Valley of Flowers National Park in India

The Valley of Flowers is a national park located in the upper reaches of the Himalayas. It is famous for its outstanding natural beauty, endangered animals and endemic alpine flowers. The park is a true paradise for botanists and anybody else who loves the glory of nature. It stands true to its name, with several species of exotic flowers to be seen here.

Nestled in the west Himalayan region, Valley of Flowers covers a vast expanse of 87.50 square kilometers with myriad alpine flowers. It is situated in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state of India at an elevation of 3,658 meters above the sea level. The region remains completely covered with thick blankets of snow during winters. However, it comes alive with a riot of colors with blooming flowers in summer which appear as a bright carpet of color against a mountainous snow capped background.

The main Valley of Flowers is a glacial corridor, around five kilometers long and two kilometers wide. You will encounter numerous cascading waterfalls on the route to Valley of Flowers. You need to cover a slightly difficult trek in order to feel the bliss of this national park. Best time to visit Valley of Flowers is from July to August, this is the when climates remain best to trek this beautiful valley.

The Valley of Flowers National Park is the second core zone of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. The park, with its gentler landscape, breath-taking beautiful meadows of alpine flowers and ease of access, complements the rugged, inaccessible, high mountain wilderness of Nanda Devi. This richly diverse area is also home to rare and endangered animals, including the Asiatic black bear, snow leopard, brown bear and blue sheep.

The credit for the discovery of the Valley of Flowers goes to the British mountaineers Frank S. Smythe, Eric Shipton and R.L. Holdsworth who incidentally reached this valley after a successful expedition of Mount Kamet in 1931. The valley was full of flowers and they were attracted by the beauty of the area. Upon their return they named the valley as Valley of Flowers. The Valley of Flowers was established as a national park of India with effect from 6 November 1982 and it is now a world heritage site.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Flowers of India. 

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Yellow flowering rapeseed plants in Luoping, southern China

Limestone hills rise up amid a sea of flowering rapeseed plants in Luoping, southern China. Situated in the eastern part of the Yunnan province, Luoping is a small city with a population of 500,000. Its vast farmland is covered in the blossoming rapeseed crops every February and March, drawing flocks of tourist and photographers. The 250,000mu (Chinese measuring system) area blanketed in rapeseed flowers give the impression of a golden ocean. Travellers refer to the area as the weirdest 'sea' in the world. Not only the base for rapeseed production, Luoping County is also the national base for raising bees and processing honey products.

 Other sites for tourists visiting Luoping include the Jiulong waterfall, the Duoyi River and the Lubuge Gorges. The area’s rapeseed flower festival has been heavily promoted in recent years by the local tourist board, so the scene is not quite as peaceful as it seems here. Out of shot are ten tour buses and some 80 amateur photographers. 

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The Poppy is an Angiospermae or flowering plant of the family Papaveraceae. Ornamental poppies are grown for their colorful flowers; some varieties of poppy are used as food, whilst other varieties produce the powerful medicinal alkaloid opium which has been used since ancient times to create analgesic and narcotic medicinal and recreational drugs. Following the trench warfare of the 1st World War which took place in the poppy fields of Flanders, red poppies have become a symbol of remembrance of soldiers who have died during wartime.

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Echeveria Flowers

Echeveria is a large genus of flowering plants in the Crassulaceae family, native to semi-desert areas of central America, from Mexico to northwestern South America. The genus is named after the 18th century Mexican botanical artist Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy.

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Red Lotus Sea

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Keukenhof Gardens Lisse, Netherlands

Keukenhof is situated on 15th century hunting grounds. It was also a source of herbs for Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut's castle, which is the source of the name Keukenhof . Rich merchants took over the grounds after the Countess's death. VOC captain and governor Adriaen Maertensz Block lived there in his retirement years in the 17th century in the country house  which he had let built in 1641.
In the 19th century, the Baron and Baroness Van Pallandt assigned the landscape architect Jan David Zocher and his son Louis Paul Zocher, who had also worked on the Vondelpark, to design the grounds around the castle.
The garden was established in 1949 by the then-mayor of Lisse. The idea was to present a flower exhibit where growers from all over the Netherlands and Europe could show off their hybrids – and help the Dutch export industry (the Netherlands is the world's largest exporter of flowers). Keukenhof has been the world's largest flower garden for over fifty years.

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Tulip Season - Skagit Valley, WA.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people come to the Skagit Valley in April for The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. As one of Washington State’s most popular destination events, and a much-loved month for getaway vacations to La Conner, visitors are treated to acres and acres of brightly colored tulips, display gardens that are simply stunning, and photo opportunities around every corner. In 2012 alone, the festival greeted visitors from all 50 states and from 53 countries!

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Dubai miracle garden

Miracle Garden Dubai was founded in the City of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates in the year 2001.

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Spring in Switzerland

Spring in Switzerland

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Jacarandas Trees

Jacarandas Trees on the Road in Sydney, Australia

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