The complex notion of “Humanity” includes, among others, “Gratitude”. I myself felt it as existing in some of us, on Friday, April 19, when the Pitesti community, through the voice of the current mayor, invited me to open the works of the 47th edition of the “Symphony of Tulips”. In my speech I noted that there were editions to which I was not even invited! That there were mayors who organized it, over time, with whom I did not speak face to face, not even for a minute! I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t admit that the standard, the notability that the Symphony of Tulips has reached, determined in the last 2-3 years that I was given a special public visibility, including the title of Honorary Citizen of the Pitesti municipality.
I don’t feel well, I’m not calm, without not entering, however, into the true history of tulips in Pitesti, especially since this, in a written history, financed by the Pitesti City Hall and the Cultural Center (2009), is deeply falsified! Every year, on the occasion of the editions of the Symphony, the written press evokes the name of a marketman from Oradea (as if consecrated!), from whom bulbs were bought, and bringing them in a suitcase! Not that there could be a more banal parody than the preamble to a Symphony of Tulips that triumphed and made Pitesti known on the meridians of the world! The real truth is that I did not plant a single tulip bulb in Pitesti. When I became a citizen of Pitesti, on March 1, 1977, the city had already reached approx. 160,000 bulbs annually. My merit is that, discovering on the green lawns around the “Davila” Theater a real landscape wonder, a collection of 58 varieties of tulips, masterfully placed, by color, height of the stem, flowering period, like the notes on a portable – a true Symphony – an idea flashed through me, of naming and organizing an event that would identify the splendid tulip, as the flower of Pitesti.
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In collaboration with the City Hall, it became, on May 6, 1978, the Tulip Symphony. The bulbs for the collection came, there are documents, mostly from the only Tulip Research Center in Eforie Nord. Giving Caesar what is Caesar’s and placing people in history, where they belong, it must be stated that the planting of the first 3,000 bulbs in the public green space, alongside the usual pansies, in the fall of 1972, belonged to the chief engineer from the Green Spaces Domain, Gheorghe Pacea, a true landscape artist. In other words, he planted the roots of the future Symphony. Where did he get the idea from, after he had also planted his lordship, only pansies, since 1966, when he became chief engineer, it’s a secret he carries among the stars! A guess, based on some documents, in future editions. The true plinth of the Symphony of Tulips, the “material base” – the infrastructure (in a more modern way) – is authored by Mr. Gheorghe Pacea. Too quickly it was forgotten! Perhaps the Expo-Park he built would be honored to bear his name!
The symphony, in its long life, had ups and downs! It is currently in a “good sign”: it was installed in an ideal place, Lunca Argeșului, the Exhibition stands are starting to be made by qualified people; the Technical-Scientific Symposium was resumed. On the latter, practically abandoned after the first 15-20 editions, I want to stop. From the abandonment, we reached the one organized on Friday, April 19, from 16:00 to 18:00, with the participation and effective follow-up of the 10 reports by the current mayor, Mr. Cristian Gentea, together with ÎPS Calinic Argeșeanul. The comments are no longer useful. Only one, actually a call to Mr. mayor, who has proven that he has the blood of a researcher and a skilled reconsiderer of people and facts, to order the withdrawal from the library of the volume entitled “History of the Tulip Symphony” (financed by the mayor’s office), the public reconsideration of false or distorted information, the evasion of some truths – mandatory in a history book. Convinced of the path to heights and light that the Symphony of Tulips will follow, Thank you.
Dr. Eng. Ilarie Isac
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