ITV Topiary Ident features Charlotte Molesworth
You may have noticed that between the programmes on ITV they have a new ident featuring EBTS UK’s very own Charlotte Molesworth. This is how she described the day the ident was recorded.
2nd Fund Raising Concert at Southside House
After the sell-out success of the first fundraising concert and supper, the European Boxwood and Topiary Society held another musical evening to raise funds for its innovative ‘Hand, Eye and Heart’ Creative Topiary Design module for British Horticultural Colleges.
Chiltern Boxwood Heritage Day
The day was organised by the Chiltern Box Woodland Project which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and was designed to illustrate how volunteers, woodland owners and organisations have worked with the project to discover a rich Box heritage in the Chilterns that had fallen into obscurity.
2015 Gardens in Bedfordshire – A day of restoration
Things didn’t bode well for the first garden visit of 2015, a crash on the M1 threatened to make the views of cars on tarmac rather than beautiful gardens and wonderful topiary and after that cleared the weather tried it’s hardest to put a dampener on the day.
Gardens in East Sussex a ‘hands on’ day out – Updated April 2015
A year after it’s hard cutting back to reduce it’s size and improve it’s shape, The Garden House parterre is growing back well as can be seen in the updated photographs Rowena has kindly sent through.
The Drama of Vaux-le-Vicomte by Andrew Lyndon-Skeggs
Vaux-le-Vicomte, the scene and the cause of the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet, the colourful and immeasurably rich finance minister to Louis XIV. “At six in the evening, Fouquet was the king of France; at two in the morning he was nobody.” Well, not quite, let’s explore further
EBTS UK 2015 Chairmans letter
To all members of EBTS UK and country representatives
After the warmest year in history and with the excitement of a forthcoming general election in the UK, EBTS enters 2015 with continuing confidence and enthusiasm.
Gardens in the Dordogne – Words & Pictures by Roger Last
The Dordogne has long been a favourite destination for the English – hardly surprising given the beauty of the countryside. It is a land of winding rivers, of castles precipitously perched on outcrops of rock with villages huddled below, woods of oak and chestnut on the hills and, in the valleys, rich planting of walnuts. Add to this a sequence of outstanding gardens and the experience achieves a new dimension.
The Garden Museum purchases 1664 – First Edition of ‘The Compleat Gardeners Practice’
The Garden Museum in South London, with the help of The Friends of the National Libraries & the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, have purchased a 1664 first edition of Stephen Blake’s ‘The Compleat Gardeners Practice’.
Boxwood Engraving Blocks by Mark Braimbridge
Today wood engraving is flourishing again after a dismal patch in the 1960s and 70s when its simple black and white lines were thought to be dull and outdated. Like their predecessors, the new generation of engravers continue to work on boxwood whenever they could get it but it is in increasingly short supply. Lemonwood is the best substitute and is used by beginners to practise but it is inconsistent.
Thomas Bewick by Mark Braimbridge
In the 1700’s there was a flowering of ‘naturalism’, the close following of nature in art and literature – Carl Linnaeus in Sweden, Gilbert White in Hampshire among many others. Duchesses were interested in botany, merchants and aristocrats founded zoos, clergymen recorded natural details of their environments.
Topiary Training Module Fund Raising Recital
Tuesday November 25th saw the first of a couple of fund raising events organised by Bruce Ginsberg to raise additional funds for the Topiary Training Module that EBTS UK is developing for use by colleges to improve the use and diversity of topiary.
EBTS goes to the Italian Lakes by Roger Last
At the end of September EBTS visited the Italian Lakes for an extended weekend four day trip visiting seven gardens.
A Fund Raising Musical Evening & Supper
The evening was a fundraising event to enable the European Box and Topiary Society to take forward its innovative Contemporary Topiary Design module for British Horticultural College.
Cambridge Garden visits 2014
Pictures and a short video of the gardens visited as part of the EBTS UK AGM weekend in Cambridge.
AGM 2014 – Brief summary of the meeting
Having settled into our Clare College accommodation on Friday evening, Saturday morning was time for the official business of the weekend, the Annual General Meeting which was held in The Latimer Room.
Increased infestations by Box Tree Moths
It is being reported that the Asian box tree caterpillar Diaphania perspectalis is spreading more rapidly than previously. The RHS is quoted in The Times as having recorded as many incidents this year as all the sightings since 2011 put together. These infestations were in discovered in May this year in Woodford & Loughton in the east of London and also Stoke Poges near Slough.
Topiary Dragon Quest
First my Mum sent me a fuzzy image from her iPad of a dragon sighting in North Norfolk, then Lynda the EBTS Administrator mailed me with a better quality picture asking if I had seen it. Soon it was on the BBC News website and in the Eastern Daily Press, so I felt as I was in North Norfolk I had to track this beast down.
The Stars at Topiary Arts Chelsea Display – UPDATE 2
With the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2014 well under way it’s not just the public that are admiring EBTS UK member James Crebbins-Baileys Silver-Gilt Flora winning stand – it’s the stars of The Great British Bake Off, Country File, an Opera Diva, Principal Ballerina with the Royal Ballet and gardening & TV presenter Alan Titchmarsh.
Another medal for Topiary Arts at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – UPDATE 2
Through out the week volunteers helped complete the garden and and when the results were announced James had another medal to add to his long list – Silver-Gilt Flora.
Congratulations on another outstanding win!
Topiary day out in Kent
With the weather forecast threatening rain, it was touch and go whether we would end up soaked, but with the usual EBTS UK good luck we only had a brief burst of rain which didn’t dampen our enjoyment in the slightest.
Monty Don tackles Box Blight at Longmeadow
On March 14th 2014 in the BBC Two programme ‘Gardeners World’, Monty Don dealt with box blight at Longmeadow – sadly it was drastic action. If you missed it then click here to watch the item via the BBC website – he also gives advice on what to look for and how to remove affected […]
The Treatment of Buxaceae
Many of you are already aware of the publication of Volume 19 Flora de Cuba with three families (Buxaceae, Lauraceae and Theophrastaceae) in Spanish by Koeltz Scientific Books, Königstein, Germany.
Box Tree Moths – The next blight?
It seems the caterpillars that develop into Box Tree Moths are on the increase. They were first found in the UK in the Surrey in 2008 and the RHS is now reporting that numbers have doubled in the last two years.