Merci seedlovers bonne saint Valentin

Saint Valentin est génèralment, une occasion qu m abruttit. Trop de coeurs, trop de concepts stériles qui cachent une solitude profonde. Mais Seeds of love à le pouvoir de rendre cet évènemnt magique. Le seeds of love, rendent le noel, magique avec tous ces notes et ces blogs pleins de graines, et pleins despoir pour la saison nouvelle. Or c est à la saint Valentin, que je retrouve un grand nombres d envellopes des seed lovers. Or je n avais rien demandé, ce qui me comble de joie. Chose bizarre il y a peu de temps, qu un ami m avait apporté des lettres de l année der de seedlovers qui m avaient envoyé des graines, quand je n avais rien demandé. Donc c est une joie double.... Merci Isa avec ton pouvoir magique t arrives à rendre deux évènements tristes et commerciaux, en une haubaine de joie et de fécondes amitiées.

je serai lent pour envoyer les graines pour mes gagnats mais j espére de vous fair content autant que moi, vous me rendez content.

Demain je vous indiquerais les variétées de Galanthus que l année dernière j ai acheté à l expo  de la Royal horticultural society . c est la première de l année , et c est une follie de mille var de galanthus et de plantes très raffinèes, rien à voir avec Chelsea, qui est plutot un événement mondain.

 . My last attempt to move to UK before Brexit .
I came to Uk fto visit my best friend and find a bristish lover and hoped I could change my life. Many exiting things happened. I remember dearly, when I had to help STefano for a show in london .Stefano Marinaz is one of the top italian Landscape designers, he lives and work in London, and has worked for the main Landscape designers, and architects likenorman Foster and Rogers, since 2012 he created his own company and has Made Fantastic Designs in united kingdom and in London most of the Gardens he design ed are in Chelsea ( London ) I Helped to select some of the plants , and the composition of the planting of the vases by Bronzino , under Marinaz s strict supervision and design. Will help During the event .  I selected the witch hazels Diane( the one pictured above is Jelena and is taken by the web) with the beaitiful and scented red winter flowers. Plus i selected the epidemium epimedium perralchicum 'frohnleiten', which has a perfect rusty foliage to cpontercalance the naked yet essential shape  of the lonicera fragrans. I was thrilled to see when we went to select the plants in the nursery before the show, that a patch of plants where i selected the plants , there was a group of plants destined to the Dan Pearson Group. My artistic flair was essential, to display the plants together. Plus it was exiting to see the workers prepare the stage. They were lithuanian and extremely good looking, and one was to die for...
There was obviously a bit of drama , since part of the display was too big, so the responsibles of that came at the last minute, and in a very unprofessional manner finished what was supposed to finish, at least they managed in time. 

During the show  I had to attract possible clients and talk about his projects. I was quite intrigued by the story of King's Weston House, near Bristol. It was built between 1712 and 1719 was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for Edward Southwell on the site of an earlier Tudorhouse, remodelled 1763–1768 by Robert Mylne and again between 1845 and 1850 by Thomas Hopper. A significant architectural feature is the grouping of all the chimneys into a massive arcade.The Kings Weston estate possesses one of the largest collections of buildings designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in the UK. Whilst the house and the majority of the estate buildings are still standing others have been demolished or been heavily altered. Bristol is the only UK city outside London to possess buildings designed by Vanbrugh.( source wikipedia).

He started his career by a beautiful project called Hortithérapie sensorielle was selected for the the famous Chaumont sur Loire where there was a beautiful scupture. I know Stefano for many years, I met him, during an Orchid's  club( organised by Guido De Vidi) event. With my stubborn and opinionated nature, i forced him to go to study in Uk. I convinced Roberto Pirzio Biroli, a very famous landcsape designer and architect. Pirzio Biroli has a very interresying story since one of his ancestors tried to kill Hitler, and another one Pietro Brazzà ( Brazzaville was named in his honor) .

 Thanks to this event i became friends with famous garden writer Helena Attlee. her boks about English, Portiguese, Italian and Japanese gardens are incredible and her book : The land where the lemons grew, is a passionate history and story about italian incredible botanical history. She has written many books for Garden s illustrated etc.

The show was great and lasted a weekend, and during St Valentine a silly ex lover of mine , came to see the show and i presented him the hybrid Galllica rose scharlaglut ,  The alba Rose Bellard, and the portland Joasine Hanet.   I was full of expectations and thought moving to Uk was a good way to improve my love and career life but alas, it was far from being so.

