Whole autumn color palette: which VDNKh flowers to enjoy in September and October

In early autumn, VDNKh looks especially colorful and elegant because of lush vegetation as lots of the plants are now living through another wave of abundant flowering, which will last until the first frost. In September and October you can admire luxurious roses, hydrangeas, bright begonias, dahlias, and graceful verbenas.

Gorgeous roses

Roses are still blooming at VDNKh. Historically, roses, often referred to as the ‘queen of the garden’, have always played a great role in VDNKh’s design as you can see flower beds with roses of every variety and color wherever you look. The exhibition features tens of thousands of roses from multiple groups, such as hybrid teas, floribundas, groundcover, park, standard and other roses, each group including dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of varieties.

The flower beds in front of the main entrance are now enveloped in the scent from light pink peony roses of the Leonardo da Vinci variety, the plant with fragrant and densely double flowers classified as floribundas. This means that roses bloom in bunches, that is, each stem bears not one, but several buds at once. Next to roses in the flower beds there are mealycup sage and sweet alyssum plants.

A unique collection of roses can be found in the Northern Rose Garden to the right of Central Pavilion No. 1. Walking along the wide paths of the rose garden, you can see the bright yellow Gloria Day roses with crimson edges, the most delicate pink apricot roses of the Geisha variety or peony-shaped inflorescences of Miranda roses.

Indeed, a hybrid tea with the poetic name Golden Autumn, which was bred by Soviet breeders in 1955, is really breathtaking at this time of year, its golden orange petals with a lemon-yellow base producing a subtle scent reminiscent of an autumn forest after rain.  It is also worth casting an eye on roses Prince of Monaco Jubilee, a variety with a remarkable color, the powdery white flowers with a bright burgundy border and emitting a wonderful fruity aroma. It is a floribunda and will delight visitors with abundant flowering until the first frost.

To enjoy beautiful peony-like roses, stop by at VDNKh’s Southern Rose Garden, to the left of the Central Alley to see bright pink Pomponellas with spherical densely double buds; one stem can bear up to 18 flowers.

The Southern Rose Garden is also home to some of the world’s most popular roses Bonica 82, a classic variety featuring pink double buds with wavy petals. Visitors can also observe chameleon roses of the Aspirin variety. On a warm sunny day, their flowers are snow-white, whereas in cool weather they change color to pink.

In the flower garden, in front of the entrance to Pavilion No. 510 Glavvino, there are scarlet, white, dark red and other roses, with standing out bright yellow double inflorescences of the Arthur Bell variety, or the stylish Iceberg variety with exuberant pearl-white blossoms that look like bridal gowns.

In the flower beds near the House of Culture (Pavilion No. 84), one can see plenty of luxurious fragrant flowers, including Rumba floribundas, their flowers bunched in large clusters with up to 20 buds in each, while petals come in multiple shades, from pale yellow in the middle to crimson at the edges. There are also Chippendale hybrid teas with large, double pink flowers and a rich aroma with hints of peach and mango.

Lush hydrangeas and vibrant begonias

Along with luxurious roses, VDNKh is adorned with delicate elegant hydrangeas, their spreading bushes with caps of snow-white, pink and bright crimson inflorescences can be seen near Pavilion No. 5 Physics and along the northern ring road. There are panicle hydrangea varieties Vanilla Fraise with lush pink inflorescences and Grandiflora with flowers that change color throughout the season from white to greenish-burgundy. You can also admire blooming hydrangeas in the Uzbek Park and at the Wedding Palace.

On top of that, in September and October, visitors can see amazing begonias of the Big variety, which was bred just a few years ago; the breeders blended the best features of begonias into the new hybrid. These are quickly growing begonias that bloom abundantly until late autumn. They have glossy green or dark bronze leaves and are covered with lots of voluminous dense inflorescences bunched in clusters, the flowers reaching 8 centimeters in diameter. To find out what a Big begonia looks like, walk to the park next to Moskvarium, or to the flower garden near the chapel in the central Ostankino Park.

Graceful verbenas and colorful dahlias

Buenos Aires verbenas certainly make VDNKh’s flower beds especially charming in autumn. Buenos Aires verbena is a herbaceous plant with straight stiff stems covered with small lilac flowers. Its graceful umbrella inflorescences, which resemble fluffy fragrant lilac clouds, reach 3-5 centimeters in diameter.  Buenos Aires verbenas will bloom throughout autumn until the frost. They can be seen in the flower beds near the Exhibition, Cultural and Exposition Center of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Pavilion No. 66) and in the Southern Rose Garden.

To enjoy blooming dahlias, you should see the flower beds near Pavilion No. 1 (Central) and in Ryazansky Public Garden next to Pavilion No. 17 Forest Industry. They have pink dahlias Mignon with long stems of up to 50 centimeters high and large inflorescences of up to 8 centimeters in diameter. Autumn dahlias will delight VDNKh visitors with their thriving blooms until the air temperature drops below zero.

VDNKh is one of Moscow’s major landmarks and a recognized international exhibition center, a museum town, and a trendy education and recreation area for both Muscovites and tourists. Spanning over 325 hectares, it hosts numerous significant cultural, scientific and business events attended by tens of thousands of visitors.  On August 1, the country's main exhibition turned 85 years old.