St Petersburg University launches a video tour of the University Botanical Garden

The video tour is published on the University’s official YouTube channel.

Each video describes one of the plants of the Botanical Garden – its features and history. Some plants were filmed during the blossom season. Filming will continue in spring and summer, and the video collection will be increased with new footage. All videos have been produced by the Media Centre of St Petersburg University.

The University Botanical Garden was organised in the 1860–1870s thanks to the efforts of an outstanding scientist – botanist Andrey Beketov. To create the garden, he managed to join a large plot of land to the territory of the University. He built the first greenhouses, and also began to assemble and enrich the collection of plants.

Back in the early 2000s, the garden remained neglected having survived the siege and having been restored by herculean labour. A lot of plants died; the greenhouses were improperly repaired; the territory of the garden hosted a car fleet; and chemical waste was regularly dumped there (‘A fresh start for the Garden once used as a junkyard: the director of the St Petersburg University Botanical Garden about the 1990s and 2000s’; ‘Petrol and motor oil – for watering plants in the University Botanical Garden’). The revival of the garden became possible only a few years ago.

Now the garden area is 2.6 hectares. About half of it is greenhouses, the rest is open ground.

3,300

botanical species counted in the greenhouses

About 1,300 plant species are growing in open ground. Comprehensive research, surveying and other activities for the revival of the Botanical Garden began in the summer of 2018. So far, in addition to research materials and surveying work, design documentation for a seed greenhouse and a draft design of the garden area have been prepared. They represent the recommended guidelines for the development of future botanical collections and open ground layout.