6 march 2018, 09:47 | world & human, leisure

We were looking for a man who will tell us about his favorite occupation and will be able to share the secrets of caring for plants, but found a man whose flowers rescued him from imminent death and helped to find a reason to live again.

In Kramatorsk there are legends about Anatoliy for a long time. Especially this man is well-known in flower shops, because he chooses the longest new plants and he is the only one who carefully reads the composition of all bait and fertilizers. There are several dozens of different houseplants in his house, but there is no species that can blossom. Paradoxically, Anatoliy has a strange kind of allergy to flowers, so he only has to grow cacti and ornamental trees. Showing his favorites, the man smiles: 

“It’s important that anybody would not want to please me with flowers for a careful attitude. Of course, I understand that cacti bloom extremely rarely, but they bloom. I don't have the heart to cut a small bud, so I'll have to stockpile pills and endure.”

As it turned out, the man began to get involved in flowers not so long ago, just ten years ago. Earlier he, like all the representatives of the stronger sex, reluctantly went out to the garden a couple of times a week, and in autumn successfully forgot about all the bushes, trees and flowers. Anatoliy's life radically changed when his wife died: “The house was catastrophically empty. I walked in the empty rooms for a long time and could not find a place until I noticed her favorite tree on the window-sill, which was almost dried without its mistress. At that moment, I started a real fever of despair. I promised myself to save the plant which my wife took care of, whatever it takes, and thus to keep a piece of her for myself”.

Just watering was not enough in this case. The plant was unkept for a long time, so there was very little life in it. Anatoliy poured a plant with warm water and ran at lightspeed to the library to rake up all the literature about houseplants. It took a long time so that the first signs of life appear on the practically dead stick: “You can not even imagine what happiness I felt, when I realized that all my efforts were not in vain and the tree will live. At that moment I came to life again,” – the man admits in a half-whisper.

Then, one tree was not enough for Anatoliy, which he carefully called Porphyry: “Do not ask why it is Porphyry. I just wanted it. After him, all the plants in my house have human names; these are my friends and comrades”.

After Porphyry, new plants began to appear in Anatoliy's house one by one. At the same time, the man always gives preference to sick and forgotten specimens, which need help and care more than the others: “At first I collected plants by acquaintances, then began to buy what sellers were going to throw out in shops. I do it not for the sake of economy; the matter is that the beautiful healthy flowers will be definitely bought by someone, but sick, forgotten trees need my help. They can not cope without it.”

Anatoliy is not rich, but at the same time it is very cozy in his house. There is a lot of light here, because the plants feel more comfortable with it, but the main thing is that there is a lot of love which is felt in every branch and in each leaflet.