Easter floral arrangements now embellish the former rooms of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fiodorovna at the Alexander Palace for Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated this year on 16 April.
The Museum's gardeners mainly used daffodils, hyacinths, freesias, carnations and gypsophilas.
Our specialists took the task very seriously and followed recommendations by florists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, summed up in a book of the German Erfurt-based horticultural company J.C. Schmidt. The company of a gardening dynasty was founded in 1823 by Johann Christoph Schmidt (1803-68) and went down in history as "Blumenschmidt". Their book on various floral arrangements was translated and published in Russia at the turn of the twentieth century. It became the first guide to floristry in the Russian language and is still considered by many an encyclopedia of the art of floral arrangement.
According to Maria Filiptseva, Curator of the Alexander Palace's permanent display, the Easter celebration was especially popular with both common people and the upper classes, including the imperial family. Easter traditions, such as floral arrangements, had been carefully preserved and passed down from generation to generation for centuries. Easter decorations were usually in red, orange, yellow and white. Traditionally, hyacinths and daffodils were considered Easter flowers, the latter even known as "Easter lilies". Tulips, carnations and snowdrops (Galanthus) were often used to design Easter decorations as well.
