On December 15, our Garden saw the cutting of pumpkins - the winners of the contest - and the extraction of seeds from inside them. Material in the form of seeds was taken out of each pumpkin and placed in containers labeled. The seeds were given to the growers. "They will be used for reproductive purposes of the next generation," said the breeder, Mr. Skibinski.
After slicing, it turned out that the largest specimens have about 25 cm of flesh each, while regular-sized pumpkins have about. 4-5 cm. Slicing such pumpkins is not easy - so the largest specimens were cut with a power saw to make the task easier and shorten the time. Indispensable was the help of the growers, the Skibiński family, whose pumpkin MERIDA (490 kg) also participated in this year's competition.

The December finale was the conclusion of the annual Pumpkin Day, held on October 19. The events, attracted numerous visitors. It featured animations, creative workshops and educational games for children, a regional fair. Ms. Katarzyna Misiak, head of the education department, guided those willing to visit the pumpkin collection, a demonstration of carving (carving fruit) in pumpkins and a watercolor painting workshop were also held that day. Prof. Dr. Ewelina Hallmann from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) gave a lecture entitled "What is worth knowing about pumpkin and its cousins?". In turn, our cafe had something nice for everyone - it served hot pumpkin soup, pumpkin pies and aromatic Pumpkin Latte!

Recall, the winner of the Third Final of the Competition for the heaviest pumpkin, turned out to be DANJA, weighing an impressive 888 kilograms, and its breeder Mateusz Dabrowski (also last year's triumphant) received the award of the Director of PAN Botanical Garden. Second place was then won by KALINA (554 kg, breeder Adam Jurczuk), and third place by JULIA (539.5 kg, breeder Maciej Molek). In the children's category, the heaviest pumpkin was UFO (217 kg, breeder Krzysztof Olejniczak). The second place on the podium was taken by pumpkin GOLIAS JUNIOR (26.5 kg, breeder Adam Ortynsky), and the bronze medal went to MIMI (21.5 kg, breeder Antoni Yurchuk).

57 days later after the events, the growers cut the pumpkins to obtain the seeds. The whole thing was filmed by a crew TVP3 Warsaw.

On this day, the Garden also hosted a Santa Claus Field Game with botany in the background, organized in cooperation with the Powsin Park. The game consisted in finding the lost Gardener Christopher. There was a lot of joy and laughter, and in addition the found Gardener told the participants of the game about mistletoe and its properties. There were more botanical stories and not only in the form of storytelling, but the Garden that day organized a botanical watercolor workshop with a Christmas and New Year's theme. The workshop was led by Ms. Magda Sawicz from "Botanical Stories", who regularly visits us and is eager to pass on the secrets of watercolor painting.