For International Women's Day, that was celebrated last week (March 8) Russia imports many of their flowers, but there are also roses being grown in the country itself. In Syktyvkar roses are being grown for over ten years. Anastasia Mashkaleva of komi.kp.ru visited the enterprise and found out how the flowers are looked after.
By Anastasia Mashkaleva
State owned farm Prigorodniy have been growing roses since 2006. For all the years, the area has been increasing and decreasing intermittently. Since December 2017, roses have “moved” to a new light greenhouse, where they are grown on the area of 1500 ha.
Inside the greenhouse, the temperature is maintained at 25 degrees. When you enter it from the frost outside, there appears a feeling you went to the tropics. Roses are grown in trays on mineral cotton with drip watering. That is why there is a feeling that inside the greenhouse it is always raining. Because of permanent humidity there are small insects around the bushes, which the growers fight with the special sticky squares.
Currently there are eight varieties of roses grown in the greenhouse. Once the variety quantity amounted to 23 but over practical experience, the growers have left the ones that are resistant to diseases, do not fade quick and are in demand. The agronomist on plant protection, Sergey Boulatov has told that recently there has established a tendency for customers to prefer roses of light colours to classic red ones. Among the varieties there is dark red Prestige that smells like raspberries and coral Darth Wow. The rest are apricot, white, yellow and crème. Three horticulturists look after them.
“Everyone thinks that since we work in a rose garden, we see roses morning to evening every day and don’t want to receive them as a present. That’s not true, I love roses and would always be glad to get a bouquet. We have special relations with roses. It’s a must to talk to them, they are alive”, tells horticulturist Tatiana Ziganova.
Roses are grown in the greenhouse all year round but the hottest season is before the International Women’s Day, the growers start getting ready for it since December. Agronomists and horticulturists use special technological processes in order to increase the number of flowers by the special day. On average over this period in one week they cut 2-2.5 thousand roses.
“Our roses smell beautifully. That is why people come to buy flowers specifically in our specialized stores”, marked the agronomist.
After the roses are cut, they are placed in a separate room that we call “fridge”. In fact, it is not that cold there, the temperature is about +1C. There the flowers “afterripen” in tubs with water that at first glance looks soapy but in reality contains special solvent Chrisal. After that, the horticulturists engage in a tedious activity: sorting roses according to the size and colour and forming bouquets. In such a way, flowers arrive in city flower shops and later to the dwellers of Syktyvkar.
Source m.komi.kp.ru