Blog Posts
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Wine Choice for July/August
Domaine de Chazalis Merlot ‘Cuvee Richard’ 2009 Regular readers of my website and particularly my pieces on red wines will have become attuned to my taste and aversion to overly oaked and wines strongly influenced by their tannins. So, here I am recommending an old world wine made with the Merlot grape and a delight […]
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Saponaria pumilio
A few weeks ago I had my eyes well and truly opened as to the above featured plant. I was enjoying a brief holiday in the Dolomites with friends and making a return to Bavaria via Austria and the high pass of Staller Sattel (2052m). It was Dieter Schacht’s suggestion that this might prove a […]
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Anemone trullifolia var. linearis
I can well recall when I first saw the SBEC introduction of Anemone trullifolia collected by Bob Mitchell and Roy Lancaster from that “El Dorado” for exciting alpine plants, Yunnan, China. It formed a vigorous planting in the acid-loving beds at the RBG in Edinburgh. The flower colour was fairly predominantly powder blue with a […]
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Classical Music May/June
Beethoven Symphony No 6 in F major “Pastoral” Surely this is one of the best-loved of Beethoven’s symphonies. It is well documented just how much the great composer was passionately fond of nature and much of his music was an interpretation of Nature’s moods. Beethoven composed both his 5th and 6th symphonies in the years […]
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Wine Choice for May/June
Clocktower Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010 The first vine in the modern era of Marlborough wine was planted in 1973, with the first grapes harvested in 1976. The company Montana kick-started the modern era of viticulture in this famous area of Sourth Island, New Zealand. Vines had been grown here almost a century earlier. Marlborough has […]
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Plant of the Month, May/June
Primula reidii var. williamsii I am certain that most alpine plant growers will be familiar with this sensational Himalayan primula. This is a beautiful variant of the white-flowering type species, native to the western Himalaya. The species, P. Reidii was first discovered by Duthie in 1883 and later collected the following year in the Garhwal […]
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Plant of the Month, Mar/Apr
Corydalis solida ‘Dieter Schacht’ Early spring in the garden often highlights a mass planting of snowdrops, Muscari, aconites, crocus and assorted daffodils where the colour range seems to omit the soft pinks, salmon pink and vibrant reds. A favourite group of plants, the highly diverse range of Corydalis solida forms will fill this void. Specialist […]
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Classical Music Choice Mar/Apr
Written by Dr. Helmut Frehse The Four Last Songs (German: Vier Letzte Lieder) were the final completed works of Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949), ranking among the most haunting music ever written. The songs are “Frühling” (Spring), “September”, “Beim Schlafengehen” (Going to sleep) and “Im Abendrot” (In the glow of Sunset). There is no indication […]
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My Wine Choice Mar/Apr
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, 2009 Cantine Talamonti DOC Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, 2007 Gran Sasso DOCG Here is a household name and quite rightly a very popular wine for all occasions. This is a marvellous wine from the Abruzzo region of east, central Italy. Having established the origin of this wine, it is important not to confuse it with […]
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Erythronium tuolumnense ‘Spindlestone’
Mar/Apr 2012: Erythronium tuolumnense ‘Spindlestone’ – March 2012 I guess that the most widely grown of all erythroniums would be the hybrids including, ‘White Beauty’ and ‘Pagoda’. One often encounters mass woodland plantings of Erythronium revolutum due to its ability to set good quantities of seed, while the quite stunning E. tuolumnense is less often […]