Vasyl Kapustian is Director of the Botanical Garden in downtown Kyiv (named for Academician Fomin and popularly known as the Old Garden). His surname literally means Cabbage Grower. Without digging up genealogical records and trying to find out whether or not he believes that one’s surname has an effect on one’s destiny, The Day asked Mr. Kapustian to share his impressions after being assigned this specific post.
“It’s true that all our employees have an imperial touch to their soul,” he smiles. He is right, considering that walking one’s beat, checking the garden with its singular plantations, occupying an area of 22 hectares, treating it the way one does one’s own property, requires special dedication. Of course, Mr. Kapustian and his staff know only too well that what they have in their possession is state property. But there is also the unwritten rule saying that man considers as his own something where some “capital investments” have been made, no matter how, in terms of work, time or money consumed. “Add here the simple joy of doing the job one knows best, tending a collection of plants blossoming owing to your own dedicated effort,” says Mr. Kapustian.
“When the Germans occupied Kyiv they set up a cafО here,” Vsevolod Hrabovsky, Botanical Garden research fellow, points to a vast area planted with tropical and subtropical species. Being served food and drink amid date palms and banana trees was not exactly proper considering that the plantations were meant for other purposes, mildly speaking, although it provided an exotic atmosphere, unless one considered the inherently high temperature and humidity levels. In winter, the special pavilions (in the staff-only part of the garden) had to maintain +18°C. Also, there are the tropical and subtropical sections, numbering 8,000 varieties and accounting for heavy budget expenses, including more than 5 billion calories, 135,000 kW, and 35,000 m3 of water. Fortunately, the local municipal economy officials realize that these exclusively demanding plants are in the public domain. At one time, the tropical section had gas supply arrears, but the Kyivenerho agreed to make concessions at the beginning of the winter, as soon as they received the Garden’s request. It is difficult to note here the trend to complain about lack of attention in terms of budget subsidies. Except that Garden workers have had much better opportunities to make trips to augment the collection of plants. One consolation is that all of the botanists are disinterested persons, so to say. They are all fanatically dedicated to their cause. The World Association of Botanical Gardens circulates lists of plants that can be exchanged. It is also true that the Royal Botanical Garden is annually presented some г20 billion. The one in Kyiv is denied even one-tenth of that sum. This fact was fortunately mentioned, albeit fleetingly.
Meanwhile, Vsevolod Hrabovsky and research associate Larysa Hrodziyevska continued with the excursion. Many items on display are unique. In the 1930s-40s, a lyceum was disbanded in Kremenets (Ternopil oblast), because the authorities had found it too free- thinking in its appearance. Its botanical collection was transferred to Kyiv. Some of the plants are still alive and well, setting an indoor record . And the soils kept indoors present a problem, as certain varieties have pollination specifics. The avocado, for example, multiplies aided by bats. However, the need to keep such species under constant surveillance is rewarded a hundred times over (including the manual irrigation of 2,000 plant species in one of the pavilions). These open-air tropical plantations are placed second in Ukraine and third in the CIS countries, after the botanical gardens of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Here we are speaking of philosophy. The Fomin Garden manager formulates it simply: “We are carrying out a mission assigned us by the state.” While the National Academy’s Botanical Garden specializes in research (like cloning orchids), the Fomin Garden works in a somewhat different vein: botany per se (there is a botany textbook for college students, relying on two principles: a systemic and an ecological-geographic exposition). There are also medical specifics to be considered. Larysa Hordziyevska says her research centers on “a plant as a living organism, rather than an object of interior design.” At a trying period for the plant collection, she, together with other Garden personnel, bought polyethylene film for the pavilions, bringing mattresses to cover the gaps in the glass walls, staying up nights when the pavilions had to be kept warm, using burzhuika small stoves. In view of this, their scorn of films regarding plants as another means of making profit is not surprising. “There is nothing wrong about the flower-selling business, of course,” says Larysa Hordziyevska, “but some people, especially in Holland, are capable of turning this line of business into an art. People treating plants with respect wake up in the morning and talk to them before they do anything else.
Also, Fomin Garden staffers are loath to retire (says the manager smiling), claiming that they feel perfectly comfortable showing ignorant visitors bringing their ailing plants how to take care of them properly or when telling readers of books dealing with the plant world how to understand certain passages. They also complain that there is a heavy influx of visitors, saying this distracts them from their daily chores and research. Yet almost everyone admits that all visitors leave with their eyes shining with enthusiasm and appreciation.
