Flora
The Dubai Garden Store has some interesting information about Dubai gardening. The most interesting info there, however, is a price list (in Emirati Dirham AED: $1=AED3.67 AED1=$0.27 convert) which describes prices for residential excavation, turf installation, trees and shrubs, and irrigation costs.
The Dubai landscaping market is booming, according to AME Info:
Projects such as Dubai Land will require vast amounts of landscaping, as will of course the Palm Islands and the World Projects. Add to this new Golf Courses and Park facilities and it is not surprising that it is currently estimated that over Dirhams 60 Billion is expected to be spent on gardens and landscaping over the next 5 years.
By 2010 forecasts for Dubai suggest:
New homes, apartments, hotels and clubs will see as many as 5,000 new swimming pools being built
The number of new houses currently being built will require over 5 Million square metres of lawns to be laid.
Cycads are extremely rare and some, including endangered Living Fossil Plants, are relatively slow growing and are extremely hardy and low maintenance (there are Cycads in Kew Gardens in Great Britain that have been in pots for almost 500 years). These plants are drought hardy when established, needing very little water to grow and thrive. They grow in shade, part shade and full sun. Living Fossil Cycads have been known to live for over 1 thousand years.
Some great pictures of Dubai can be found at the TrekEarth site.
Particularly good are :
the Dubai Municipal Bldg
Old Dubai
Dubai in the morning, fog rolling in
A backyard barbecue
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