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The TTD Gardens – ornamental,
landscape and flower gardens – occupy an area of 460 acres in Tirupati
and Tirumala.
There are four nurseries at Tirumala with mist chambers – in the
Travellers Bungalow area, Gogarbham Dam area, Sri Padmavathi Guest House
area and Divyaramam area wherein ten lakh plants are propagated
annually. Hybrid varieties of crotons, hibiscus,bougainvilleas have been
released through hybridisation and mutation and named after great
personalities – Croton Ramanuja, Tirumalanambi, Neelam, Dr.N.T.Rama Rao
and bougainvillea varieties like Sharada Mukherjee and Dr. Shankar Dayal
Sharma. There are about 200 varieties of plants in the gardens.
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The Department of Gardens has
released a number of books and publications like Plant Wealth of
Tirumala, Angiospermic Wealth of Tirumala,The Ornamental Designs, Inti
Thotalu, Thota Panulu. The Garden Department has a large germplasm
collection of various ornamental varieties collected from various places
in India and abroad.
The great Vaishnava acharya Sri Ramanuja and his disciple, Sri
Anandalwar are believed to have been responsible for starting these
gardens in the fourteenth century. Legend has it that the Tirumala
flower gardens were cultivated by Sattada Sri Vaishnavas under the name
of Dasa Nambis who made flower garlands for use in temples in
Tirumala-Tirupati. Inscriptions in the temple refer to numerous flower
gardens during the latter period of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. In Tirumala many places are named after Nandanavanams –
Andalwar Garden, Tharigonda Venkamamba Garden, Hathiramjee Garden and
Tallapaka Garden.
To add to the glory of the gardens, there are many tanks and ponds such
as Alwar Tank Mangalabhavi and Ananthapalligunta which are useful not
only as perennial water sources for the temple gardens but also for
growing red lotus flowers and supplying fresh water to the pilgrims and
natives.
The main flowers used for Srivari Kainkaryam (puja) are the scented ones
like roses, lotuses, chrysanthemums, davana, tulasi, Nerium,
Tabornamontana, Kanakambaram (Tagetes) and Exora.
The Gardens Department of TTD meets the demand for flowers of all the
temples in Tirumala.The Department supplies nearly 500 kg of flowers
every day to all temples in Tirumala and Tiripati. It supplies garlands
for adorning the deities and for decorating the mandapam, pandals and
vahanas on festive occasions.The Department also accepts flowers in the
form of donations from the devotees wherein flowers can be supplied
under the name ‘Sri Vari Pushpa Kainkaryam’. The APSTC-run buses provide
for free transport of flowers in Tirumala.
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How to
reach
Tirupati Airport, (IATA:
TIR, ICAO: VOTP) also known as
Renigunta Airport, is
located at Renigunta in Chittoor district in the state of Andhra
Pradesh, India. The airport is 14 km from Tirupati city.
One can easily reach TTD Gardens from the city by taking local Buses,
Rickshaws, Tongas and Taxis.
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