Rustaveli Avenue, the main street in Tbilisi, has recently undergone much renovation. Raised flowerbeds have appeared on both sides off the road, though in some places the work seems to have been abandoned. Strangely, those opposite the parliament actually contain many flowers, and even some standard roses - Rose Revolution and all that....In other places they seem to have chucked turf onto the flowerbeds and left it to get on with it. Die, mainly. Some automated watering systems have now appeared, but, as a former horticulturalist, I suspect that they will not do much good to turf that is dead.
Now here (story came out in June) it tells us that Israel has donated a 400-year-old olive tree to the city. Full with symbolism, of course. My horticultural heart hangs heavy.
Apart from the sense of transplanting a tree of that age, it's not really wonderful to do so in the middle of the growing season. And olive trees are vulnerable to frost below minus 10. Last winter it reached minus 15. In a country full of war rhetoric, what will be the symbolism of a dead olive tree?
Now here (story came out in June) it tells us that Israel has donated a 400-year-old olive tree to the city. Full with symbolism, of course. My horticultural heart hangs heavy.
Apart from the sense of transplanting a tree of that age, it's not really wonderful to do so in the middle of the growing season. And olive trees are vulnerable to frost below minus 10. Last winter it reached minus 15. In a country full of war rhetoric, what will be the symbolism of a dead olive tree?
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