BNRU Botanists Bring Blooms to Belgorod

The aim of the program is to create a centre for the production and selection of world-class varieties of lilac. These will be used by scientists locally, but also sold to commercial buyers, and used for local landscaping projects. Dr Lyudmila Tokhtar, Head of the Botanical Garden's Educational Centre, the variable quality of Lilacs produced by traditional methods makes widespread use of a particular varieties difficult and unattractive to growers. She explained,

“The latest biotechnological techniques allow us to produce varieties of high quality in short order. The clonal micropropagation method allows us to produce healthy and typographically accurate plants, but each variety requires serious research and development and often unique techniques for their reproduction”.

The first 200 lilacs have been transferred to the greenhouse for winter growing and these include new and traditional varieties, such as 'Great Victory', 'Mercy', 'Moscow Evening', and 'Adeline'. At present, lilacs are only a few of more than 100 sterile cultures of genotypes (species and varieties) of ornamental and fruit crops that have been cultivated by the Laboratory. In 2018 alone, 9,500 units of healthy plants were obtained by clonal micropropagation, the majority of which are currently being transferred for re-growing and subsequent sale.