According to a report by Dr Desh Raj, a scientist at the Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, the flowers which has a recent history of being sold at Rs 20-35 per piece in the domestic market, and can fetch a lucrative price in international markets. The best part of the cultivation of tulips is that it can grow in areas having low temperatures as well as in greenhouses. At present, they are mainly grown in Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Solan, Simla and Sirmour.

Tulips are spring flowers, and their bulbs grow best under the temperatures ranging between 5-100c and 20-250c degree centigrades direct sun during morning and evening and partial shade during mid-day can produce best quality flowers.

Tulips are suitable for pot culture, in beds, borders, formal and informal locations. They are also suitable for growing in basin of apple orchards, lawns, rockeries and wild gardens. In mid-hills, tulips flower during February to April and in high hills it is during April to June. The scapes along with 2 leaves are cut when 25-50 per cent colour develops on petals. The flowers are then packed in bundles of 10-20 each and sent to markets covered in newspapers to avoid bruising injury.

Large scale tulips cultivation in India can become the backbone of the floriculture industry as is the case in the Netherlands. Large varieties of delicate and brilliant shades in tulips can turn its cultivation into a great bulb growing industry, the report says.

The floriculture industry though termed as the an extreme focus industry by the Indian Government for exports is currently facing many bottlenecks, especially on the licencing front. The floriculture exporters can only apply to the Minister of Agriculture's office in Haryana for an import licence to ship in planting materials into the country. This has posed many procedural hassles to many of the exporters, especially for those situated in the south where the industry mainly focuses on floriculture. Earlier this facility was available to a company at any of the branch offices of the ministry situated at the major cities of the country. There is no proper storage facility in the airports, which is yet another impediment that the floriculture industry has to surpass.

The consignment is usually kept for three to five hours with the clearing and forwarding agents, prior to being loaded on to an aircraft. The consignment is kept in such adverse conditions which quickly heats up the flowers and causes them to sweat and attract microbial infection, the inspection by customs also has its effect on these flowers.