Almost every trace of the Baroque layout and the Picturesque landscape that replaced it has gone, but the new garden takes its inspira

Botanical terrorism

A criminial event has been taking place in Perugia. No humans have been harmed just many beautiful plants. The crime could seem trivial for most, but not when it hinders, the comunity which has been deprived from a very nice collection which was delightful and of educational interrest. This crime has not made for economical intererst but by mere ignorance, because plants have been transplanted in the worst season ever without a logical reason for these removals. The  details will be explained later in their sheer stupidity. These changes have been decided  not by a politician( politicians are known for their  dismal decisions without a sense of logic), but by the director of the Botanical Gardens.  Eminent botanists are unimployed, no matter how their prestigious are their  publications, and this director, while this rascal  has been employed by his wife , working on the human resources.
 And here comes our Hero, good looking,muscly intelligent, gardener conoisseur of a vast range of plants. He is generous and loved by all his friends but  he is Gay and Polish. No matter how vehemently he condems the choices of this incompetent, fraudolent director, he is ignored for not being Italian and for his choices, and by the fact he is for no bullshit. His rebukes are ignored, with a certain subtle discrimination. We are in the know, whereas our hero Waldemar  who are you to contradict us?
     The most blatant example is the removal of the rose garden. Hundreds of old heirloom rose garden and botanical roses have been removed a month before their flowering time. Even some not giving a damn about oplants know this simple rule. The grotesque detail is  they have been transplanted by a catrepillar :), so at least the murder has been quick. The bushes were established, and hence big specimens, and a very few of this jewel of a rose garden has been savaged.
 Old varieties have been on a verge of extinction, replaced by greenhouse roses, and their equivalent for the garden . Old roses are very different in shape of the bloom ( a vast majority of them look more like peonies, with a profuse amount of petals, they parfumes are intoxicanting and superb) , foliage, shape ( they are more shrubs unlike the rigid  bush modern roses), and most of them has a direct or indirect historical relevance.
 Therefore this rosegarden was not  a mere garden of delights but an educational mission. Waldemar recounts other terrorists acts. Mature trees and shrub have been removed for no real reason . The ornamental blossoms who were a sight to remember has been violated without a reason, the collection of peonies destroyed and so on. This precious haven for the comunity has a vast array, of animals, for education purposes , and are really in dre straits. The dick pond has not been cleaned for years and the ehm delghtful emissions can be apreciated from a distance. I guess extremely parfumed roses, were ruining the fragrance of poo. I am sure Mr Grenouille from the book Le Parfum by Patrick Suskind would be in total awe :) .
 This said Waldemar was not moaning passively as an italian would have done.  He challenged the authorities, and coarsly treated. He contacted newspapers but it was of no avail. He even tried with Striscia La Notizia, a tv program which deals with denouncing corruption. Furthermore this very corruption is too inherent in the local habits. In an Italy wich used to indulge  on getting a job, thanks to your acquaintances. Now in italy this is more and more difficult to do so, due to the terrible crisis  Perugia seens to be resist, in a kind of provincial bubble, where who you are depends on who do you know. Were the money which should be used for refugees is used for private use. Neighbouring the once beautiful botanical garden, another splendid park profuse with rare species has been transformed officially into a refugee camp. Were there are no real refugees, execpt a scarce number, and the once florid park is in shambles.
   Waldemar says the workers employed by the wife of the director of the botanical garden, are ex drug addicts or unemployed and no real qualified people, so people just do what they please not caring if they might ruin things from the comunity. Waldemar is a clear example that people who were not originally born in this country can bring real qualificated work and not only used as mere cheap labour.This italian careleness should not be allowed, and if people coming from abroad have more qualifuications, they should be allowed to climb the social ladder, and give the place thet deserve. Waldemar should be the director of the garden, while the useless guy should clean the pond with his own hands. Being italians unable to defend their beauties. we needs people like Waldemar. A fighter for his ideals. The garden was destroyed four years ago, but he is still the same, always generous of qualified adice on plants. He is good looking in the inside, but green like Hulk in the inside. 

How to pleasently change your life with a rose group on Facebook

Thanks to a rose group :Il giardino e le rose, ( Gio aspis masullo pictured in  the top) i managed to meet fantastic people and get to know of fantastic events .
 For example last week i took a train to Veneto region .....
Last did I know I would  turn into a plant frolicking . Well I am totally lying, just the day before I went to see a talk by nurseryman Luigi Priola, in order to fetch some plants. i order a relative to an euphorbia i love to bits. Euphorbia Mellifera which i used to weed when working as a gardener in Kennington . The name says it all: Devil' s honey, a scented shrub like euphorbia. some selinums, berberis, unusual grasses. all the  horticultural arty-farty stuff.

