CHITRAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
On 27 May 2014, a group of 57 keen horticulturist from Chitral district gathered at the PTDC motel Chitral at 10 am. I always felt that Chitrals culture is reflected in many ways, one of them is our keenness for flowers and gardening. Being remote and lacking resources has not hampered us Chitralis from developing a way of life that is special in many ways . In s
ome ways it sets an aesthetic standard of living superior to what surrounding areas in Pakistan have pursued inspite of others having better access and link to the developed world. No home in Chitral is without flowers and many a chitrali will have one tucked in his pakol . The climate of Chitral gives us a wonderful opportunity to propagate diverse variety of flowers and plants . Our climate is similar to England, most of Europe, parts of USA, Canada, China Japan and Newzeland thus giving us the opportunity to introduce a diverse variety of colours to Chitral. The famous Dawn Redwood tree that grows only in California has been successfully grown in Chitral so is the Glory tree, Ginkgo biloba and many other varieties. In Chitral we had also started loosing out on old variety of flowers , disease came in with new plants , there was much to discuss . Like any other Pakistani the struggle for education , health and better life pushed us Chitrals into economic pursuits . In the process we interact with the rest of Pakistan but officials working in the district or visitors passing through do not get the opportunity to observe different aspects of our cultural and way of life . You thus miss out on understanding much of Chitral. This is what I shared with the gathering at the meeting and realized there was so much more to learn from the group. Chitral Horticulture Society was thus formed. We are a group of keen gardeners with no one sponsoring our activities. Our passion has brought us together on a platform to share , learn and enjoy. We have formed a society with 57 local registered members . We set up periodical meetings at different gardens to share our knowledge and expertise. Our website will soon be coming up where you will get to meet our members and know what they are doing. We would love to have associate member from outside the district and the world at large. We will be keen to link with like minded Horticulture Societies and gardening forums around the world. Maqsood ul Mulk
Chairman
Chitral Horticultural Society
