Filonenko Florist biography

A biologist, a fan of plants since childhood, I was fond of plants. Once in the country, instead of cultivated plants, I planted dandelions in even rows in the bed, where my mother sowed dill and parsley, which caused the clear indignation of my relatives. Then I entered a specialized school, institute and graduated from graduate school of the main botanical garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Is your profession related to plants? If so, how? Today I teach at the School of Florist-Designers “Nicole”, this is perhaps the best school for those who simultaneously dream of connecting their lives with plants and with design. But I myself study plants all my life from a scientific point of view as a botanist, and from the point of view of design as a phytodesign and florist.

A few years ago, I wrote a dissertation on the topic “Comparative Carpology of representatives of the Oleaceae family in connection with the issues of phylogy and systematics”. Today I am engaged in the fact that I teach and are happy to share my knowledge that I have accumulated for many years of interaction with plants, training in various institutions and botanical gardens of the USA, Europe, Southeast Asia and Russia, as well as from communication with my colleagues.

I believe that the world around us is impossible without green friends. With my work, I try to make them much more, and the plants themselves have become much more comfortable. Which plant is the most unusual in your collection and how did you have it? In my collection, all plants are unusual with unique stories, they all appeared in some amazing way. So one of my favorite plants is Sello's Philodendron.

My childhood dream, which today occupies half the balcony. My friend and I saved him from death in one of the state farms, which re -profiled for the distillation of tulips and other spring bulbs. The plant, which was supposed to die in an unheated greenhouse, we saved by pushing into a passenger car, and then with difficulty lifting on the elevator and transplanting into a huge pot.

Another wonderful plant is the Paporotnik Platicurium, I acquired in St. Petersburg, quite accidentally seeing it on Avito. I fell in love with him and literally a happy one in an hour went with him in a taxi. By the way, his name is Yuri Gagarin, because I bought it on April 12 on Gagarin Avenue. What advice can you give to beginners that you yourself would like to know before?

I would probably give some tips. Firstly, not to start too many plants at once, because it is better to master the culture of two or three plants, to achieve their stable growth, flowering and reproduction. And only then to master some new plant. When people make too many pets, that is, the chance that everyone does not have enough time, attention and in the end there will be a lot of disappointment.

Growing plants - the process is slow, creative and rushing here is not worth it. Although today, coming to the flower shop, the temptation is too large to fill the whole house with different plants. The second advice, with all the abundance of information today, you need to contact verified sources. These are the books of the Soviet era, despite all the shortcomings of printing and often the lack of illustrations that contain reliable knowledge.

If you apply for information, then you should pay attention to the profile communities of experts. For example, such as the Lonely Tomato community, where a huge number of trusted experts will definitely be able to answer your question. What is the most interesting discovery did you make in the way of the flower grower?

Plants can bother. For example, you can wait a very long time for flowering phalaenopsis, but then flowering sometimes lasts more than six months. During this time I want something new. By the way, this principle underlies the philosophy of growing bonsai - every season the tree changes its appearance, it seems that these are different plants. Therefore, recently I have preferred plants that are changing.

Just green plants become too ordinary for me. It turned out that for me the most common, valuable plants are the most ordinary species that grew up at school, kindergarten or district clinic and their image has remained in memory so far. They find the same strong response in my heart as rare, collectible plants. Is the formation of a biologist necessarily to start working in flowers?

As a professional biologist, I will say that the presence of education is very important, but I will not say that it should be the education of the university. To start working with plants, first of all, a desire is necessary, and after it, both experience and education will appear. Over time, you will gain experience, communicating with colleagues, reading professional literature and visiting exhibitions.

Education will come to you by itself. But when you come to crop production with a biologist's background behind your back, it helps a lot. I know many examples when professional zoologists are happy to grow plants and they succeed no worse than me. Questions on what topics can you ask Kew? I can ask any questions regarding botanical and indoor flower growing.I will be happy to answer such questions.

And if suddenly it turns out that the question is from an adjacent discipline in which I do not really understand - this will be a great reason to ask a question to any of my colleagues or friends to expand my horizons and professional knowledge. What are 5 tools for a flower grower, without which you no longer imagine your life? Tool number one, of course, the Internet.

We have a unique opportunity to get any article, any book from any corner of our planet, is the opportunity to write to the best specialists in the world, as well as to purchase any tools: pots, substrates, fertilizers and much more. And most importantly, today you can buy almost any plants from anywhere in the world with delivery to the house. Therefore, the computer and the Internet, in botany and crop production, is such an important tool as in any other industry.

A very important tool is a good watering can. I remember with horror when the rows of plastic bottles stood in my house along my battery. A good comfortable roomy watering can with a long nose is a very important tool. After all, water is a vital plant factor. I can also call an important tool a good sprayer with a large volume in which you can prepare solutions with pesticides, growth stimulants, fertilizers, or just use water to create high humidity.

Also, an experienced flower breed plot must certainly have a luxury for assessing the level of illumination and a high -quality coach, with a sharp blade that will not greatly injure the tissues of the plant during seasonal pruning, cutting or transplantation. But I can’t recommend a scoop, it is best to transplant the plants with my hands. Flowering begins already in the spring, tell me what song you associate with this time of year?

Although there are a great many songs about spring, the Sovetic song “Spring goes” to the music of Dunaevsky conveys the best spring mood for me. And maybe it is a little naive, but on the other hand with Soviet enthusiasm, with anticipation of something global. In what other social networks, besides Kew, can you subscribe to you? Be sure to subscribe to my Instagram.