If you were to ask me who contributes the most to the advancement of gardening, who enriches our gardens with new breeds, cultures, and varieties, and who inspires us to see the world differently, to rise above the mundane and the routine, to appreciate the eternal beauty of nature, I would answer without hesitation: it’s that special category of people known as the obsessed, the idealists, and sometimes the fanatics. They exist among both professional and amateur gardeners. These individuals work not for money, accolades, or the favors bestowed by those in power. They disregard their own comfort and personal well-being, dedicating all their energy to proving once again that man does not live by bread alone, that the meaning of life is not found in the quantity and quality of the soup consumed, nor in the size and wealth of stone palaces. More than anyone else, these people understand that achieving harmony in the relationship between humans and nature will also enhance our relationships with one another, filling our lives with unique beauty.
In our disorganized lives, such individuals are at least inconvenient. Their unconventional behavior and somewhat incomprehensible motives do not fit neatly into stereotypes. They create special challenges for those in power: everyone is asking, pleading, and striving for something. Oh, how tempting it is at times to expel them, to remove them so that there are no distractions from our complacency, our sense of self-importance, and infallibility. But such people have always existed, do exist, and will continue to exist. Among gardeners, they are perhaps the most numerous. This may be explained by the harsh conditions of their lives and work. First, fruits and berries are considered a “third course,” leading to a rather dismissive attitude towards them; second, developing a new variety can take anywhere from 15 to 50 years, depending on the crop; and fourth, every failure, such as the loss or death of a tree, costs the gardener many years of lost time, and time, as we know, is an irreversible factor (at least for the gardener).
It’s impossible to tell the stories of all the dedicated gardeners, although I wish I could. However, the fates, endeavors, desires, and disappointments of dozens of such gardeners can be glimpsed through the story of one of them. They are all quite similar, except for specific details.
Vladimir Ilyich Zhilyin lives on the banks of the still-flowing, albeit not very clean, Siberian river Tom. In the city of Novokuznetsk, in the Novoilyinka neighborhood. But you might encounter him in Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, Kyiv, Sverdlovsk, or Simferopol, or in any other corner of the country where something interesting in gardening is happening. Many gardeners, I would say even generations of them, know him. It’s quite possible that you do too. After all, gardeners are a friendly, sociable bunch.
In the distant year of 1948, he graduated from a horticultural college. Since then, with enviable enthusiasm and boundless energy, he has strived to transform Novokuznetsk into a garden city and to enrich his native Kuzbass with plants that were previously little known or entirely unknown. By ordinary standards, he should be sitting on his garden plot, enjoying a well-deserved retirement for over ten years, growing what has been collected, tested, and proven reliable for the conditions of Kuzbass over many years. But that’s not who Zhilyin is. He can’t sit still if he hears from someone or reads in a newspaper, magazine, or book about a new variety or some innovation. The gatherings are brief. He must see it with his own eyes, and if possible, obtain and test it for suitability in Kuzbass.
Anyone who has “interacted” with our air, road, and rail networks knows the discomfort, to put it mildly, of the endless waiting areas (so-called train stations) and the means of transportation themselves. That’s where you truly feel your vulnerability and helplessness. And if you add the worries about finding a place to stay… It’s astonishing how similar all the hotels in our large and small cities are. “No vacancies,” and even if you were to die right there, no one would care.
But nothing frightens a gardener who has embarked on the quest for novelty. And finally, the goal is achieved! After long waits, conversations, and going around in circles, the plants are in hand. Sometimes it’s a full backpack, sometimes just a few specimens, or even a handful of cuttings or buds. Everything is carefully packed (heaven forbid it perishes on the way) and off he goes. From the station, without stopping at home, straight to the planting site.
It would be nice if this were a permanent place where the gardener is the master. But such a place does not exist. Once, Vladimir Ilyich requested 12 hundredths of a hectare. But when it came to voting, not a single hand was raised. They unanimously decided to give only 6 hundredths. “But I’m doing this for you. I don’t need anything for myself.” But no one heard that — they moved on to the next question. And new trials began. Where to plant the plants? Where to test them?
