Botanical Collection

From the night of 6 July to 7 July, people celebrate the Day of St. John the Baptist. It comes from a holiday of ancient times celebrated by Eastern Slavs on the occasion of the summer solstice and the highest summer flowering time. The sultry sunny days are alternated with the thunder and heavy rains. The air in villages becomes saturated with the smell of newly mown hay. In forests and meadows, blueberries and strawberries are ripening, Linden and burdock are blooming, and the nights are becoming warmer.

By the end of the second summer month, fewer and fewer shrubs bloom. In this period, they start to bear fruit. However, some shrubs continue blooming, for example, Kuril tea, sweet briar, and smoke trees. Another name of a smoke tree is a wig tree. Its blossoms do resemble a lush wig. A pink haze surrounds the shrub in summer; and its foliage is lit up with bright scarlet spots in autumn.