Readers’ reponses

Since the publication of the book ”Gardening with Hardy Geraniums” the publishing house Forlaget Geranium has received many kind and positive responses.

Below you can read some of the many e-mails we have had. All entries are published with permission from the senders.

John Brackenbury, author and photographer:

Dear Birgitte

Thank you so much for the copy of your book. You must be so pleased with the speed and quality of the result - never before can such a book have been produced so quickly ! I hope it will bring you fame !

Best wishes, John

David Victor:

Dear Birgitte,

Your book arrived safely with me this morning. Even though I can't read a word of Danish I can see that it is a wonderful book in its own right.  The pictures are superb and cover many cultivars I have not seen pictured before. I particularly liked the many comparative pictures showing  a number of different cultivars of a species, such as G. x oxonianum. So, thank you very much indeed for your gift.

By the way, I think that there are a number of cultivars shown in the book that have not had their names published before.  If so, if there is a suitable description in your book I can use it to formally adopt their name. When I have had a chance to check the names out, I will drop you a note about them.

I am working on the new version of the Geranium Register right now. However, there is a hold up of a couple of months as the Cultivated Code (the rules for naming) is currently being revised and there is a meeting in March at the Royal Horticultural Society to agree the implications for Registrars. I hope to have the new version out soon after that. I'll keep you up to date.

For the moment, many thanks again and, if you will allow me, very well done indeed!

Coen Jansen, Dalfsen, Holland:

Dear Birgitte,

Your book arrived yesterday late, it looks fantastic! I was very impressed by the number and quality of the pictures, and the text will probably be of the same quality, but I cannot read it I`m afraid! All these wonderful oxonianums, phaeums. psilostemon, a feast for the eye, no wonder everybody is asking you for publication, try to find someone who will translate it in English and publish it. I have been in touch with Timber Press, with Anna Mumford; why not send her a copy, to Timber Press, 39 Douglas Road, London NW6 7RN, England.

Of course I feel very honoured by 4 pages of text devoted to us!! We will keep in touch, very much success with the printer and binder etc.!

Best wishes, Coen.

David Hibberd:

Dear Birgitte   

Thank you very much for sending me a copy of your book. I am very impressed and it is just the sort of book I would have wished to have written myself. I think the treatment is ideal, and I am so pleased you held out against a typical coffee table book; it should appeal to a very wide range of readers. The layout is most attractive and the photography superb. I know that I shall refer to it regularly myself and although it is in Danish there is much that can be understood or guessed at. I'm sure that if an English edition were produced it would sell very well. Perhaps I can persuade you in this direction. Congratulations on a job very well done.

Kind regards

David

Dearest Birgitte!

What can I say - only thank you, thank you and once again - thank you! Now, when I keep your book in my hands I am so greatly impressed! I could not imagine that it is so beautifully done. It is a real work of art, it reminds me the precious albums with paintings of famous artists. These are not only my words, my friends are the most grateful to you and asked me to thank you for them. (They also thank me, that I helped to bring the books to Russia and I am very glad too).
After I enjoued the beautiful pictures I began reading. It goes rather slowly but I understand almost everything even without the dictionary. I could not help admiring of your brilliant sense of humour and a huge information scope.
In your foreword you write about memories of your childhood. You see, the fairy-tale Cinderella is still one of my favourites. And seven years ago I also thought that phloxes are simple 'folk' flowers, even somehow 'gaudy' to my garden which I thought would be a kind of 'haut'- gardening. Thank God and many friends who like gardening, my taste is developing and now I can estimate the real value of these flowers.
So I believe that we, gardeners in all parts of the world are very much alike. :-)
I am very afraid to seem annoying, but I already have a question. It is about phlox 'Europa'. We argue for two years which colour of 'eye' has the authentic cultivar. Here in Russia we meet mostly pale carmine-rose like in my photo (I bought it in July 2009). Some of phlox-experts say that it must be bright red. You write that it is 'weiss mit rotem Auge'. May be you could confirm which is the right one?
P.S. What a beautiful and joyful phlox you named after you son Lasse!
With all my best, Lia, Moscow