Array of floral replicas enthrall tourists at 125th Flower Show

Coimbatore: The five-day annual 125th Ooty Flower Show, featuring an array of floral replicas of animals and birds commenced at the Government Botanical Garden (GBG) in The Nilgiris on Friday.

A massive sized peacock made out of over 80,000 carnations to a height of 48 feet and 40 feet in breadth turned out to be a visual treat for tourists. Also, some of the endangered wild animals and marine species like leopard, dolphin, panda, bear, rhinoceros and sea cow (kadal pasu) were among the major attractions at the show inaugurated by Tourism Minister K Ramachandran and Member of Parliament A Raja.

Tamil Nadu’s special identities like butterfly, emerald dove, Nilgiri Tahr, palm tree, flame lily and a bharatanatyam exponent were exhibited in floral models. They all were made out of around 70,000 flowers.

Tourists were greeted by floral decorations of ‘Ooty 200’ to mark the hill district’s bicentenary celebrations and also 175th year of Government Botanical Garden. There were also exhibits to create awareness on organic farming, use of ‘manjapai’ (yellow bag) as an alternative to plastic carry bags and a symbol of millets in view of the International year of Millets. The visitors enjoyed taking selfies with families and friends at the selfie spot made of 30,000 flowers.

It was indeed a visual treat to see over 35,000 flowerpots in different hues and a display of national flowers of 125 countries. A steady stream of tourists arrived at the GBG despite the sudden downpour for nearly an hour in the evening.

This year’s flower show also turned out to be special as Oriel Anna Sullivan – Alon and Jocelyn Mary Smith, the fifth generation descendants of John Sullivan, the founder of Ooty and modern Nilgiris, visited the flower show as special guests on the inaugural day. The flower show will be open to the public from 7 am to 7 pm till May 23.