The State Study and Reception Room of Nicholas II and the Great Library in the Alexander Palace display the eleventh installment of Palace in Bloom, our year-long project that brings back the feeling of home and family warmth into the former residence of Russia's last imperial family.

Supervised by St Petersburg's designer and florist Maxim Languev, each of the flower arrangements is in some way connected with the history of the Alexander Palace and the tastes and lives of its former imperial owners.

The July installment of the project offers arrangements inspired by floral creations in museums around the world, especially the Château de Chenonceau in France where staff florists design new arrangements every week using flowers, fruit and vegetables from the château gardens.

Although not yet featuring fruit, the July arrangements in the former private rooms of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fiodorovna primarily include garden artichokes together with Limonium and herbaceous plants in the Reception Room and State Study, and with Limonium, herbaceous plants and Typha in the Great Library. Typha is part of sculpture and relief decorations on the Pont Alexandre III in Paris, whose foundation stone was laid by Nicholas II, the son of Alexander III, in October 1896.

The Palace in Bloom project was launched in September 2023. Through August 2024, twelve series of flower and plant arrangements created by St Petersburg designers and florists in collaboration with our museum have been succeeding each other monthly in the former private rooms of Russia's last imperial couple.