Blog Posts
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Crocus banaticus AGM
This must rank as one of the most unusual and exotic of all Crocus species. It is one of the last of all the plants to flower in my garden, perhaps just preceding Galanthus reginae-olgae this year, blooming anytime from September into October (according to the season). I would always plant this species, native to […]
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Plant of the Season – Summer
Roscoea purpurea ‘Red Gurkha’ AGM I am delighted to recommend this late summer–flowering roscoea which has become more widely available in the trade in recent years. The plant was introduced into cultivation in September 1993 from material collected by Baker, Burkitt, Miller and Shrestha in the Buri Gandaki valley, Nepal. It was initially named R. […]
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Classical Music – Summer 2013
Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581 [iframe style=”float:right;margin:0 10px 5px 0;” src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/HcAU51tdJV0″ width=”300″ height=”169″ ] As we enjoy another splendid season of Promenade concerts at the Albert Hall amidst some glorious summer weather and the very special news of the birth of a baby boy to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, it […]
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A Summer Wine Choice 2013
Cabernet d’Anjou, Chateau La Tomaze 2012 With temperatures soaring throughout July we are bound to revert to more typical climes as I write this piece. I cannot remember a period of weather that inflicted so much exhaustive heat on the population of the UK enticing adults to try more white and rose wines. Having worked […]
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Rhodohypoxis ‘Great Scot’ A.M.
This cultivar will ranks as the best, red-flowered cultivar amongst this renowned genus. Rhodohypoxis flower from late spring right through the summer and are native to the Drakensberg Mts of Lesotho, producing congested clumps of corm-like structures which I have found over a period of some 30 years, prefer to have a dryish to dry, […]
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Plant of the Season – Spring
Primula allionii As the great alpine plant author, Reginald Farrer wrote, “this is the jewel of jewels among our European saxatile species”. Yet, I feel that there is little value in extolling the virtue of a stunning plant purely for its natural beauty when it gives the keen gardener little or no chance of cultivation. […]
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Spring Wine Choice 2013
Spring – Wine Recommendation Domaine Pierre De Prehy Chablis 2009 I think it would be useful to give a short description about Chablis wines. From my perspective, as someone who enjoys a vast range of wine, but is learning all the time, the name Chablis stands out as one of the world’s great names. My […]
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Classical Music – Spring 2013
Classical Music Choice for Spring 2013 Johannes Brahms Piano Concerto No 2 in B-flat major This masterful piece of music is one of my favourites and is one of his best known works. I am intrigued that this concerto is separated by a gap of 22 years from his first piano concerto. The premiere of […]
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Primula marginata ‘Casterino’
An alpine garden without any forms of Primula marginata adorning it, is missing out on one of the finest and easiest of all the European primulas. The species belongs to the Maritime and Cottian Alps of Italy and France occupying precipitous limestone (yet not exclusively) rock fissures and steep humus slopes sometimes preferring the dappled […]
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Winter Classical Music 2013
Antonio Vivaldi’s – The Four Seasons [iframe style=”float:right;margin:0 10px 5px 0;” src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/RRrOv72GFRw” width=”300″ height=”169″ ] Surely there will be few lovers of any genre of music who will not recognise and enjoy this composition by one of the great masters of his age. I recall a very active time in my life whilst running my […]