Belgorod Lilacs – an Update

The first day of the forum, held in the Belgorodchina City Park, was called 'Green Capital' and was a chance for Dr Tokhtar to update the Governor and his guests on the 'Belgorod Lilac' project. The Doctor's team consisted of project leaders Tatiana Polyakova and Olga Aladina, and the Governor's guests included Evgeny Glagolev, the State Government transport supremo, and Yuri Galdun, the Mayor of Belgorod.

The Doctor reported that 618 plants of 68 local, and 141 foreign varieties, have been planted in the lilac grove to date. 72 more varieties are in the greenhouses at the University. Currently, 835 hybrids have been planted in a selection nursery for breeding work. In addition, laboratory staff have collected, cleaned, stratified and planted hybrid lilac seedlings to the point where there are now 2,234 plants in the Garden's greenhouses. A nursery is being developed at the Botanical Gardens to assist with the clonal micropropagation of 45 more varieties, on top of the 23 already transferred from the laboratory, totalling 6,500 plants, with a further 5,000 planned for delivery. The nursery already contains 750 plants of 150 varieties. The audience were transfixed by the exhaustive detail relayed by our expert team. Dr Tokhtar mentioned that there were expeditions to sites across the Region to collect more lilacs.

If you haven't had enough of lilacs, head to Pobeda (Victory) Park where you can find the 'Lilac Harmony' garden, planted by the University.