Hi!

My name is Kiril Donov. I am 32 years old and I live in Bulgaria.

I have a M.Sc. degree in Tropical and subtropical agriculture. Of course, in Bulgaria we do not have tropical nor subtropical climate. But I really fell in love with palms about 18 years ago. I obtained a young windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) and planted it outdoors in our garden near Sofia. When it survived the first winter (completely defoliated) I realized, that I am going to grow palms in Bulgaria. It was the winter of 1985, one of the coldest winters for the last century.

All of the scientific people, I spoke to, said I'm crazy. Or, they said, I'm too young to understand... and also: one swallow does not make a summer. But I saw in the TV news the Four palms in Plovdiv, covered by the snow. It was the same 1985 winter ...

I have worked for international companies (B.A.T., Norsk Hydro, TNT express courier) as a sales manager. But I really enjoy working with palms much more. In 1998, just before I completed my military obligations, I decided to start my own business. I was unemployed at that time and there was nothing to lose.

I established a palm nursery (about 40 000sq.m., I bought all my land for the last 4 years). Today I have about 3 000 palms Trachycarpus fortunei in the ground, thousands of container grown Phoenix canariensis, Sabal minor, Chamaerops humilis, Washingtonia filifera and robusta, and of course - Trachycarpus fortunei and takil. I have also a collection of about 30 different palm species. It is already clear that Canary island date palms or Washingtonia will never grow in Plovdiv, but I am still trying with them. Sabal minor has proved to be very cold hardy, Chamaerops humilis shows some hardiness too. Sabal palmeto suffers serious winter damage and Needle palms are still very young to be really tested. Musa basjoo is going to substitute the palms in many cases. It grows very fast in our hot summer and looks very exotic if planted in a place, protected from the strong winds.

My wife is from Plovdiv, the City of the Polar Palms. She is 27 years old and has a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry. We now have 2 daughters. The first one is Nia and the third word she pronounced was "palma". She will be 4 this year. The younger daughter will be 3 years old this year. She's name is Rali.
 

We have 2 dogs. I prefer dogs much more than cats. I love all kind of animals and plants. I don't like Cynodon dactilon only. It is the weed I hate. It's funny, but this weed is on of the main enemies to the farmers here and I heard it is protected in the UK.
 

I love off road driving. I am a SUBARU fan. I love mountain tourism. My dream is to have time to spend the weekend or holiday in the mountain, in a place where other people are rare.
 

My other hobbies are photography and Karate Kyokushinkai. I have completed a 2 years course of professional photography almost 10 years ago. I used to practice photography as a student but today it is just my hobby.

I speak English, Russian and some German. More or less I could understand all slavic languages.

Thank you for visiting my personal page.

Best wishes from me and my family !

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