Islamabad :Though the barren brown branches of trees give a beautiful winter look to the cities, but one cannot deny the happiness to see the arrival of colourful buds in spring that adorn the trees along with light green supple and tender leaves that sprout from its lifeless branches.
February till March are the months that mark the arrival of spring giving colour and new life to trees and cities. After the chilly weather, the people enthusiastically wait for spring to arrive as they love to take a stroll in parks amongst lush green trees with gentle breeze unlike chilly winds of winter, that keep people mostly indoors.
The local parks of the twin cities are adorned with beautiful colourful floral beds as well as the main intersections on the main roads. The fragrance of these flowers appeal to the daily commuters who could admire the beautiful road junctures while passing through them.
The fruit trees of plums, peaches, apricots, loquat have started blooming white and pink flowers, that look beautiful to see.
The seasonal flowers are planted a month before so that they are in full bloom in the arrival of spring. Petunia, Pansy, Gazenia, Dahlia, Ranunculus and roses of different colours mostly bloom in spring and remain intact till June.
With the help of latest information available online, one can easily identify a huge variety of flowers and plants with so many apps helping the plant lovers. The ones with the green fingers mostly take help from these apps to identify, sow, nurture and care about their plants. Only take a picture of the flower and you can get all the information about the flowers and its care is accessed.
Islamabad has so many public and private garden groups in which people can interact with each other, have workshops of sowing, nurturing certain plants and flowers are conducted. This circle consists of young and old people who love to share some local and imported plants with the other group members and gets appreciated of their efforts. Garden competitions are also conducted by different private societies that encourages the habit of gardening and flowering among the residents.
Mostly people living in other cities plan their vacation in spring to see the beauty of these twin cities, admiring its beauty, its greenery, green belts and its properly planned infrastructure. The sight of the whole city from top of the mountain, mesmerizes people who go there on the mountains to appreciate its beauty.
Saima Habib, a lecturer in local college said that one can enjoy the spring, the smell and beauty of flowers till the onset of pollen season which makes asthma patients suffer a lot. “the authorities should make sure to cut the hazardous trees that produce pollen to dangerous levels and plant only those trees in new sectors of Islamabad that are beneficial for health. The people of Islamabad have suffered a lot with these trees planted by the authorities who had always only focused on the beauty enhancement of the capital through planting trees who produce pollens with dangerous levels. Plant only those trees which maximizes the oxygen level and absorb the toxic gases of the environment,” she said.
Shaheen Mustafa, a concerned citizen said we need to check and control air quality of Islamabad more often and more air quality monitors should be installed in the city to keep a check on air quality of the city. We need more outdoor activities like flower shows and birds show in spring but at the same time we are worried about pollen and air pollution too.
