Garden Ramblings now online.

As forecast in my last post the October issue of Garden Ramblings has now been published and all subscribers will have been sent an email copy. You can also read the newsletter online here.

This issue includes a guest article by Aurora Celonious entitled "The Beauty of the Orchid". Here is a brief extract: "Orchids make up an enormous group of plants, with around 25,000 species, and perhaps 60,000 hybrids produced artificially. Little short of a thousand new hybrids are added to the collection each year.

The word 'orchid' comes from a Greek word 'orchis' meaning 'testicle'. Theophrastos, the Greek 'father of botany' coined this word. He was the head of the lyceum in Athens and the successor of Aristotle. He led it for thirty-five years, i.e. up to his death in 287 BC. He called it so because he thought that the bulb resembled a testicle!" more..