As the days went by, the long days without nights of the Nordic summer, it became clear that I would not be able to see all the places I wanted to see in Moscow and surroundings in just one week. With a wish list still too long, I eventually decided to spend my last hours in Russia visiting the Moscow Flower Show. This was the third edition of the Russian International Festival set in a corner of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure, or Gorky Park, along the banks of the Moscow River. Following the style and organization of the most famous Chelsea Flower Show in London, gardens on display were part of a competition and were divided into themed sections: Show Gardens, Urban Gardens, Country Garden and Art in the Garden. In a separate area, under white pavilions, essential tools for gardeners, plants, home accessories, and fashionable accessorizes were on sale with books, paintings and food. A number of events, workshops and lectures were planned for the week. I reached Gorky Park at a quarter to 10.00, but the intense activity that was still going on inside the area fenced for the Show made me suspicious. Security kindly informed me that the opening of the Show was postponed from 10.00 o'clock to 11.00 o’clock. 
Looking at the mess of rakes, brooms and watering cans, pallets full of flower pots, rolls of grass piled around, busy workers and photographers, this seemed a rather optimistic statement. But, they worked faster than I could imagine, and the delay allowed me to observe what happens behind the scenes of a famous Flower Show. There was a serious little dog guarding a maze scattered with white gravel like crunchy confetti; the Italian team was well under way but in urgent need of "un buon caffè," (a good coffee); the two English gardens were ready and silent; a young girl was arranging an endless number of pale pink cosmos around a sinuous chute, whose meaning and function inside the small garden I did not catch; a boy was intent to brush big round stones with a transparent varnish, while a girl scattered thriving pots of ferns among them; a woman was searching the perfect position for three cushions and a basket of cherries; and a small bulldozer buzzed around. 
Roses floating on the water perfumed the air.
People began to enter the Show. Russian visitors did not seem disturbed by the late start. Everything was joyful, playful and coloured. They wandered around, stopping in front of the different gardens to take pictures. Soon, I realized that they did not take pictures of the gardens, but of themselves in the gardens. They sat on the chairs, smelled the flowers, grabbed glasses of wine or guitars, patiently waiting their turn in a ordered queue. I was fascinated by this unusual behaviour but, I had no time for further investigations, and in a hurry I left the Show. It was around 13.30 in the afternoon, and gardens were ready, or nearly ready.
P.S.: Despite my research on the web, I have not found the name of the winners of the garden competition yet. So, thank you in advance to anyone able to provide this information.
Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Moscow Flower Show, Moscow, June 2013.
Link:
Moscow Flower Show, Gorky Park 119049 Moscow, Krymsky val, str. 9.
13-26 June 2013
http://flowershowmoscow.ru/eng
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