30 million flowering plants add colour to Dubai

 Sajila Saseendran / 24 November 2013 

It is blooming time in the desert city and the civic body says it has already planted 30 million seedlings of flowering plants across Dubai this year.                                          Flowers in full bloom in Dubai. — KT photo What adds to their beauty is the fact that they are all produced in the nurseries under the Dubai Municipality. The Horticulture Section of Public Parks and Horticulture Department at the Municipality has planted these flower seedlings in 1.32 m2 of area during the first nine months of 2013 with an increase of 2.5 per cent comparing to the total area where flowering plants were planted in 2012. This comes as part of the department’s efforts to make Dubai the city of natural colours where the horticulture section could cultivate 70 per cent of the area allocated for the cultivation of flowers during the last five years. The head of the section Mohammed Abdul Rahman Al Awadi told Khaleej Times that about 1,700 workers are engaged in the landscaping and beautification of the city of Dubai in three seasons. “This is done as part of our strategy of expanding the greenery in Dubai by eight per cent every year. Last year, we increased the greenery in 150 hectares of land and we aim to achieve 180 to 200 hectares by the year-end.” The seedlings are planted in different types of areas such as road sides, footpaths, public parks, parks attached to the DM buildings, markets, abattoir and sites supervised by the Public Parks Department. Specifically, 26.6 million seedlings are planted in areas between road dividers, junctions and the remaining were distributed in other places including schools, government buildings, mosques, public associations in addition to 750,000 seedlings for patching works. Al Awadi said that the section has completed its winter plantation work which started from the first week of September where it planted 14 million seedlings mostly marigold flowers in different colours. The planted seedlings are flowered within 3-4 weeks and will continue blooming until mid-December. “The cultivation period of flowers is divided into three stages — namely, early winter period which comes from September to December, premium winter period from January to May and summer from May to September where each period includes cultivation of at least 14 million flower seedlings with a possibility to increase with the growing green areas in the emirate of Dubai,” he said. “It’s worth mentioning that each type of flowers needs a specific degree of temperature and the blooming will end by the end of its season. The flowering plants cultivated by the DM have the capability to grow and produce flowers of different colours.” The nature of flowers and its lifetime on plants vary in accordance with the type of plants which are divided into annual and sustainable. The annual flowers are a group of flowers that grow and bloom in one season and re-cultivated on yearly basis. The sustainable flowers are a group of plants which can be cultivated at any time of the year and it give flowers for long period from 1-2 years, the official explained. “The department has been exerting its maximum efforts to classify the types of flowering plants and select specific types to different areas in accordance with the best practices in the science of gardening in order to get wonderful results in the beautification of city.” “Although the flowers are planted for beautification, different flowers are also used for many other constructive purposes, such as medication, production of perfumes and cosmetics, to use as strong insecticide against flies and mosquitoes, oil for protecting animals from pests and material for colouring fabrics,” Al Awadi said. The DM nurseries, he said, are considered a unique place for researchers and students to know more about a variety of plants and flowers in addition to its interesting activities and operations in the field of horticulture. “It would be amazing to know that all flower plants cultivated in the emirate of Dubai are exclusively produced by the DM nurseries,” he added.