“…the poplars line up by the riverside, white from the first snow…“ Did you know that the famous and loved by several Bulgarian generations song of “Shturtsite” – “Meeting” is inspired by the poplar trees along the Haskovska river? Perhaps while contemplating their rows from the City Garden to the centre the Haskovo poet Simeon Stoianov composed these marvellous lyrics.

    Trees were first planted by the river in 1892 when Marin Penchev arrived in Haskovo at the invitation of the city leaders. He had studied decorative gardening in Hungary and in 1884 had returned to Sofia with his wife Magdalina and his son Gyula, whom he had adopted abroad. In the capital he participated in the design of Boris’ Gardens. In Haskovo he put the beginning of park construction. Under his guidance the first decorative trees and bushes and flower-beds were planted. He authored the project of the alley network of the City Garden.

   His son, Gyula, already a Bulgarian citizen – Georgi Penchev (1884–1955) studied decorative gardening in Budapest and Paris. In 1910 he returned to Haskovo in order to continue his father’s work. He expanded the City Garden and its area reached 41 decares. Big trees were planted. The conifers were carted one by one from the Belovo Balkan. These were white and black pines, fir-trees and yews. The deciduous – poplars, trumpet-trees, plane-trees were provided by the nearby nursery-gardens. Some of these trees exist even today. The garden near the theatre, the Mercito Park and the Jewish Park were also created.
    In 1936 Georgi Penchev and Nikola Stoyanov built the first greenhouse for production of flowers and the first beautiful flower carpets and flowerbeds appeared, skilfully arranged with great fantasy. Three more greenhouses were built later. Along the poplars’ alley flower arabesques were created, surrounded by trimmed boxshrubs. In the summer a banana-tree (Musa) was also put in these flowerbeds. At the entrance of the City Garden on the Common Grave every year interesting flower carpets were arranged, depicting a clock, a carriage, a butterfly, etc., on the idea and design of Ivan Gospodinov. The elderly citizens of Haskovo still remember them. This man-made picturesque space gradually became the favourite recreation place for the citizens of Haskovo. Part of the city’s cultural life is also focused there. Bicycle races for ladies were organized. A dancing floor was built and shortly after – a second one appeared. In the evenings the city orchestra used to play there and for many years the citizens of Haskovo traditionally walked and organized their meetings in the City Garden.
After 1950, under the brilliant management of Ivan Gospodinov, the public district gardens were created: the parks „Ak Bunar“ (now „Hristo Botev“), „The Grove“ (now „White Sea“), the garden at the place of the old hammam, the parks „The Birches“, “Shepherds”, “Macedonian”, the garden where now the Youth Centre is situated, the little park located where now the St. John of Rila School is, the Cyril and Methodius Park, The Railway Station Park, etc.

    The tree planting in Haskovo had its upsurge in 1958–60. In 1962 the first reconstruction of the central city square was done and the plane-trees in the pedestrian area were planted. An attraction to the city visitors were the exotic live vases on the square, 2.5 meters high and completely made of carpet flowers, alternantera being most used for the purpose. Such could be seen only in Sofia and in Rouse at that time.
In the following years the green acquisitions in Haskovo constantly multiplied. In the 1960s and the 1970s Yamacha Park and Kenana Forest Park were created as well as the forested band of the city of Haskovo.
Today the green richness in the city streets comprises over 7,000 trees, mainly linden-trees, ash-trees, sycamores, Norway maple, plane-trees, birches, coleus, etc. with 95% of them in perfect condition even now. In 2001 Haskovo Municipality won a project under the EU Phare Programme for the establishment of a new recreation area of 30 decares.
And the poplars keep standing by the river. Despite the building of the riverbed in 1965–71, all threes are intact. New poplars were planted later – from the City Court to Vasil Levski Blvd.


    The Yamacha Park was created after the project of Arch. Valentina Atanasova and Arch. Boris Georgiev in the period 1958–70. The 500 decares allotted for the park are situated in the southern part of Haskovo on one of the first uplands of the Eastern Rhodopes. The city stadium, a children’s playground and an open-air swimming pool have also been built there. From the central part of the park a marvellous view to the whole city and the surroundings reveals. The area is afforested with acacia, red oak, ash-trees, conifers and mainly black pines. Apart from experts, many citizens and all enterprises in the city have participated in the forestation and the care for the trees. Yamacha Park is a beautiful offspring of the professionalism and the efforts of the experts and the whole Haskovo public.

