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Colours of spring
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Visits
366
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Visits
366
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Visits
366
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March 02, 2012
Spring is the perfect time to rejoice and enjoy the beauty of nature. It is the time when beautiful flowers blossom beautifying the whole world around them with their delicate feel and exotic fragrance. After a long and cold winter, the beautiful season of spring is about to come with all its beautiful sunny days.
To showcase the exquisiteness of flowers and to welcome the spring, the Horticultural Society of Pakistan (HSP) in collaboration with DHA and Cantonment Board Clifton held the 61st Pakistan Flower Show at the Seaview Park. The park is just a patch of few acres developed with nothing but grass. But it provides a surreal view of the Arabian Sea.
Featuring the best landscape and floral talent that Karachi has to offer alongside an extensive array of garden retail products, the flower show is well established in the psyche of the Karachities as a “must see” event. Families visiting the flower show had a chance to become close to nature and enjoy their beauty and purity. Sindh High Court Judge Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi inaugurated the show. He termed the love of flowers “as the essence of life” and the “charming beauty of colourful flowers is refreshing and a blissful joy of life”.
Flower symbols convey beauty, grace, and perfection. They are also excellent symbols of love, adoration, and unity. Just as the flower blooms, so too does our intellect and spirit bloom when we focus our attention on the endless beauty and potential of these exquisite symbols. “Flowers reflect natural beauty and leave indelible marks of aesthetic delight and creative charm on the human mind,” said Justice Abbasi.
Flowers like roses, lotuses, tropical lilies, dalais, famous for their beauty and glamour, and many other popular and common flowers like lily, marigold, jasmine, China rose, chrysanthemum, sunflowers, bamboo shoots, etc. were all on display. Exotic flowers like dahlia, orchid, peony, blue dawn flowers, bonsai and many others imported from China, Thailand, Japan, Holland, Australia were also available for purchase.
On display also was the black rose, a rare specimen. Black roses do not exist in nature as such, but nevertheless have been created in laboratories. Botanists have manipulated roses' genes through preliminary cross breeding, creating a hybrid black rose. The flowers commonly called black roses are actually a very dark red colour. Some roses are called black, but are actually just a dark shade of red, purple, or maroon.
Most people don't consider cactus to be a type of flower, but it is. Cacti are succulent plants that live in dry. They can survive long periods of drought. The delicate flowers usually bloom for a short period of time in the spring. It was amazing to see the beauty and diversity of cactus flowers at the show.
Amazing array of gardening accessories like tools containers, flower pots, garden chairs and tables, rocks, fountains, and rockery enhanced the beauty of the show.
Justice Abbasi also lauded the efforts of the HSP in making the environment of Karachi cleaner and greener and in promoting spots of natural beauty in the form of flowers, gardens and parks. He said that natural spots in forms of gardens, parks and open grounds must be promoted, as they provide aesthetic delight to the people and have a soothing and calming effect on their nerves that are essential for promotion of love, harmony and tolerance in society.
The flower show was clean, beautiful and personally not very disabled-friendly. The organizers failed to provide free wheelchairs for the special people and the elderly. Arrangements should have been made for the visitors to present an ID card in order to avail themselves of wheelchair free of charge. There was a lack of hindsight on the part of the organizers. There was no refreshment for the visitors.
A large number of individuals, organisations, amateurs and professionals participated in the flower competition in various categories. A total of 60 stalls were set up by government, multi-national companies, schools, colleges, universities, individuals and defence services. In the categories of big, medium and small parks, DHA Zamzama Park, CBC Bukhari Park and DA Rahat Park were awarded first prizes respectively. In the college parks category the first prize was given to DA College, while Majid-e-Tooba was declared first in the Masjid category.
For spot beautification, the first prize went to DHA Gizri Hilltop with DA Momin Rockery bagging the second position. The overall winner of the show was Cantonment Board Clifton which was awarded Abdus Sattar Pirzada Trophy.
Chairman of the HSP, Lt Gen (retd) Jahanzeb Arbab, outlined the activities of HSP in beautifying the environment of the city while promoting horticultural awareness in the society. He said the HSP was actively engaged in beautifying the environment of the city. He reiterated that flowers were essential for life and as such greenery and horticulture needed to be promoted.
Gardening is an ideal exercise because it combines three important types of physical activity: strength, endurance and flexibility. It is a wonderfully flexible medium that can transform lives. Engaging in horticultural activities can help people forget worries, transfer attention, increase positive mood, improve the environment, and also social relationships. The benefits of a sustained and active interest in gardening include better physical health through exercise and learning how to use or strengthen muscles to improve mobility; improved mental health through a sense of purpose and achievement. It also provides the opportunity to connect with others – reducing feelings of isolation or exclusion. Just feeling better for being outside, in touch with nature and in the 'great outdoors' is a benefit in itself.
Apart from improving our environment and having our own source of flowers, fruit and vegetables, we often overlook the other benefits that gardening provides us. To start with, gardening really is exercise. The physical benefits of gardening are often discounted because people don’t think of it as “real” exercise. But, gardening offers the same benefits as other forms of exercise do. Researchers estimate that gardening burns an average of 300 calories per hour! Engaging in regular physical activity like gardening is also an excellent way to lower your risk of some cancers. And depending on the task that you are doing, you are using many different muscle groups, and increasing your flexibility and strength.
Gardening is a fascinating activity. It helps you to keep fit, beautifies your surroundings and brings you feelings of harmony with the natural world around you. So get those hands dirty and give your green thumbs the chance to flourish.
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