A collection of species and varieties with morphologically different fruits, flavors, growth characteristics and all cultivated woody plants species with edible fruits that can grow under local conditions.
Since ancient times, people have been interested in horticulture and have cultivated fruit trees and shrubs with tasty, useful fruits rich in valuable bioactive substances that are essential for the normal functioning of the body. Nowadays, in addition to the traditional garden plants such as apples, pears, plums, currants, non-traditional rarer plants are increasingly being grown, such as blueberries, blue edible honeysuckles, cornelian cherries, viburnum with non-bitter berries, walnuts, hardy kiwis and others. Most of these plants are pomological. Pomology is a branch of horticulture that studies and classifies varieties of fruit trees and shrubs. The name is derived from the Latin word pomum, meaning fruit of the tree, apple, and the Greek word logos meaning science. The main directions and tasks of modern pomology include the development of the scientific foundations of horticultural plant breeding, genetics and biotechnology, the creating new varieties, the accumulation, conservation and study of the gene bank, the study of biological patterns, the study of the agrobiodiversity of fruit quality and productivity, the modeling and optimization of fruit processing processes and storage methods, and the study of the biologically active substances in the natural and processed products.
Historically and contemporarily, not only scientists, but also amateur gardeners have done and continue to do a great deal of work in horticulture, creating and developing new promising hybrids, researching, and studying Lithuanian varieties, acclimatizing and acclimatizing varieties of foreign origin in local conditions, popularizing the cultivation of promising horticultural plants in Lithuania, as well as playing a prominent educational role in the society.
Egypt is the cradle of horticulture, where fruit paintings were discovered 5000 years ago, and the Egyptians already had irrigated gardens 4000 years ago. There are written records of apple orchards in ancient India and horticulture in Persia. The Hanging Gardens in Babylon (604-562 BC) are recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
In Europe, the first gardeners were the Greeks and Romans from the 3rd century BC – 1st century AD.
The first written records of Lithuanian gardens date back to 1387, when the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila, bequeathed lands and a garden near the city of Vilnius to the Bishop of Vilnius. The Statute of Lithuania, issued in 1566, provides for fines for cutting down or digging up a grafted tree. This shows that Lithuanians already knew how to graft and grew cultivated varieties of fruit trees. Some information about Lithuanian horticulture in later times is to be found in the inventories of manors. They show that there were more than 30 orchards in Lithuania in the 16th century. Estate workers also planted a few fruit trees in their plots. Large Lithuanian estates, especially in Samogitia, also grew cherries. The work “Flora Lituanica Inchoata”, published in 1781 in Grodno, by the French naturalist Jean Emmanuel Gilibert, a professor at Vilnius University, states that the peasants in Lithuania have large gardens with apples, pears, plums, cherries, and on the southern side of the house grapevines, and that they are as good at grafting as the French gardeners are at grafting fruit trees. In Lithuania, horticulture began to develop more strongly in the second half of the 19th century, after the abolition of serfdom and the construction of the railway (1861). The first fruit tree nurseries were established in 1860. In 1860, orchards were established in Žagarė, and in 1865 – in Panevėžys. In addition to the local market, fruit was exported to Riga, St Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Minsk, and German cities.
Apples, cherries, pears, plums, strawberries, few currants, gooseberries, and raspberries were grown in the orchards. Local varieties of fruit trees dominated, but there were quite a few foreign ones, as their trees were always imported from Germany, even America, etc.
In Lithuania, the first to study and describe the breeds were J. Strumila (1774-1847), E. Jančevskis (1846-1918), V. Montvila (146-1903), A. Hrebnickis (1857-1941), F. Martišius (1879-1956), and T. Ivanauskas (1882-1971). The systematic study of varieties began at the Horticulture and Gardening Experimental Station (Valinava, Dotnuva parish), which was established in 1938, moved to Vytėnai near Kaunas in 1940, to Babtai in 1968, and renamed the Institute of Horticulture and Gardening in 1987. It studied 1700 apples, 596 pears, 323 plums, 150 cherries, about 460 currants, 200 gooseberries, about 100 raspberries, about 400 strawberries, and other varieties of plants. The Institute has created 60 new varieties, 37 of which are included in the National List of Plant Varieties (2008 data). Since 1958, pomological cultures have been studied at the Variety Research Centers in Rietavas, Kaunas, and Vilnius stations, and at Aleksandras Stulginskis University. Research on rarer garden plants began in 1948 at the Institute of Biology in Vilnius, renamed the Institute of Botany in 1959, in 1951-1975, and since 1992 at the Kaunas Botanical Garden.
