Flowers for our railway women

Although March brought about but winter time, in our hearts still remained the old tradition of “martisor”
During the first day of March, CFR Palace was flooded with large bouquets of flowers, which in the morning were carried in a very proudly manner by men, while in the afternoon, by all the ladies that have been celebrated this day; this meant that spring time was finally here.
It’s been a long time since Railways are no longer considered an area strictly reserved for men, many women working in all railway departments that insure a good activity process.
Since, in a traditional way, the month of March is not only the time when we celebrate the resurrection of nature, but also “women’s month” we thought of combining these two events in an article that addresses to all the railway women whose “duty” are ….the flowers.
Ms. Emilia Scarlat has been working for almost thirty years at Chitila Greenhouses. This is the place where all the flowers that are used for embellishing the railways stations within the Bucharest Zonal Department, are conceived and nursed. Ms. Scarlat, who is the chief of the Greenhouse, spends more than half a day, each day, among the flowers, which she takes care of with much love and dedication, as if they were her children, but also with a core of competence given by her profession: that of horticulturist.
I believe that this lady of the flowers, if I may say so, has one of the most beautiful job in the whole world, despite the harshness she has to bear during the winter (cold, lack of materials, etc). Even so, we won’t present the difficulties that Chitila Greenhouse has to deal with at the moment, but the happy side of things, so that we could be in compliance with the serene atmosphere of this season.
On March 5, visiting the Greenhouse of Chitila, the team from the Railway Journal, just missed the blooming moment of the fressias, which as we found out latter, had already been picked up and transported, hundreds of them to a certain destination: the railway women.
But the activity was never to be stopped. Those twenty-five young employees were busy planting new seeds of petunias, carnations were about to bloom, and thousands of flowerpots were being prepared for embellishing the railway stations for this year.
At the Center Nursery Greenhouse of Chitila, three types of specific activities are developed at the moment. First of all, people are working hard for obtaining rooted slips for ornamental flowers, such as buxus, tuia, evonimus - plants that remain green even during wintertime. Then, flowers that are going to be used for decorating conference rooms, offices and halls are raised and nursed in flowerpots. The greenhouse also delivers cut flowers used in protocols or for decorating the offices on different occasions.
This year, more than 100 000-flower transplants have been obtained in this particular place, and this activity is still going on. The first generation of transplants will be planted during the month of March, in special arranged places within railway stations, following that, during the summer some other flower transplants to be added to the old ones. These flowers are specially designed for this purpose: they have powerful and various colors, making the atmosphere to be more calm and happy.
Chitila, within its 2 500 sq meters, is also the host for a number of exotic plants, such as banana and date trees, ranging from 20 to 40 years of age, which also impress due to their size, reminding us of tropical forests.
Our meeting with Ms. Adina Poput, the second lady of the flowers, which we intend to present her to you, took place exactly on the flower-planting day, on the edge of the platforms, in Bucharest North Railway Station. The Chief of P.A.Z. Ateliers told us about her passion for the flowers, about her seven research years and about the PHD she took in the field of forced planting of the flowers.
But first of all, she told us, in a blink of an eye, almost everything about what it means to work in the ateliers where 177 employees work every day on those 200 conventionally- measured ha, arranging the green spaces within the railway stations belonging to the Bucharest Zonal Department, treating the embankment, and the areas inside the rails, cleaning the area for enhancing visibility on wires 1 and 2, administrating the greenhouses and nurseries of Chitila, Ploiesti and Sinaia.
Ever since she joined the Railways, in September 1999, Adina Poput has been trying to do her job, “with heart and as much as I humanly can.”
Words as “consideration for the environment, labor force, money, improvement and equipment’” were frequently used during the interview with Ms. Adina Poput.
“ We have taken all the necessary measures, so that this year the North Railway Station should look better; we have created almost 150 suspended flowerpots, more exactly, wooden baskets, which we are going to paint and fill with pending flowers. This is how we try to got closer to the Occident, on the level of image”, Ms. Adina Poput stated.
The area arranging works for the railway stations within Bucharest Zonal Department have already been started, once the weather has improved, and they will be continuing all this year, until the first snow falls in.
The millstones for 2001 are numerous, including the arrangement of the park located in front of the CFR Palace, the connection to the CLU (easy liquid fuel) pipe of Chitila greenhouses and the improvement of the irrigating systems within the areas where plants are being planted.
Ms. Poput has a dream, which she would sooner have liked to become true: “ Should we have money, I whish I had at least one parcel of the greenhouse modernized, with irrigating devices and good airing, having the possibility of feeding the soil with nutritive solutions using the method of drop-irrigation; in short, I whish I had a green house that shows that this kind of activity may become real for us, too!”
On this occasion, we whish all the ladies within our railway system that all their dreams may become real!

Reporting, Silvia Mitulescu