The Kenana Forest Park covers an area of 236.6 hectares and is situated on the city’s northeast. The project belongs to Arch. Valentina Atanasova and Arch. Djubelieva. It was laid out and planted between 1955 and 1970. The main part – about 70% of the total area is forested. The trees are Hungarian oak, cerris oak, winter oak, hairy oak, flowering ash, wild cherry, etc. with the main massif constituted of oaks aged between 60 and 70 years. Linden-trees, white and black pines, acacias, field ash-trees and acer negundo have been also planted. Later, after the construction of the main alley (1969) big-speices saplings were also planted – atlas cedar, silver linden, pinus strobus, spruce and sequoia. Interesting in a dendrological aspect are “the small and the big ground floors”, the rosarium, the dendrarium and the “dry river”.
The entrance to the park transforms into a broad alley, 2.5 kilometres long, revealing close and distant perspective and leading to an artificial pond. The pond and Kenana restaurant are the centre of the park lay-out, authored by Architect Margiso.
The tennis-courts are situated in the park area.

    The beginning of the zoo was put in 1957. Ivan Gospodinov arranged in the region of the dendrarium a place for a bear and deers. In 1977 the zoo was set up on the 9-decare terrain allotted for the purpose. Places were organized for herbivorous, carnivorous, monkeys, water, rapacious and other birds’ species. The merit for the creation and the maintenance of the zoo over the years goes to I. Gospodinov, eng. V. Zlatinov, Pencho Angelov, Dr. D. Todeva, among others. Today, the children of Haskovo love to visit their pets and take care of them. Many of the animals have been “adopted”.


„Green“ rays to Haskovo
    In the 1960s the idea was conceived to add about 600 deserted decares to the Yamacha and Kenana parks. The aim was those areas to be included in the forest fund. Under the project by eng. V. Zlatinov successful forestation was carried out in these terrains – linden-trees, birch-trees, American oaks, black pines, ahs trees, poplars, etc. were planted. Thus the green zone around the city was extended by about 2,000 hectares. These plants improve the landscape and climate around the city. The green zone penetrated the city centre with green rays.


The Greenhouse
    For the making of the green areas and their effective maintenance a municipal seedbed and a greenhouse were established. The present greenhouse which caters for the planting was created in 1974. It has 2.5 decares greenhouse area and 15 decares of open-air terrains. A pride in its history is the city development competition held in Haskovo in 1984, when 1,800,000 summer flower seedlings were produced! In the 1980s the municipality’s idea of vertical planting was implemented in the city. To the citizens who lived in the main streets of the city were given 12 thousand window boxes, planted with petunias and pelargonium peltatum. The first palm trees grown in the greenhouse (Phoenix and Chamaerops), date from 1935 and until today every year they are displayed in the city centre.


    The flower carpets in Haskovo today cover 2.4 decares. Constant efforts are invested in increasing the variety of species. The greenhouse produces about 40 kinds of season flowers and varieties, 6 kinds of autumn-spring flowers in different colours, 9 kinds for carpet figures and 7 kinds of perennial flowers. Potted are also grown, as well as a couple of kinds of cut flowers. Over the years, along with their love for flowers Maria Marcheva, Penka Pendeva and Delka Uzunova have made a contribution to the floral richness of the city.
In the green area near the Business Centre there are two Metasequoja glyptostroboides. They were brought from the park in Krichim and were planted in 1964. For 40 years now, they have been pleasing the eyes with the tender pale green colour of their spines during the summer.


The Municipal Nursery-Garden
    It was established by Ivan Gospodinov and Ivan Karagyozov in 1955. With the participation of eng. Veselin Zlatinov and Vasil Pendev in the period 1958–63 the infrastructure was built, schools for growing of decorative saplings were set up. Initially it covered an area of 30 decares and later in-door seedbeds and greenhouses were built.
Today the nursery-garden produces 10 kinds of conifers, 20 deciduous and about 80 kinds of blooming broad-leaved bushes, evergreen bushes, creeping and climbing plants. With the assistance of Prof. Bogdanov from the University of Forestry and thanks to the persistence of the professionals, the container production of evergreen and blooming plants started for the first time in Bulgaria. Anka Mavrodieva and Lyubka Ivanova have made great contribution to the extension of the green richness.
When we speak of seedbeds we should by all means mention the Seedbed with the former District Court in the city, which has been declared a model seedbed of Bulgaria for years.


    The green areas in Haskovo as organized places for recreation and aesthetic delight are elements of an integral green system. It is all for the people – parks, gardens, plants and trees in the streets, extraurban and forest parks.