                                                    Miriam from la Campanella nursery while planting the roses
Then being aware of being totally broke, i nonetheless ventured toward veneto. being dyspraxic, i lost the train and called my poor friend saying there will be some changes in the schedules. I improvidìsed to meet long lasting friends with whom I have collaborated: Vivaio La campanella old rose nursery and raziel bulbs. I entered in the secret chambers of treasures. Where millions of bare rooted where stocked after being harvested from the field where they have been grafted in the rootstock( a wild rose where the variety is grated) and now they were potting these roses. At Raziel i disturbed them, while they were busy in a similar manner potting millions and millions of bulbs.
        The day  day after  I asked my poor sancho to follow me in my don quijotisms and to go near Verona, to see a marvellous talk by Maurizio Usai and Matteo la Civita about their marvellous landscape designs.These two guys are known internationally.The talk, was sublime, amazing pictures, with a lot of verve between the two landscape architets. ( below bare rooted roses )

Before this event we managed to see a friend,  another landscape designer Luca Fadini, who showed us the gigantic valleverde garden centre, where he is the resident  garden architect. Was mesmerised by the big greenhouses, where they produce pelarginiums, poinsettias, cyclamens, with 70 employees, and the quality of the plant was superb, and the atmosphere was fairy tale like...
   Maurizio Usai and Elena Longo and fantastic organiser Gloriana Chiodi
The third  day,  we needed one hour to get there and Maurizio Usai and Elena Longo were helding a rose pruning workshop. Maurizio delighted us, with several insights of which I was totally unaware. The duo was absolutely stunning. Followed by  a delicious lunch ,  organised by Gloriana Chiodi (the mastermind behind all these events). There were many friends from the  fantastic facebook rose group: Il giardino e le rose. Giò Masullo is the leader and he was as usual so full of verve and adorable, then a stunning curly haired lady Monica, a lovable  and sensual Federica and a the heartbraker stud  Francesco. The gang woke up at 3 o clock to attend to the workshop. The practical side was held at Gloriana s park. Elena s way of pruning was totally opposite to Maurizio, but each was perfect to a different class of roses. Maurizio is more specialised in subtropical roses, the chinensis group, which abhor hard pruning (since the lymph is stored in the upper part of the shrub being in almost perennial activity) , while the european group due it s dormancy period, stores the lymph in the roots while not growing. We had some refreshments at Gloriana s beautiful house and it was lovely
  The last day there was a tour in the oldest botanical garden: the padova s garden. There was a reunion of the plant lovers , Adipa, marshalled by Patrizia Ianne( an international  fuchsia specialist) dispensing accademic knowledge about plants in such a witty and energetic manner it was pure bliss. Thanks to fantastic Giò I managed to visit magnuficent garden bt Muchele Calore. Michele is famous for its refined colour schemes of perennials mixed shrubs and grasses. Grasses where at their vernal garment, in the varous fawn, buff and beige hues. Of the most sophisticated impressions it was truly amazing.
I learnt a great deal from Usai, saw so many things i needed a whole week to recover from such beauties and the friendly atmosphere. Thank you

Last but absolutely not the least  is the picture of the great landscape designer Matteo La Civita famous for it s peonies and his designs. He lives in London

a breathtaking  lunch @Mirella Collavini (pictures taken from the web)


Mirella is without a shadow of doubt a grand Dame of gardening. Sheer elegance defines her, far from the obstentations of Modern society obsessed with selfies and self promotion Mirella oozes refinement in every spore:). More than being a Fern, she the lady of aspidistrias, rohdeas, tupistras, peliosanthes.

What aspidistras? you might be joking? wtf Aspidistras according to Gordon Comstock, the novel protagonist of : Keep the aspidistra flying, the epitome of the middle class failing to keep respectability. This extremely difficult plant to kill, which in a way could be part of the bridal bouquet of Hyacinth Bucket, pardon Bouquet, the star of Keeping of with appearences. Hyacinth, is "adorable" in her grotesque failed attempt to be a wannabee, a true posh, in the sense of pretending to be a social class which she does not belong, a modern bourgeois gentil'homme but with more grotesque hues than the drama by Moliére. Aspidistras were so famous that wikipedia suggest me ( I am not cheating i swear) that a famous popular song "The biggest aspidistra in the world" was a warime favourite in it's heyday.
   Mirella' s genius is to collected all, those  plants which were considered  worthless, too easy to grow  and not as chic as more difficult and  chic plants. Mirella has been the Lady of Violets, and she brought back these delightful delicacies out of oblivion. Beauties like: Viola di Udine, and conte de Brazzà were popularised again by her, and now her famous Violet days have been somewhat copied by others. Then came the commeliaceas period, in italian the were called Miseries due to their resilience, Then Impatiens, and so many others. Now she is planning to do a medieval farden in her small, yet marvellous austere garden,and her marvellous mansion. It is a modern garden, although the cloud topiaries would  suggest overwise. The exquisite pond hidden by the topiaries is the shrine of a beautiful  southafrican, white aponogeton flowering now in january. Close to the house some old wooden doors give a methaphysical, yet modern touch by the fact that these doors, separate the garden to a beautiful hallway of the garden to the garden. Behind these fake doors, beautiful specimens of Lee s Perpetual roses beautiful even in their bare, winter attire. 

