Botanic Garden of Tver State University
Institution Code: TVER
BGCI Member: No
About the Botanic Garden of Tver State University
The Botanic Garden of Tver State University is situated at the meeting place of the Volga and Tvertza rivers. It is one of the main green spaces of Tver. Many centuries ago the territory of the Garden belonged to Otroch monastery - the oldest settlement of the town of Tver. The area was occupied by Zavolzhsky trading quarter. The history of the garden goes back to 1879 when Ilia Ivanovich Bobrov, a merchant of the first guild, an honary citizen of the town, planted a small private garden. Some of the trees planted at that time have been preserved till now. Subsequently the garden passed into the hands of Leonid Antonovich Kolakovsky, a teacher of Sciences of Tver State Modern School. He managed to accumulate a rather interesting collection of tree and shrub species at the small territory of 1,5 ha.
After the October Revolution the garden passed under charge of municipal department of public education and was used as a leisure activity center for children. In 1939 the Garden was affiliated to the Pedagogical Institute. The main planting occured between 1939 and 1941 but a great number of plants disappeared during Word War.
Since 1949 the garden had been reconstructed according to the programme developed by M.L.Nevsky. The programme was centered around educational issues and popularization of plant introduction and acclimatization experiments.
In 1971 Tver State University, the former Pedagogical Institute, refused to support the garden and the garden passed to municipal plant-growing holding. The smaller part of the living collections was moved to the agro-biological station of Tver State University. In the 1970s and 1980s the garden was neglected. Research and educational activities were not performed and the garden became a recreation center. The largest part of the living collections perished, only few tree specimens were preserved. There were only 3 members on staff and no wonder the garden was not properly tended to.
Since 1989 the Botanical Garden has been affiliated to Tver State University. The work on the reconstruction of the garden and its collections and development of new living collections has been carried out first under the directorship of K.M.Smirnova, then under the guidance of A.P.Khokhryakov and M.T.Mazurenko.
In the course of its long history the Botanic Garden of Tver State University has developed into a unique institution valuable for science, culture and leisure. It is the only Botanic Garden in the upper reaches of the Volga River.
The Botanic Garden has the sectors of "Dendrology", "Wild Flora", "Ornamental Flower Gardening" and "Herbarium". At present the Botanic Garden of Tver State University has a collection of 350 species of trees and shrubs and 2 000 species of herbaceous plants.
Plants grown in the open air are distributed according to natural ecological zones: the Far East, Europe and North America. The Botanic Garden has a number of floristic exhibitions.
Main Address:
Botanic Garden of Tver State University
Zhelyabova Street 33,TVER, 170000 Russian Federation
Tver
170000 Russian Federation
Telephone: 7 0822 315318
Fax: 7 0822 331274
URL: www.garden.tversu.ru
Primary Email: garden@tversu.ru