Books you may like to hear about

[Carlo]

Carol,

'Ophrys: The Bee Orchids of Europe' promises to be a valuable addition to our libraries...I'm hoping to have a review on my web site soon...

I'd say put it in stock!

Carlo

[Carol Shaw]

Go check out the members bookshop... I've put up some special offers that are only available to SRGC members on the site 


See this page:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/cgi-bin/books/whatsnew

[Carol Shaw]

Well Joakim has certainly got himself a bumper box of bargins... no one else interested???

[Paddy Tobin]

Some while ago there were several mentions of Karan Junker and her nursery. She has had a book published in the meantime, one which I enjoyed and have a quick review below for your attention.


The book begins with guidelines on how to develop a woodland garden, a description of the layers within woodland, the assessment of growing conditions, preparation of growing situations and the selection of plants. Quite honestly, I believe she devoted a little too much time to this section of the book as I imagine those with an interest in such a specialised book would have a reasonably good grasp of the arrangement of plants which occurs naturally in a woodland and would be more interested in finding out more about the plants and in being introduced to new species and cultivars suitable for their garden. In this latter aspect this book is certainly not wanting in the least. The selection of species described is indeed comprehensive, covering over two thousand plants. The descriptions are concise yet thorough and give clear information regarding the growing conditions required for each. The selection contains trees, shrubs, herbaceous and bulbous plants, sufficient to provide interest within the garden right through the year. Cultivars of note are also described. The book is well illustrated with excellent photographs, a total of 352 chosen to show those less well known, those which are of particular interest and those which are simply beautiful.

This is an excellent book, very readable and very usable as a reference book. I recommend it to you without hesitation.  [Gardening with Woodland Plants, Karan Junker, Timber Press, London, 2006, HB, 400pp, £30, ISBN13: 978-0-88192-821-1]

Not sure whether or not Carol has this in stock.

Paddy

[David Shaw]

We do, paddy, we do.

Thank you for the positive write up for the book.

[Paddy Tobin]

David,

I'm sure you realise then that this is a very interesting book, the alphabetic listing of plants, at least, as the introductory chapters are somewhat too basic for anyone who might be interested in growing the selection of plants described later in the book.

I looked back at the list Carol posted recently - bargain books from the SRGC - and there are some outstanding books there for fabulously bargain prices. It is a great service for members.

At the moment my book money reserves are low; Sarah Raven's Cookbook and The Power and the Glory by David Yallop set me back 75 Euro (£50) yesterday.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Interesting to hear about Karan Junker's book, Paddy. She has had some bulbs from us in the past but we seem to have lost contact, though it is nice to see an occasional piece from her in "the Garden", if I remember rightly. Has anyone an up to date website url for  her nursery, please?

PS... so you were not queueing to get your pre-ordered copy of the latest "Harry Potter" then, Paddy??

[Rob]

The website

http://www.junker.co.uk/index.htm

Last updated 09/07/07

[Maggi Young]

Thank you, Rob, very kind.

[Rob]

I ordered two plants from Junkers in 2004

CORNUS kousa 'Wolf Eyes'
A dramatic recent variegated selection with strong white margins and subtle grey green centres to the leaf. Supposedly scorch resistant but I would only try growing it in full sun on really nice, moisture retentive soil (as always, not too wet in winter though!) One of the best of its group.

MAGNOLIA 'Gold Star'
(M. acuminata var. subcordata ' Miss Honeybee' x M. stellata 'Rosea') Effectively a yellow flowered stellata, this Magnolia is unique. The flowers truly are yellow whilst their form is stellata like being 10cm across and consisting of 13-15 relatively narrow tepals. The larger than usual, almost furry leaves are attractively flushed with deep red when young. All in all this large shrub or small bushy tree is an exciting addition to our collection.

I had to get the plants mail order as I wasn’t able to get to the nursery.

The cornus has done really well, but the magnolia hasn’t flowered yet. Also the magnolia looks like it wants to be a small tree not a shrub, so may not be suitable for my garden.

[Maggi Young]

I think a yellow stellata type Magnolia would be lovely... if it's goingto be too big for you, why not dig it up now and drive it up to Aberdeen?  ..... not that I know where we'd find room for it!!

[Paddy Tobin]

Maggi,

Re Harry Potter: I'll just have to wait for you to tell me all about it. In the meantime I shall be cooking up a storm with the help of Sarah Raven's book. Lesley would love it.

Paddy

[Carol Shaw]

Updated sale list is now on members booklist... I only have one copy several of the books and it is first come SOLD! 

[Maggi Young]

Re Harry Potter: I'll just have to wait for you to tell me all about it

Paddy, it'll be a long wait.......when the Potter books first became the  "rage" that they are today, I was mildly interested... waited a while, a couple of books down the line... thought I should catch up with this trend that all the children i knew were raving about.... went to local Library to borrow said books... couldn't, they were always out on loan... after a while of this, I thought I would just bite the bullet and buy he books myself to read... that idea lasted just as long as it took me to discover how much they cost... there were about four of them by this time.. so Harry Potter and all his adventures are a mystery to me and likely to remain so! A young colleague at the BBC was excited to collect her copy at the  midnight launch and was enjoying it  immensely, she reported last Sunday. I assume she'll have finished it by this Sunday's shift and tell me how big the expected bloodbath is .... !!!!

[David Shaw]

Maggi, we had a copy delivered last Saturday morning; none of this midnight stuff! I haven't opened it yet and Carol has only managed about 10 pages.
I am sure it is much more fun to imagine my own ending to the story