A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Ethnographica 4. (Szeged, 2003)

Nagy Netta: Virág- és kertkultúra három Szeged környéki településen

Floriculture and landscape gardening at three places in the surroundings of Szeged by NETTA NAGY Rowers see us through life from the cradle to the grave. They are with us at the most significant moments of our lives, including that final moment. They brighten up holidays and weekdays alike. This study focuses on the human attitude towards flowers and the role that flowers play in human life. Why and how did our ancestors surround themselves with flowers? Why and how do we continue to do so? We seek to find the answers to these questions by describing the local flora and the location of flower gardens in scattered farmsteads and villages. In order to be able to do so, we chose to adopt the approaches of ethnography, especially settlement ethnography and ethnobotany. For the purposes of our survey, our starting point was the spatial arrangement of flowers, which meant that we investigated landscape architecture including front gardens, church gardens and parks. We were also curious to know to what extent the type (layout) of the settlement in question, the councillors responsible for managing it and the perception and value system of its inhabitants affected the presence or absence of flowers. Field-work was carried out in Csólyospálos, Balástya and Pusztamérges from the spring of 1999 to the spring of 2000. Our findings seem to substantiate the hypothesis that floriculture and landscape gardening as practised by rural populations are on the verge of extinction, and that only the members of older generations living on scattered farmsteads are still engaged in this kind of activity. The same holds true for another hypothesis of ours, namely that external influences (like the impact of urban parks and spread of cross-bred species) are increasingly making themselves felt. Relying on the data collected, we have come to the conclusion that the role that flowers play in human life underwent profound changes during the period under investigation. We assume that the decorative aspect of flowers has by now become more pronounced, without its practical application having been passed down to younger generations. 154