peace’, amma’s golden hued ‘King’s Ransom’, ‘Catherine’ and the fragrant ‘Bai rose’ and ‘Delhi rose’ that Pachiamma wanted and had planted for her ‘Devus’ floated through my mind as we sat in the shade of a tree and admired the garden.

      Tired (we had walked through three gardens in one day) we decided to call it a day. In spite of spending the whole afternoon there, we had not seen even 1/10 of this fabulous rose garden. 

       ‘What a lovely thing a rose is! Its smell and colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it.’ - Arthur Conan Doyle.