Muscat Municipality turns to perennial plants for landscaping

6/7/2016 6:49:17 AM

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat-

Muscat Municipality is replacing seasonal plants with perennial ones as part of its sustainable landscaping and beautification drive.

Mubarak Mohammed al Shukaili, deputy director of nursery in the municipality's Department of Landscaping and Gardening said, 'We are looking at plant varieties that will help in sustainable landscaping. These will require less manpower, less maintenance and less expenditure. We are replacing seasonal grass, plants and flowers with those that can survive for years.

'Perennial plants can survive the hot weather of Oman as they do not require a lot of water and will also bear flowers from time to time. So, we will have flowers the entire year. These plants will give the city its natural beauty, even in the absence of seasonal varieties.' Flowering shrubs that are being tried for landscaping include cactus, aloe vera, desert rose and ornamental grass, said Shukaili.

'Cities like Texas and Florida have the same climate as Oman, and they too grow perennials for gardening and landscape beautification. We have already planted perennial flowers and shrubs in Al Khuwayr in the ministries area, Seeb and near Muttrah Souq.' Explaining further Shukaili said, 'The roots of seasonal flowers are shallow and die if not watered well even a single day. Besides sourcing from our own nurseries we also import many varieties of seasonal flowers from the Netherlands, the US, Japan and the UK. This is quite expensive.'

He said that the department is also in the process of beautifying the Muscat Expressway. 'We will beautify the areas near five or six interchanges only. It's not possible to beautify the whole stretch as it will not be possible to water the plants on such a long stretch. We get treated water from Haya Water for plants across the city. It's not possible to lay a pipeline over such a long stretch due to the topography. Also, 90 per cent of the area cannot support plant growth.'

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