Hoghilag is a village established by the Saxon minority in the very early 14th century located between Sighișoara and Mediaș, Transylvania, with around 1000 inhabitants today.
The Tuberose Festival, August 19-20, takes place in the courtyard of the Evangelical Church of Hoghilag. Historically attested in 1446, the church closed after the mass exodus of the Saxons from the area, but it has been reintroduced into the special tourism circuit for this event.
The Tuberose Festival provides access to tourists to the 30 households where the villagers grow tuberoses. This is possible just once a year, during these two days, in the month of August. During this event, you can get to know the first Saxon community of tuberose growers in Romania, who had brought and cultivated them, as early as the Middle Ages, in Hoghilag, reports Discover Eco-Romania.
Tuberoses (Polyanthus lily) only bloom once every three years. Tuberose essence is used in the perfume and cosmetic industry for its heady scent, but also for itws antifungal, antimicrobial and regenerating properties.
At the festival, there will be guided tours of the locals’ gardens, perfume workshops, flower cooking, floral weaving and floral jewellery, but also music events and many children’s activities. There will be no shortage of wine tasting and traditional meals cooked with flowers, and walks between the stands with crafts and traditional products.
This is the seventh edition of the Tuberose Festival.
„This year too, the visitors of the beautiful town nestled between the hills of Transylvania are invited to enjoy a complex cultural program, with film screenings, creative workshops held in the yard of the Evangelical Church, concerts and guided tours in the tuberose gardens. The novelty this year derives from the fact that the European policies aimed at geographical indications are achieving their goal, namely the development of a community based on the reputation of a certain product. Concretely, as the commune of Hoghilag has a developed agricultural sector, in addition to the promotion of the fragrant flowers, we want agricultural producers to be also promoted”, Ionut Diaconeasa, assistant professor at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food Industry in Sibiu, and agricultural consultant on geographical indications and European funds, told AGERPRES.
Featured alongside the „Come by to Hoghilag!” invite, on a green background, are the tricolor and three tuberoses, of which the bigger one represents the village of Hoghilag, and the two smaller ones the villages of Valchid and Prod. The brand logo will be visibly displayed on the tables of local producers and on all agri-food products sold at the market organized during the festival in the yard of the Evangelical Church, as a distinct visual identity element, so that it is directly associated with the community and the products of Hoghilag.
Around 1963, the Romanians from Hoghilag also started procuring bulbs and established their own plantations, after a long period during which they had only tended to the crops of the Saxons. The tuberose originates from Mexico, and is also cultivated in Prahova County, in the region of Banat, but only in spots and mainly by florists who have their own greenhouses and solariums. There are approximately 40 tuberose growers in Hoghilag, 25 of whom cultivate the plant intensively, for commercial purposes, and 15 as a hobby. Currently, approximately 400,000 tuberose stems are cultivated on an area of five hectares, in gardens and protected spaces. Because the tuberose blooms only once every 3 years, growers established three active crop generations on each plantation, in order to harvest flowers every year.
Last year, in just two days, there were approximately 15,000 tourists at the Hoghilag Tuberose Festival, compared to 8,000 in 2019.
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