The secret garden

Dzukou Valley, Nagaland & Manipur, India

A true valley of flowers!

From afar the valley looks like a green carpet, but as you come closer you notice more and more color hues. When you finally reach the valley floor you will see an incredible density of plants and an amazing diversity of species – each blooming at a different time of the year.

The valley was teeming with butterflies and other insects, an indication of a healthy environment, for now.

From the very first shoots of spring to the last frost free days of the autumn there are plants in bloom here, some endemic to this very valley – like the Dzukou lily (Lilium chitrangadae). Some will dominate portions of the landscape with their color, and during my time it was a few patches of yellow and pink.

During my short visit I found many plant species I have only known from garden centers, like spirea, geranium and potentilla, and realized that this valley could be one of their sources.

What I found very interesting was that the slopes are covered in quite tall and dense bamboo, but the valley floor did not support such tall growth, instead it was like a gardener had cared for a flower meadow to thrive and no plant reached higher than me, opposed to the slopes where the bamboo were forest-like in many places.
Read less