The Šijak family from Igalo, Gomila settlement, donated 40 palm seedlings to Herceg Novi. They donated Mediterranean fan palms and Datula palms, known as phoenix.

This was the wish of Vesna and her deceased husband Risto. “The Šijak family moved to Herceg Novi from Switzerland in 1975. The plants at their property and municipal property as well date from the time of their arrival. For the past 40 years of living and working in our city, they invested great effort and knowledge into their garden, but also into the environment of the house, adorned with a large number of seedlings of various species. The Šijaks are phytopathologists by profession and were always available to provide instructions and expert advice to citizens and authorities on how to grow and protect plants, aiming to increase plant population and vegetation in our environment,” as said in the statement of the Herceg Novi Municipality.

Secretariat for Communal Activities and Ecology defined locations where the palms will be planted in consultation with Vesna Šijak - at the Mladost Children's Home in Bijela, on the traffic pike in Igalo, near the kindergarten in Bijela, Igalo and Topla. Authorized services will take care about cactuses at the municipal land just below the house of the Šijak family.

Municipality of Herceg Novi expressed the gratitude to the family for the gift and their love for the city and long-term efforts to make its streets more comfortable and more beautiful place to live.