          All the asp, are frpm the family of asparageaceas, as the common edible Aparagus. There are apparently 101 species of aspidistras only, 23 Peliosanthes, 17 Rodheas, 21 Tupistras. Mirella has almost finished the collection, and she was just telling us that ther last babies came from a russian nursery which collected the plants in Thailand, but had to send a friend to Russia, because the nursery does not delivery abroad. Apart from the species, the varieties are exquisite, with sublimes streaks or blotchts, giving the term variegation an artistic touch. The collection is displayed in her mansion s entrance, in such a grand yet subdued style. with big specimens in chinese pots, and the rest in simple yet eleongated vases. I was invited during a rare plant lunch( Adipa) where  beautiful centre table, where garnished with adianthum. mosses and snowdrops under a glass bell. Enormous vases with large branches of winter sweets, giving a theatrical setting to an elegant dining room, follerf by the most refined living room, adorned by art books, precolombian huacos and new guinea statues and an old fireplace. The lunch was filled with delightful conversations with Patrizia Ianne, and the other plant specialists. I felt a mere caveman. It ended with an accordéoniste playing .....

Brexit and my broken heart
 
I m Giulio Massimo Baistrocchi and my name does not sound very English.
 But I carry some English blood. Both of my great grannies were English and I have always been proud of it till the start of the Brexit campaign.
Lolita, my brasilian grannie' s mum was English even though her mum was a Nicaraguan Spanish . her mum my great great grannie was a Furtado de la Cruz  from Spanish aristocracy from the conquista times who felt in love with an Englishman whose surname was Chambers. She died when she was young and her husband took Back the 2 children from this marriage back to UK . The Furtado de la Cruz said if you take the children they won t receive anything from the gold mines they had in Nicaragua. My ggg Chambers was in the navy and did not flick for a second to the threats. They Chambers have been in the navy and the are 2 maritime painters from this family shown in the Greenwich maritime museum, and they were originally from Yorkshire.
Lolita was always considered a barbarian which was not able to have manners from his very high church grandfather. ( the first picture is from George Chambers , the second one from Grace)
   Lolita s husband Ettore had an English mum too, her name was Grace. She flew from England because her father could not accept her marrying someone from the continent.so she had a very roccambolesque story but they finally got married. But she died in the Messina earthquake when Ettore was few years old. she was an skilled painter of flowers.
These are my genes but more than anything England has been my tormented love relationship
First arrived in Cambridge when was 15 to study English. Loved it was in a cool English family. But there were anti Latino raids and was scared . And some drunk yards were having fun of me.
2 years later I went to work for a summer at Peter beales s nursery which  is the Mecca for old rose lovers and during a show on sandrigham palace was presented to the Queen  Mother and Prince Charles. I made my father proud for once ,  soon after my way back to Italy princess Diana died and my father some months afterwards. The were terrible years I had to do my baccalaureate twice but the memories of UK were strong.
After my bac was sent to Paris as a gift for some months but my heart was in UK so ended there, found a job in Haag an datz in Leicester Square as a porter. Then one day meandering arousd Chinatown I ended up in soho and was surprised why are they so many man?
So I understood and a guy looked at me and for the first time I had a sort of excitement. I have always looked for perfect love but put things in a way they always refused me but never a true excitement
I obviously lost the occasion but decided I will have a try. It was disgusting  but my life changed I guess 😄.
Then did an art degree which I could afford because UK had a fantastic education system Bach them. Being EU citizen was a great thing and worked as a florist to pay my rent and good since my mum did not want me to go to Uk. The second year lost the job so has to come back to Italy and come only for the tutorials and dissertation. Then moved to udine to follow my ex boyfriend and many things I won't tell now. 2 years ago I returned Back to Uk but did not felt very welcomed. Met a guy and thought it could be a good guy to have a life together but realised it wasn't. Bureaucracy was worst than Italy and to find a job for someone with dyspraxia has been hard. With the guy it did not work but managed to do some gardening jobs and in a call centre but was working too much and my body could not handle it the only job I could find after months of trillion of application forms and had to leave some 3 months ago. I had my Brexit , London dis not love me could not stand to do 16 km a day by bike because I could not pay the  tube Etc. but great friend and people most of them from the Eu or eu lovers. But UK does not love me and the Brexit campaign is a sign

a campagna del Brexit fá capire come sono veramente gli inglesi. Entrambi gli schieramenti. La campagna del Brexit mostra com é un popolo oltre l ipocrisia e la presunta civiltá che si sforzano di dimostrare generalmente. A parte lo specchio delle allodole che é londra che ho amato per m c é veramente violenza e estrema povertá che sanno mascherare molto bene. Io continuerò ad amare l inghilterra in tutte le sue contraddizioni , forse anche per le mie due bisnonne inglesi