For the first time in the history of VU Botanical Garden, species (and only rarely – species varieties) of woody plants with edible fruits are mentioned in the Botanical Garden’s Plant and Seed Lists of 1782-1840. It is interesting and strange that in the earlier years, non-traditional horticultural crops are mentioned, and only later traditional ones. The mentioning of the names of cranberries, blackberries, cloudberries, raspberries, stone brambles, blueberries, lingonberries, rowans, elderberries, almonds, and grapevines date back to 1782; cornelian cherries, quinces to 1799; apples, pears, cherries, plums, peaches, hawthorns, hazels, currants – a few years later, to 1802; white mulberries, shadbushes to 1804; gooseberries to 1808; apricots to 1810; sea buckthorns to 1811; walnuts and viburnum to 1814. Most of these genera were present in VU Botanical Garden in Vingis between 1948 and 1949, of which about 30 plants have survived to the present day. When the garden was established in Kairėnai, a year later (1975), pomological collections were started (see here for the history of the Pomology Department)
Currently, there are collections of currants, gooseberries, grapevines, honeysuckles with blue edible fruit, and quinces. The new collection will include Sorbus, Vaccinium, Rubus, Actinidia, Malus, Prunus, Pyrus, Prinsepia genera plants, which have been grown here in the past, as well as introducing the new ones.
The collection of woody plants with edible fruits is being developed with the aim of collecting a diversity of varieties with morphologically distinct fruits, flavors, growth characteristics, and a variety of all cultivated species with edible fruits that can grow successfully under local conditions, which could be used in educational and scientific activities.
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Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium x covilleanum Butkus et Pliszka) ‘Bluehaven’ Approximately 1,8 m height, summer-green shrub. Leaves turn purple in autumn. Widely spreading canopy. Very branched stems, annual shoots green, sometimes with a bronze tinge. Variety very high yielding, with excellent sweet-sour flavor berries. Ripening time is about one month, so berries are picked 2–3 times. Not very resistant to fungal diseases. Requires annual pruning.
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American cranberry (Oxycoccus macrocarpos (Aiton) Pers.) ‘Wilcox’
Evergreen perennial shrub. Two types of shoots: long creeping (vegetative) and short erect (generative).
Leaves small, elliptical, leathery, changing color from green to purple in autumn, and from purple to green in late spring.
Blooms white, mass flowering late June, early July. Fruits – berries, drop-shaped, dark red, average size 14 x 15 mm (diameter x height), average weight 1,1 g, ripens at the end of September. Average yield 1,5 kg/m2.
The berries are distinctive drop-shaped, the variety is medium-early, high-yielding, not very resistant to fungal diseases, with a medium storage life. Created by crossing ‘Howes’ x ‘Searles’, released for production in 1950.
Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia var. rossica) ‘Nevežinskaja Oranževaja’
5-6 m height tree with about 3 m in diameter, concise, dense, regular conical shape canopy.
Branches brown, with gray plaque. Leaves compound, 13-21 cm long, composed of 11-17 short, pointed leaflets with asymmetrical bases, the edges of which are smooth at the base, and finely toothed towards the apex. Blooms white, clustered in large shield inflorescence. Fruits - little apples, reddish-orange, spherical, juicy, sweet-sour, thin-skinned, 12 mm in diameter, 0,9g in weight. Yield 80-100 kg per tree.
The Nevezhin varieties (the whole group) take their name from the village of Nevezhin in Russia. The trees are hardier in winter and have a long life. The fruit has no bitterness.
Hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta Siebold et Zucc.) ‘Kijvska Krupnoplidna’
Liana, shedding leaves in autumn. Stems light brown. The leaves green, large, glossy, almost leathery.
Blooms greenish-white, dropping, in 2 (3) small panicles, blooming in June-July. Fruits - multi-seeded berries, green with a slight purple tinge, oval, large (large ones 3,5-4,0 cm long, medium ones 2,5-3,5 cm), 12-19 (25) g weight, light green, juicy flesh, with a good, sweet, and sour taste. Ripe at the end of September. Yield 16-20 kg per plant.
The variety was created in 1981 in Kyiv Botanical Garden, by crossing Actinidia arguta × Actinidia purpurea.
