Flowers in Russian Gardens 



MICHAEL DIEV 

 (translated by Olga D. Ivitskaya) 



Like other flower growers all 

 over the world, Russian ama 

 teur gardeners fall into two 

 categories: aesthetes and collectors. 

 The former consider their gardens 

 as arrangements; the latter, as reser- 

 vations. However, more often than 

 not, one can come across gardens 

 containing both exposition and col- 

 lection. Before the restructuring 

 process ("perestroyka ") in Russia be- 

 gan, Russian town dwellers had 

 been given allotments of six "sotok" 

 (one "sotka" equals 1/100 hectare; 

 one hectare equals 2.741 acres) for 

 building summer houses and plant- 

 ing flowers. The modern standard is 

 1 5 sotok. 



Moscow suburb area mostly com- 

 prises miniature pre-perestroyka gar- 

 dens, among which one can some- 

 times find showpieces of landscape 

 design. And some of these toy-like 

 allotments house up to 1,000 spe- 

 cies of plants. 



Russia is a vast country rich in 

 plant resources. A great number of 



the decorative plants of Russian flora 

 have never been cultivated; many are 

 still grown by only a few amateur 

 flower enthusiasts. The climate of the 

 central European part of Russia, be- 

 ing quite severe (temperatures some- 

 times falling to as low as minus 40 

 Celsius in Moscow), but drier than 

 that of Western Europe, allows culti- 

 vation of many Middle and Central 

 Asian species, including some heat- 

 loving ones. 



Strange as it may seem, the small 

 amount of rain in summer is the 

 main factor of Eremurus' continu- 

 ing stability, as well as for Iris 

 darwa-sica and other underground- 

 stemmed southern plants. 



You can encounter Fritillaria 

 walujewii — a wonderful rare plant 

 with pink, spotted flowers, Iris 

 (Iridodictyum) kolpakowskianum, dwarf 

 Bludov iris with yellow flowers, and 

 even Ostrowskia magmfica, an an- 

 cient Middle Asian bellflower with 

 pink flowers up to eight inches in 

 diameter. 



Naturally, not every flower gar- 

 den enthusiast advertises their own 

 collection, even within their circle. 

 And certainly not everyone makes a 

 business out of it, but, to quote 

 Gorbachev, "the process is in full 

 swing" — in our case, the process of 

 experimenting with and cultivating 

 magnificent new species of plants. 

 Despite the fact that the majority 

 of the population here currently 

 lives below the poverty level, Rus- 

 sian people are on the whole still 

 well-educated. Many have a degree, 

 often in biology. And although they 

 manage to survive without money, 

 they will never do without plants. 



Michael Diev works at Aghina, 

 a Russian firm selling seed from a 

 wide range of material. Aghina 's 

 address is PO Box /, 10^02} Moscow, 

 Russia. The telephone number is (op^J 

 ^i6-^ji8; fax, (op^) ^i6-/6i^; e-mail: 

 alex@agbina. msk. ru. 



Illustrations: Michael Diev 



AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1999 



15 



