As a result of Dubai Municipality's efforts to beautify the city's highways and byways, the city is all set to bloom with more than 37 million flowers, a senior official at the Municipality has said.
Mohammad Abdul Rahman Al Awadhi, head of the agriculture section at the Public Parks and Horticulture Department at the Municipality told Gulf News daily that the department of over 1,700 workers is responsible for the planting and maintenance of flowers during three phases of the year.
Petunias
"The main times of the year when the flowers are planted in batches are from September to October then January to February and finally from May to June. We are now in the first season of planting and the most common type of flowers you will see in the city are petunias. Our gardeners are now replacing the older ones as well as planting in new areas too," said Al Awadhi.
As of October the agriculture section recorded the planting of 37,131,806 flowers, which is expected to exceed previous statistics by the year's end. In 2013 authorities planted as many as 38,168,486 flowers, which increased to 38,433,573 in 2014.
Municipal nurseries
There are currently four municipal nurseries where flowers and trees are planted, watered and checked for bugs before the greenery is then carried off in lorries and distributed to eight of the city's parks including beach parks and pond parks in addition to roundabouts streets and across road central reservations.
"All the flowers and trees are grown right here in our nurseries and they are either native to this country or their seeds were imported. There are also flowers that bloom in different seasons as well as permanent flowers that live for one or two years and for each season different types of flowers are planted," he said.
"The top three countries where the municipality imports its flower seeds are from Italy, USA and Japan," said Al Awadhi. He pointed out that a few of the flowers used for each season include portulaca and vinca, which are planted in May, the zinnia and tagetes in July, and petunia and alyssum in September.
Al Awadhi said that nearly 27 million seedlings were planted around buildings and junctions as well as over 750,000 seedlings for patching works.
Source: MENAFN