Black currant is the most valuable berry crop of the Murmansk Province in terms of both biological properties and adaptive qualities necessary for growing in difficult agroclimatic conditions of the North. Every year, a search is carried out for varieties and forms with the best indicators of winter hardiness, yield, disease resistance and environmental friendliness, in order to identify accessions with the most valuable biological and economic traits. The objects of the present study were 24 cultivars of black currant of different ecological and geographical origin obtained in 2015 from the collection of the N. I. Vavilov All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR). Studies of the black currant collection were carried out in 2017-2021 at the Polar Experiment Station, a branch of VIR. The care of plants was provided according to the agricultural practices developed for growing berry crops in the Polar Region. The results of five-year phenological observations and assessment of winter hardiness in the studied cultivars showed that the onset of vegetation in all accessions occurred annually in the second decade of May, the onset of flowering in the second decade of June, the onset of maturation in the third decade of July, and the growth of shoots ended in the first decade of September. The studied cultivars were combined into groups according to winter hardiness (highly winter-hardy and winter-hardy), as well as the onset of phenophases (early, medium, late), and of ripening dates (early, mid, and late-ripening). Early vegetation was noted in cultivars ‘Pigmei’, ‘Izyumnaya’, ‘Rita’, ‘Volshebnica’, ‘Vasilisa’, ‘Almiai’, ‘Kriviai’, ‘Mila’, ‘Poklon Borisovoi’. Early ripening of the crop was observed in the cultivars ‘Severnoe Siyanie’ (C), ‘Mila’, ‘Izyumnaya’, ‘Rita’, ‘Kriviai’. The late maturing cultivars are ‘Slavyanka’, ‘Kipiana’, ‘Gratsiya’, ‘Chudnoe Mgnovenie’. The most numerous group is that of mid-ripening cultivars (64 %), followed by the group of early maturing (20 %), and late maturing ones (16 %). All the studied cultivars showed high adaptability to the conditions of the Murmansk Province. They had time enough to form the yield, complete the fruiting and growth of shoots before the onset of frosts. Due to the results of five years of research, they can be recommended for cultivation in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation.

This article is devoted to designing of nomenclatural standards of raspberry cultivars bred by the Sverdlovsk Horticultural Breeding Station (‘Alaya rossy’p’’, ‘Antares’, ‘Barxatnaya’, ‘Vanda’, ‘Vy’sokaya’, ‘Lel’’, ‘Lyubitel’skaya Sverdlovska’, ‘Muza’, ‘Rovnicza’ and ‘Fregat’) and by the Novosibirsk Zonal Gardening Station (‘Arochnaya’, ‘Persikovaya’ and ‘Prelest’’). The work has been performed according to the rules and recommendations outlined in the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants and VIR methodology for the vegetatively propagated plants. Nomenclatural standards include two or three herbarium sheets with the simultaneously collected several parts of the same plant: the middle third of a primocane and a leaf from this part, the middle third of a floricane, and a lateral branch with fruits. Also, specimens were supplied with photos of flowers and fruits. Nomenclatural standards are preserved in the Herbarium of cultivated plants of the world, their wild relatives and weeds (WIR) of N. I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources.

Zinaida Mikhailovna Silina was born in 1921 in the city of Novocherkassk in a family of employees. In 1938, Zinaida Silina graduated from secondary school and entered the Faculty of Biology of the Leningrad State University (LGU). The War of 1941-45 disrupted plans for a peaceful life. Despite enormous difficulties, university students continued their studies. In 1942, the University was evacuated to Saratov. In the summer of that year Zinaida Silina graduated from the University. She was appointed to the position of senior laboratory assistant at the Botanical Garden Department of the Botanical Institute. The most important area of her work soon became the study of the tulip culture. The active work of Zinaida Silina on tulips, which started back in 1946, continued until 1986. She successfully defended her PhD thesis in biology entitled «Tulips in Leningrad» on April 16, 1952. Zinaida Silina studied tulips in a versatile and most systematic way. The fact that a large number of tulip bulbs used in the country is of national instead of foreign origin is undoubtedly due to the great contribution made by Dr. Silina. In 1986, Zinaida Silina retired. She passed away on March 26, 2001 and was buried at the Shuvalovsky Сemetery in St. Petersburg.