by GV | Gardening, Plants
The Birmingham Botanical Gardens always looked with interest to the possibility to establish National Plant Collections. In 2005, when Nigel Hopes joined the Botanical Gardens, he brought with him an interest in Cyclamen which had begun in his early teens. Nigel...
by GV | Gardening, Japan, Plants
To Barthelemy “Bart” Desilets-Roy teacher and brother in Japan. When I think of the constitutive role of pine trees in the soul of the Japanese people and their gardens, I think of an anecdote that happened to me in Japan. One sunny day in July I...
by GV | Japan, Plants, Travels
These days I love to repeat that I have “one job and one hobby”. The job is based in an English Garden near Fukuoka, in southern Japan; the hobby consists of the parallel investigation into Japanese flora and gardens. Thus, while all my blood-toil-tears-and-sweat is...
by GV | Japan, Plants, Travels
Anche il mondo dei bonsaismo ha le sue olimpiadi. Queste sono note come “The World Bonsai Convention” e si svolgono con cadenza quadriennale. Nell’ultimo fine settimana di aprile di quest’anno, la manifestazione è tornata per la prima volta in Giappone, e io ho avuto...
by GV | Gardening, Japan, Plants
This story of maples takes the first step in Wales, a land almost totally unaware of the noble strain. (Except for Acer campestre, the only British native, that in those lands shapes – together with other rustic fellows such as the hazel, the spindle, the...