Page 6 - Robert Fortune News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Thank you for signing up to our Sunday Post newsletter. Something went wrong - please try again later. Sign Up In a little wooden shack, a light breeze tinkling its wind chimes and tousling tea bushes nearby, Islay man Les Wilson sips fine China tea served with simple ceremony in tiny cups. But the award-winning writer and documentary maker is not in China. He is closer to Perth than Peking. Les is at the Windy Hollow Tea Estate, just north of Scotland’s Ochil Hills, where artisan tea producer Monica Griesbaum makes tea so good she is selling it to the Chinese.

The chrysanthemum is possibly the one plant, above almost all others, that symbolises winter, says gardening columnist CEDRIC BRYANT. Cedric Bryant. FAMOUS 19th century plant hunter Robert Fortune, who introduced so many plants from China to the West, wrote in 1844: “The plants which stand next to dwarf trees in importance with the Chinese are chrysanthemums.  “So high are these plants held, the Chinese gardener will cultivate them extensively even against the wishes of his employer, even risking his job”.  One of the main reasons for its popularity is ease of growing and providing n...

Outdoors: Early wildflower colors spruce up spring landscape By Mark Blazis © Photo/Mark Blazis Opening day duck hunter Matt Blazis wades in a swamp to retrieve a mallard for his dad. While many of us sighted in our shotguns and bows for the forthcoming wild turkey season, we were all reminded last Friday that outdoors in April also means yellow splashes of forsythias, daffodils, and dandelions — and snow-white surprises. Up to 7 inches of the latter fell at higher elevations. But while that soggy snow soon melted and proved its worth as “poor man’s fertilizer,“ tho...