He spots a half-abandoned greenhouse and persuades them: “I’ll tidy it up. We’ll propagate the plants. It will benefit everyone.” They let him in. Sometimes willingly, sometimes with reluctance. Through incredible efforts, he brings everything into order, filling it with plants to the brim. The owner looks and thinks: “No, we can work in this greenhouse ourselves. Why do we need this grumbler? He’s never satisfied: either the watering is wrong, or he brought in nematodes, or the plants were moved to the wrong spot. Enough, we need to get rid of him.” And they do. And the plants — alive, dear, valuable, unique — are also sent out with him, into the street. This happened when he worked at the circus, and later when he was dismantling greenhouses at one school or another in Novoilyinka. Now, it seems, an institute (or college) that trains teachers has agreed to give him a greenhouse. But for how long?
And it’s no better with open ground. Sometimes they allow him to use a patch of land at a school for a certain period, and other times it’s all bulldozed. What can you do with your six hundredths? Nevertheless, the work continues. With disappointments and setbacks, but it goes on.
How many plants have already been brought in? Thousands. Or perhaps tens of thousands. And all of them require care and attention. It’s frustrating when a newcomer has to be discarded, but it’s even more painful when a true candidate for introduction into the practice of Kuzbass gardeners is lost. But Vladimir Ilyich never gives up. Time and again, he retrieves and checks. “I only believe in experiments,” says the gardener, “to evaluate, you need to check seven times.”
He loves to recall his meetings with M. A. Lisavenko. The academician gave him many good pieces of advice. He shared his disappointments and mistakes, warned him where to be cautious and where he could act with certainty. Once, Mikhail Afanasyevich said: “Look, Volodya, you can’t work alone in such a complex field. You’ll be crushed. By indifference to your work, to the cause of your life.” Vladimir Ilyich often remembers these words from the esteemed academician. When he finds himself on the street with his plants, when he sees a little nursery being crushed under the wheels of a tractor that has come to clear the area for something else. For a shed, for example, or for a cooperative café.
The situation is complicated by the fact that Vladimir Ilyich, as a true amateur gardener, when he travels great distances for two or three cuttings of currants or gooseberries, cannot resist stopping by interesting decorative plants. They will be useful for indoor greening, for planting in parks, for decorating courtyards, for planting along streets. It would suit our conditions, and there will be a place for them. Everything should serve people. Thus, a vast collection of plants gradually formed. Dozens, hundreds of species. Here are subtropical and tropical plants, from desert regions and the Far North. Next to a banana are Himalayan cedars or rare, beautiful bamboos from Japan and China. The collection is growing. Where to find space for it? Where to preserve it? And not just preserve it, but also show it to people, to introduce them to the wonderful creations of nature? And such a place was found.
Energetic, responsive, and very likable young people — the director of the Sports Palace and his deputy — provided the opportunity to display the collection in the foyer of this spacious, excellent building. They thought, the Palace is visited by a lot of people. During the breaks between hockey battles, let people immerse themselves in a completely different world. And if, in the process, someone, say the tenth or even the hundredth person, feels a stir in their heart at the sight of unusual plants and thinks about how many of them are disappearing from the face of the earth and have found a secure refuge only in the Red Book, then it can be considered that the exhibition has fulfilled its role.
However, the location is risky. The fans are good people, but very emotional, and if their favorite team loses, the poor plants often suffer. Unfortunately, they cannot run, hide, or fight back. Open and defenseless, in a basin or bucket of soil, they stand on the floor where they were placed. A terrible fate once befell an entire colony of agaves. Exceptionally beautiful and proud, they ended up hopelessly damaged. It’s bitter that this happened, and very worrying that tomorrow this fate may befall other plants that survived today.
