Plunging into “Flowery Rivers”
Kyiv hosts a major exhibit of tulips, a feast for esthetes and photographers
Although the season of outdoor recreation opened several weeks ago, it is too early to bathe in water bodies. Yet Kyiv’s public utility services are inviting people to dip into “Flowery Rivers,” a large exhibit of tulips on Spivoche Pole (“Field of Songs”) at the Pechersk Landscape Park.
Kyivzelenbud public utility specialists have set up an almost 3,500-square-meter composition of 250,000 tulips in downtown Kyiv. The flowers make up a picture of confluent rivers – a symbol of the continuity of generations and the strength of Ukrainian families. Round-shaped and pointed, long and dwarflike, they show more than 11 shades of the color range: “classical” red, yellow, white, refined mauve, pink, orange, etc. The lush flowers give off a bitterish smell.
It turned out that preparations for the springtime exhibit had begun as long ago as last autumn. “Tulips are usually planted on the eve of frosts,” says Natalia Snopok, chief of Kyivzelenbud’s landscape design sector. “We planted tulip bulbs in a certain pattern and looked in the spring whether they had awakened and formed an unbroken composition. We ourselves wondered when the exhibit would be opened, for we totally depend on weather conditions.” After all, organizers are satisfied with the way the flowers grew through – the tulips densely cover the hills of Spivoche Pole.
Although there were very warm days even in March, it took the tulips some time to begin to bloom. “There was a wide gap between night and day temperatures. The tulips sprouted, but the buds could not begin to set for a long time. Only in the last week before the exhibit, when the temperature gap was fewer than 10 degrees, the tulips began to blossom right before our eyes,” Snopok says. “Besides, we hesitated to the last moment about when to open the exhibit – when the tulips have bloomed a little or when they run riot.”
The exhibit has been open for a little more than a month. Early, middle-term, and late varieties of tulips were planted in the landscape park to keep the composition intact for the whole period. The field is also full of photography spots and installations in the shape of eco-benches. “Flowery Rivers” also holds concerts and quests every weekend.
You really must find time to feast your eyes on the army of tulips. “Flowery Rivers” will remain open until May 29.
