The roses from Blatná did not survive the regime changes - Novinky.cz

The roses from Blatná did not survive the regime changes - Novinky.cz

The roses from Blatná did not survive the regime changes

Thanks to Böhm, Blatná was a city of roses and her adjective remained, even though everything is a little different. Thanks to the local historian Jiří Seker and his book Böhm růže Blatná, we can tell you the story of a unique gardener, after whom you will find basically the only monument here today - the house where he lived.

A living garden in the style of the First Republic with flowers grown by our grandmothers

And then there is a non-traditional monument in the form of stone roses on JP Koubek Square, made in 1987 according to the design of architect Jan Rampich.

The Bohm dynasty

When the gardener Böhm is mentioned, most witnesses remember the name of the architect Čestmír Böhm (1893–1966), a promoter of garden alps and a renowned expert and grower of rock gardens. He published articles about them in the press, wrote books, and his son of the same name, who died in 2005, continued his work.

Jan Böhm also comes from the same dynasty. He was born in 1888 in Prague-Vinohrady and grew up among flowers in the Vršovice garden, built by his father Jan Nepomuk Böhm. He excelled in growing hyacinths, daffodils and tulips, but he also bred roses. Jan trained with him, then went on an experience to Germany, Luxembourg and France.

The first was Mana

After the First World War, he received a piece of land from his father in Blatná, he soon married Maria Minaříková and together they began to garden.

Böhm specialized in growing roses. He dug wild arrows across borders and forests and planted them on his land. At that time, there were 31 gardeners who were mainly engaged in growing vegetables and making fun of their colleagues. He wants to grow roses in cold climates and poor landscapes! But they did not know the stubbornness of the Böhm.

In the spring of 1919, he planted five thousand pink plains on a two-hectare plot and began to breed them. After two years, he achieved the first results.

Interest in roses, which he initially sold mainly in Prague, was rising. He therefore bought new land for his rose plantations, bought a packing house and a room where shrubs were stored for the winter, then ready for expedition in the spring.

In 1923 he managed to breed his first rose, which he named after his eldest daughter Máňa Böhmová. The company grew, orders were processed from abroad, even from Egypt, India, Japan or China.

Wrinkled roses adorn the garden from spring to winter

From earnings, a diligent gardener could buy a large villa, which you can still find in Böhmova Street.

In 1929, his cultivation employed seventy manual workers and eleven administrative staff, including translators of foreign language correspondence.

Růže z Blatné nepřežily změny režimů - Novinky.cz

Bedded on roses

Böhm was a diligent grower and a good businessman who relied on impressive advertising.

Such an example is the original Czech operetta Bedded in Roses. Its premiere in December 1933 at the Na hradbách Theater in Brno was accompanied by the Pink Competition. Viewers had to guess how many roses were used in the operetta set.

Jan Böhm, of course, donated the prize to the competition. He himself justified it: “Excited by the beautiful operetta, I decided to donate my entire collection of Czechoslovak roses, my own sprouts, whose price is CZK 760 according to the price list and which consists of 41 roses of various types and colors. I will send the roses in time before the spring planting. "

In fact, the show was decorated with 23,210 roses, which must have been a particularly beautiful experience for the audience in the middle of winter.

Thanks to Böhm's generosity, the operetta had a huge response that Miroslav Cikán filmed it a year later with Jindřich Placht, Lída Baarová and Antonia Nedošinský, and some shots were shot on Böhm's plantations. The gardener was inspired again and bred the rose by Lída Baarová.

Plans for the rosary

The popularity of Böhm's roses soared, and special trains went to the exhibitions he held in Blatná. Among the guests were politicians, including Edvard Beneš, then still Foreign Minister. Böhm bred the rose with his name.

When the first president, TG Masaryk, died in 1937, Böhm's company sent 25,000 rose flowers to welcome the funeral wreaths.

How to care for roses in the summer

In the late 1930s, Böhm considered establishing a rosary in which all kinds of his roses would be grown during the extended growing season. It was to be part of the hotel and part of the building to serve as a museum of roses.

The plans were thwarted by the Second World War, when even so established horticulture had to change its assortment. The flowers were replaced by strawberries, gooseberries, currants, nuts, apples, cherries, pears, but also grain and potatoes for the livelihood of the inhabitants.

After the war, there was a short time of renewal, but in 1950, Böhm's enterprise was expropriated and the pink plantations were taken over by a local municipal enterprise. The gardener, whose sprouts were recognized all over the world, died in seclusion in 1959. The cultivation of roses continued in Blatná, albeit in a different way.

In the 1960s, the demand for them increased as cottages and cottages began to develop, but also with the construction of family houses and housing estates. Everyone wanted roses. Paradoxically, the cultivation of the queen of flowers in Blatná ended after November 1989, when the local cultivation ceased as part of a small privatization.

Villa Fiala

It took many years for the old idea of ​​rosary to reawaken in connection with another important personality.

At the beginning of the 20th century, many buildings in the town were designed by the architect Karel Fiala. Among them in 1906 a villa for his brother, the innkeeper Theodore. He asked him to build a picnic restaurant on the land below the wooded hill of Vinice, where coffee, beer, wine or lemonade would be served.

Thus was born the Villa Fiala with one room and a basement, with two wooden verandas. It ended with a four-sided roofed gazebo with a small dome.

The restaurant became a popular destination for excursionists, from where they could observe the city skyline and the terraced garden under the villa with fruit trees and flowers.

Shortly after the establishment of the republic, when TG Masaryk needed to quickly restore and complete Prague Castle, Karel Fiala became his employee. He was in charge of research and reconstruction of the oldest parts of the Castle. Thanks to him, for example, the Vladislav Hall was saved.

Waiting for the verdict

The restaurant later served for the Krček family until 2004, when the town bought the villa with land and in 2016 it offered it for sale. She was even threatened with demolition.

Autumn wishes for the planting of roses

At that moment, Pavla Váňová Černochová, a resident of the Podbrdské Museum in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem, an employee of Blatná, entered the game, with the city offering the house for rent to a civic association that would take care of it. The southern slope of the garden would be a great place to build a rosary.

"The Ministry of Culture also helped, which issued a positive opinion on the declaration of the villa as a cultural monument. Immediately, however, after the city of Blatná filed a dissolution, it annulled its decision and returned it for revision. Now a new proceeding will begin, "adds Váňová Černochová.

The restoration of the cruise restaurant and rosary in honor of the gardener Böhm is therefore still in sight.

It may come in handy on the List:
Poll Do you like roses? Yes, they are very beautiful plants96.4% I like them, but I do not prefer them 3.6% No, I do not find them interesting0% Total voted28readers.

write us

Have you built a new house, renovated an apartment or do you have a nicely furnished garden and would you like to show off and inspire other readers?

Write to us at the editorial office at bydleni@novinky.cz, attach a few accompanying sentences and a few pictures of your work.

yknivoNumanzeSaNyknalC
Tags: