After the Industrial Revolution in Europe, while changes in economical and social structures affected physical appearance of cities, Ottoman society were different from the societies western regions in terms of development dynamics and city types. As Turkish society wasn’t directly in mechanization process, the need for public domain and green places couldn’t be realized for a time until the proclamation of republic when city plans started to be done in a more organized way (§ahin, 1989).
In order to discuss plant transplantation works in Turkey, we should first talk about the understanding of open land and green land and importance given to green lands. Turkish cities were built on the basis of three elements; streets, gardens and houses. Public buildings formed most of the physiognomy of cities in Ottoman Empire, while green lands were used as parts of house gardens. In fact there were no organizations serving for the protection of public green lands in local public institutions.
In Ottoman Empire era, there were some recreation spots such as public gardens, and coppice forests that were used by the society in big cities such as Istanbul, Izmir, Edirne and Manisa (in Turkey). Besides this, royal houses and houses of high class people were organized for special use (Caner, 1976). According to the literature about the era, there were not many special plant transplantation works during the era. But in plantation of some palace gardens, parks, and roadsides roots of trees were removed from the soil and transplanted.
In old Turkish cities, similarly there were transplanted trees in squares and lined up on roadsides. But properness and professionalism in these plantation processes is controversial.
After proclamation of republic, new buildings in cities were built and systematic greening processes started in cities. As bushes and small trees can be more easily transplanted than bigger trees, they were preferred for greening applications. Tree transplantation was especially used in central refuges. But still there weren’t many works that were done for this purpose. Tree transplantation works were very few when compared to the other works and methods preferred for greening processes.
Efforts for transplanting big sized plants were successfully carried out when technology wasn’t developed by taking some precautions in the eras. For instance in istanbul Sedef Island, very old plants that were put into boxes was successfully transplanted. Similarly, in Bahqekoy garden and plantation fields, maintenance processes were carried out, lime trees and horse chestnuts were successfully transplanted. Barbaros Boulevard, Maqka, Tophane, Kabata§, §emsi Pasha parks, Beyazit Square and Saraqhane were greened by istanbul Municipality. Many species and types of plants such as pines, magnolia, sycamore, horse chestnut, cedar and oak were planted with simple method and positive results were reached (Urgenq, 1998).
Palms in Kalami§ Marine in Kadikoy, istanbul were removed from the soil without any damage with the decision of Tree Transplantation Commission and transplanted into the places of a dried Palm placed in Sarma§ik Park in Kozyatagi and an area in front of Kalami§ Youth Center (Anonymous 2012 b). In our country, palms have been used in transplantation processes in many facilities built especially in Mediterranean and Aegean Regions.
Artvin Qoruh University Faculty of Forestry and Foundation for Combating Desertification and Erosion General Directorate has carried out a project called "Protection of Endemic and Non-endemic Rare Plants that will submerge Qoruh Valley Deriner Dam Water Mirror". The aim of the project was to save the species that will submerge and extinct because of the dam project. In scope of this project, with the contributions of Artvin Regional Directorate of Forestry crews, 400 pieces of 18 rare plant species were removed, potted and transferred to Artvin Qoruh University Faculty of Forestry Greenhouse (Anonymous 2012c).
Transplantation processes have been used more in landscaping processes that have been carried out in recent years. This process is accelerated especially with the increase in the number of tree drawing and planting machines. Today, landscape design works and plant transplantation are made and the areas that are planned are filled more professionally with green plants.
