THE ultimate degradation for plants is to find themselves being sold on a service-station forecourt: chrysanthemums in a cellophane shroud, over-fed cyclamen in foil baskets and, at this time of the year, glittery boxes of dried-up amaryllis bulbs. These bulbs are not even named correctly: true amaryllis are South African plants, hardy in much of the UK, with a brief, but beautiful flowering in the autumn. What are being sold and what, to the irritation of botanists, we all refer to as amaryllis, are, in fact, hippeastrum. The name was changed in the late 1980s, but most people—growers and breeders included— continue to refer to the plant by its former name. Perhaps a first step in liberating the amaryllis’ from its shelf at the service station might be to call it by its correct moniker.
Few plants are as flamboyant as hippeastrum: floriferous and long flowering, they would be welcome at any time of year, but to have their exuberance during the dull grey days of winter seems almost miraculous. It is unfathomable that such a plant is dismissed, in some quarters, as old-fashioned or disparaged for being too ostentatious.
Denne historien er fra November 30, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra November 30, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds