The tulip is the national flower of Turkey. Tulips are also grown widely in the Netherlands, which is now the main tulip-producing country. A whole industry has grown up around the flower there, and the country holds a tulip festival every year.

Apart from cold-climate countries, such eye-catching tulips are seen in Asia only in India, Afghanistan and a few other countries. Yet everyone has a deep love for the tulip.

In Bangladesh, the land of six seasons, growing this flower was once unimaginable. Now a flower farmer in Gazipur has opened the door, making tulips bloom and creating the possibility of growing them across the country.

Tulips have bloomed in the garden of Delwar Hossain, a flower farmer in Sreepur upazila of Gazipur. His garden feels like a heavenly flower kingdom, and crowds have grown to see the tulips. Delwar has named his tulip garden "Moumita Flowers". He had earlier succeeded with gerbera, China roses and various other foreign flowers, and received the Bangabandhu Agriculture Award in 2017 as a successful flower farmer. He also began using modern technology to produce virus-free vegetable seedlings for the first time in the country.

Delwar Hossain said there is a huge demand for flowers in Bangladesh, and flowers are imported from various countries to meet it. Flower farming is part of the farm economy, and while many countries have become self-sufficient, "we are behind". "With the economy and demand in mind, my dream journey began with various foreign flowers. I did not stop despite many obstacles, and success came one after another. After gerbera and China roses, I have now had a new success with tulips. After the trial work I will work on expanding tulip cultivation." The tulip is known as an annual, spring flower, and its height varies by species, he said.

He said that although there are many tulip species worldwide, he brought 1,000 bulbs of one species in four colours from the Netherlands on 8 December and planted them on 15 December. After 45 days of care, the tulips began blooming in the last week of January. He also said that because of the weather the tulips bloomed in just 20-22 days.

In his view, tulips depend on a deep winter; they generally need temperatures below 11 degrees Celsius. As temperatures are low in winter in the northern districts of Bangladesh, there is great potential for tulips there.

Farzana Nasrin Khan, a flower researcher and chief scientific officer in the horticulture division of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), said the tulip is generally a flower of cold regions. Many people in Bangladesh grow tulips in pots at home in winter as a hobby, but flowering is very unusual. Tulips blooming in Delwar's garden has raised new hope. Commercial cultivation has not yet begun in the country, but tulips can be grown if the winter weather is favourable, especially in the northern districts. Delwar has sown a new dream of tulip farming in farmers' minds, she said.

Mahbub Alam, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Gazipur, said the country currently meets its demand by importing tulips at high prices. Tulips blooming in Delwar's garden has created a new possibility, and expanding tulip cultivation would give the farm economy a real boost.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.