Phlox Exhibition, Interesting Varieties

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Two views at one exhibition

Phlox time

For me, the time from early August to late September is the phlox time. Although many cultures bloom during this period, my gaze catches in flower beds, first of all, the caps of paniculata phlox. There are plants with more spectacular flowering, there are plants with an amazing flower shape, but you can't order your heart!

And I'm not the only one. At phlox exhibitions both in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, I meet many amateurs, those who have been captured by this flower. Phlox paniculata for its almost 300 years in the gardens of Europe took off many times at the height of fashion, and then disappeared from sight for a long time. Now a new flowering of this perennial has come.

Stable interest from amateurs is caused not only by novelties, which breeders provide in abundance, but also old varieties, and even, one might say, historical, some of them are more than 100 years old. Where to see all this variety? Of course, at exhibitions and fairs. In St. Petersburg, the World of Phlox exhibition pleases every year in the House of Gardeners; in the Eurasia Exhibition and Convention Center, many collectors also offer various varieties.

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In Moscow, exhibitions are traditionally held at the All-Russian Exhibition Center, on Novinsky Boulevard 22, in the Biological Museum named after K. A. Timiryazev … You understand, when I was in the capital at the end of July, I could not help but visit the phlox festival at the Moscow Flower Growers club. The "Phlox" section was created in 1964 by N. I. Berlizov.

Over the years, a lot of experience has been accumulated in the selection of Phlox paniculata, many varieties have been preserved. It is a pity that it is forbidden to photograph exhibits in the capital. Many visitors would like to have pictures as a souvenir of luxurious bouquets or for comparison with their varieties. By the way, at our exhibition in the House of Gardeners, curator S. Voronina only welcomes interest in her favorites.

The exhibition is not only an opportunity to get acquainted with the varieties, but also an occasion to discuss your impressions with other visitors, meet amateurs and make new friends among collectors. Club member M. I. Sidina made a short report on P. G. Gaganov - the author of the famous varieties of phlox, many of which were presented at a separate stand.

They are so good that foreign firms do not hesitate to pass them off as their own. In the hall, one could talk with the owner of an extensive collection V. Ya. Surikova, with a big fan of phlox O. V. Baukina, with an expert on varieties N. K. Kvyatkovskaya. Nelly Konstantinovna is the author of two excellent books about the estates of Marfino and Ostafyevo near Moscow. She treats the authors of phlox and the history of varieties as carefully as she treats objects of art.

Several new seedlings are presented to the audience every year. Undoubtedly, not only I paid attention to the novelties presented by E. F. Kulikov. Evgeny Fedorovich is the owner of a collection of rare decorative deciduous plants, which numbers several hundred items. Another passion is phlox. At the moment, his personal collection of Phlox paniculata has about 90 varieties. The collection is updated every year. And hundreds of seeds are sown every year.

The best are selected from a large number of seedlings. Sometimes it turns out from 5 to 10 copies worthy of showing at exhibitions. I am sure that soon a purple-crimson "Heat" will appear in our flower gardens, glowing, with a bright carmine eye. The inflorescence is round, medium in size and density, does not fade. The Etiquette looks very elegant - it is white with a bluish tint, the tube is pink-lilac. The flower is rounded with wavy petals.

The inflorescence is oval-conical, large, dense. The Northern Lights seedling is very good. It is white with purple shadows along the edges of the petals and with a bright crimson eye, the petals are slightly wavy. Powerful bush with large, rounded-conical inflorescences. MF Sharonova has a variety with the same name, but it has a flower diameter of up to 3 cm. EF Kulikov received his first variety "Snegiri" in 1998.

The name of the village in the Moscow region, where the garden plot of Yevgeny Fedorovich is located, became the name of the flower. The variety is bright crimson, like the breast of a bullfinch, does not fade. The petals are wavy. The inflorescence is oval-conical, large, of medium density. The bush is beautiful, durable, compact. It is winter-hardy, resistant, grows rapidly, long-term flowering.

There are many impressions from the Moscow exhibition, and even more desires. I want to embrace the immensity, to have everything that I saw. It's a pity, the site is not rubber, you have to moderate your appetite … But I brought a dozen varieties!

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Childhood scent

Every summer, starting from the very first in my life, I spent at our old dacha in the "Bullfinches" near Moscow, among the simple country flowers - peonies and phloxes. Today, when I have my own house with a garden, the first flowers planted were the very phloxes brought from my mother from the dacha.

When I breathed in the scent of blooming bushes, the scent of my childhood, the dormant love for them flared up with renewed vigor. Gradually, year after year, phloxes more and more filled the garden with a multi-colored round dance, and in the evenings - a heady fragrance penetrating through open windows into all corners of the house.

And once it became clear that the number of varieties can be called a collection. From that moment on, I had an interesting task - the search for information about what is really growing in me, and who created this beauty.

A lot has been written about phloxes, but for a florist who is keen on phloxes, this is still not enough. Information about the rare varieties available in the collection has to be collected bit by bit from a variety of sources.

In the book by G. K. Tavlinova "Phloxes" detailed descriptions of the varieties are given, in the book by G. M. Dyakova with the same name there are wonderful photographs by which it is easy to compare the varieties, but in these two editions neither the authors of the varieties nor the year of their creation to find. You can refer to the catalog "Varieties and seedlings of paniculata phlox" of the phlox section of the "Moscow Flower Growers" Club, but it contains only the names of the originators, without initials, and a brief description, the year of introduction is not always put down, many new varieties are absent at all, not to mention seedlings … Everything is in the book by E. A. Konstantinova, but the number of varieties is limited by the volume of the book. Old editions are very rare, it is problematic to get them.

A search on the Internet gives about the same results - a few good sites, a lot of good photographs of the popular and widespread varieties. The rarities are mostly discussed on the forums, but there are more rumors than reliable information. In periodicals, something interesting is sometimes found, but not often, since magazines are published for lovers of different cultures.

And people who love phloxes want to know not only the name of the variety and the name of the breeder, but also some moments of his biography, the history of the creation of specific varieties, their further fate and other small details, at first glance, insignificant, but warming the soul of a collector sick with phloxes …

Having visited the annual phlox exhibition at the Moscow Flower Growers Club on Novinsky Boulevard, I received a lot of new information for myself. On the first day of the exhibition, small rooms could hardly accommodate all the visitors, but on the second day it was calmer, and there was an opportunity to communicate with amateurs and breeders.

Without a doubt, everyone liked the seedlings of Evgeny Fedorovich Kulikov. Natalia Leonidovna Teplova has a gorgeous, you can't say otherwise, the “Shimmering” variety. One of the rare varieties "Ivan Susanin" by Zinaida Grigorievna Zakharova, the author of the famous "Mashuni", was also exhibited.

With pleasure I once again admired the absolutely unique variety “Margri” by MF Sharonova, the handsome “Rumyan” by BV Kvasnikov, the magnificent “Sandro Botticelli” by Y. A. Reprev.

The whole stand of the exhibition was dedicated to the great Russian breeder Pavel Gavrilovich Gaganov. The varieties, which have long become classics, gathered together, attracted attention, and, of course, I wanted to look at each individual flower to determine whether the same grows in my garden or not.

In general, the exhibition made a strong impression and, to the delight of the collector, was able to provide answers to some questions. There is also a result - the list for replenishing the collection has already been drawn up. Ahead - further searches for old varieties and the acquisition of new products. And I am absolutely sure that paniculate phlox will always bloom in Russian gardens, and their aroma will also remind other generations of childhood, summer, the joy of life.