culture

In the gift plant section of the International Friendship Botanical House under the Central Botanical Garden, also known as a treasure house of plants, there grow various species of trees and flowering plants presented to President Kim Il Sung, Chairman Kim Jong Il and the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un by foreign personages and overseas Koreans.

The plants from different continents across oceans that rooted in the DPRK are associated with the sincere efforts of Hyon Chol Sun who has been working there for more than 40 years since her maidenhood.

She is now nearly 60 and has worked as a workteam leader of the section for nearly 20 years.

She had worked at the botanical garden as an analyst, but later she volunteered to work as a keeper of the gift plant section with the determination to tend rare plants.

As she was fairly fond of flowering plants and had chemical knowledge as an analyst, she was filled with confidence in her ability and buckled down to growing annual and biennial plants.

But it was never an easy job. At that time, tending those plants was as good as an unexplored field and relevant data on their cultivation that were sent along with them were unsuitable for domestic conditions.

“The ordeals, difficulties and anxiety I experienced are so indescribable. The most unforgettable days were when I tried to acclimatize some species of woody plants that are difficult to grow,” Hyon recalled.

She felt as if her own flesh were frozen and torn off as she saw several trees frozen and burst on a biting cold winter day despite her great efforts.

She realized it was impossible to cultivate them with only a desire and superficial knowledge and decided to attend a university course.

She was enrolled in the study-while-you-work system and acquired special knowledge of plants, while gaining extensive experience of cultivating flowering plants and trees based on such knowledge.

Those trees which had been frozen and burst in winter revived finally and add beauty to the scenery of the gift plant section with thick foliage 10-odd years later now.

“Although plants are voiceless, they will repay your sincere devotion with their own faculties and graceful figures to add beauty to the scenery,” said Hyon.

Together with her workteam members, she now tends more than 20 000 plants in hundreds of species.