As a writer and gardener, I find it hard to resist roses with a connection to a much loved book, or its author. Perhaps my favourite would be the beautifully scented David Austin rose called Jude the Obscure, named for Thomas Hardy’s tragic novel. It’s appropriate that
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THE FUCHSIA Fuchsias were discovered growing in the Caribbean in the 17th century, by a French monk called Charles Plumier. He named them in honour of German botanist, Leonhart Fuchs. There are so many varieties it would be impossible to list them here. Anyway, there is only one, very
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Spring warmth after frost and snow is one of the joys of nature. It was that period in the vernal quarter when we may suppose the Dryads to be waking for the season. The vegetable world begins to move and swell and the saps to rise,
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LAWS OF LINGUISTICS In Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, chief protagonist Jude Fawley naively assumes that learning a foreign language is like cracking a code; that mastering two or three words will miraculously provide the key to understanding the entire vocabulary. Hardy refers to this as Grimm’s
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