chandigarh ajmer singh does not own any land to grow crops in nayagaon where he lives but for 27 years this landless peasant has tended thousands of flowers at chandigarhs worldfamous rose garden ajmers hands bear many wounds inflicted by rose thorns but he knows each flower like a doting grandfather spring has brought a cheer to ajmers wrinkled weatherbeaten face because the roses are in full bloom despite many flowers dying in the frost that hit the city this winterthe rose garden recently acquired 210 new varieties from bangalore which is known as indias flower capital to take the total number of varieties here to 825 roses start to bloom from end of january onwards and wither by april when it gets very hot every october we prepare for the winter by pruning the roses giving them fertiliser that is a mixture of urea neem animal bone dust and other nutrients roses require a lot of care and patience visitors to the rose garden do not realise how much effort goes into making roses bloom in spring said paramjit singh head maali with the chandigarh municipal corporationthe gardeners are justified in laying claim to the fact that the size of some of the rose varieties here compares well with the huge and famous roses of the shaalimar cheshmashaahi and nishaat gardens of kashmir unlike kashmir roses which do not have much of a scent the roses of chandigarh are imbued with a vapourised sweetness before we plant new roses or prepare for the annual rose festival in february or get ready for a vvip visit we observe our religious rituals all our maalis bow before the new rose bush touch our heads to the ground and pray to our gods to make the new roses bloom so that we our appreciated by our officers we distribute ladoos after the religious ceremony said gurmukh singh head maali with the horticulture departmentguards keep vigil through day and night to prevent thefts of these beautiful roses sometimes unscrupluous visitors uproot the entire rose plant and take it to their home gardens the fine if caught stealing a rose is a whopping rs 500 many times over the jacked up rates extracted by the famous khullar nursery of sector 9 on valentines day there are many young lovers who come to the rose garden but they sit next to the nallahs running through and are hardly interested in roses most of the visitors are civilized and do not try and steal roses but there are odd cases of theft said paramjit singh