I love growing and caring for trees, flowers and plants in general - maybe it has to do with the fact that my grandfather was a botanic (1), who knows? At home here in Utrecht we have been watching our orchids blossom, one flower bud at a time. Spring seems to have arrived, even though temperatures are still low (around 0°C or 32°F yesterday).
(1) This is his obituary in a the Economic Botany journal (behind paywall, unfortunately). Here's from another source:
Leonam de Azeredo Penna, agronomist, director of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden for forty years, wrote several books on gardens, vegetable gardens and foliage, the best known of which is “A Meteorologia, Solo e a Planta” (1934), considered the first work on agricultural ecology published in Brazil; collector of dictionaries (he had more than 3,000), he wrote some of them (“Dicionário de Antonyms e Sinónimos” and “Dicionário Popular de Futebol”, among others) and collaborated in the “Pequeno Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa”. He was also the editor of 5 of the 6 volumes of the "Dictionary of Useful Plants of Brazil", completing the work of Pio Corrêa. Penna died on July 5, 1979, aged 76, of a heart attack in Rio de Janeiro.
(Source: Veja, July 11, 1979 - Edition No. 566 - Dates - Page 94/95)