Vladimir Ilyich laments: “I’m not trading, I’m not getting rich, I’m not hiding anything; I give everything freely and joyfully to people. Take it, use it. Why trample on beauty, the unique creations of nature so cruelly?” Calling such actions “acts of vandalism,” the gardener does not take offense. He believes that people are inherently good. Just look at children. How honest, sensitive, responsive, and curious they are. Thoughts of cruelty and hardened hearts come later.
I asked Vladimir Ilyich where his passion for collecting plants comes from. He says it’s because our greening is very poor. A poplar tree is good; it has many advantages over other species, but one cannot rely solely on it. The Topolniki Park is almost entirely poplars. On the streets and in the squares, if anything grows, it’s the same poplars. But there are so many other beautiful plants. Vladimir Ilyich dreams, for example, of chestnuts. “I have no doubt they will be here in time, along with other beautiful plants. And how are the interiors of buildings decorated? The pinnacle of fantasy is a palm tree. It requires so much space! Up to 6 square meters. And it’s boring to have the same tree for many years.” And thus begins a poem about the future.
In the city’s nature conservation society, there are two very likable women. “We,” they say, “approach Vladimir Ilyich with respect and sympathy. He is a wonderful person and a knowledgeable specialist, but what can our weak and very poor organization do?” They are being modest. They can do a lot. They managed to organize a powerful collective of volunteers who take the protection of nature to heart. For about an hour, we talked, but not for a second were we alone. People, people, people. Young men and women rushed in for a moment to resolve urgent issues and then returned to work.
Remember the words of academician M. A. Lisavenko: “You can’t, Volodya, take on a big task alone.” Now Vladimir Ilyich is not alone, but he is still poorly protected. Why? Why only the nature conservation society? Where is the City Council? Surely, in such an ecologically troubled city as Novokuznetsk, there should be a strong ecological commission. Apparently, it exists. Why not unite all these forces, why not attract a highly qualified gardener as a consultant? Why not organize a permanent exhibition called “Plants and Us,” for example? Why, finally, in the city newspaper, which devotes an entire page to birthday announcements and the exchange of old items, is there no corner for gardeners? Much can be done with a little desire. And these efforts will pay off many times over.
The school should not stand aside. After all, its main task is to teach people entering life not to destroy but to beautify the earth. They should not drive Zhilyin out of the greenhouse or from his plot; instead, they should fight to ensure that he comes to meet with the children “at least once a week,” to take them to the greenhouses, to the plant exhibition, and to tell them about the amazing properties and possible uses of the plants. And Vladimir Ilyich knows how to talk about this, make no mistake.
It was already late in the evening when, in the darkness, the plants became invisible, and we stopped by the gardener’s home for a moment. And here I saw that he gains no profit from his titanic labor. I remembered: “I’m doing this for you.” Books, magazines, parcels, bundles, seeds, pots, fertilizers. It’s some kind of storage facility, and that’s it. A little more space in his mother’s room, and in the kitchen, you can cautiously walk past the seeds spread out on the floor. And from his own belongings — only the bare essentials. No sofas, no cabinets, no soft chairs. And above all this, a bare light bulb hangs from the ceiling on a wire. One might think, just take a small part of the collection and sell it at state prices, and there you have it, satisfaction. But Vladimir Ilyich is not that kind of gardener — “I’m doing this for you!”
If he ever comes to you for a new variety, don’t hesitate to give it to him. It will go into good hands, to a kind person. Just don’t make excuses, saying, “Go in peace — we’ll send it to you, we’ll definitely send it.” He believes it, and then he laments: “Perhaps they forgot in the midst of their affairs.” “No, they didn’t forget. They spoke empty words to brush him off, words that were already discarded from their minds.” But he will come again: he needs to test this variety and, if successful, share it with his fellow gardeners. And don’t be afraid to let him into the greenhouse or onto the plot. Interacting with such a person will only bring immense benefits. The main thing is that he can show even seasoned individuals nature and plants from the most unexpected angles. He will teach kindness, and that is something we so desperately need today!