Hello, and a little about me.

Hi, I am a semi retired builder, have lived and worked most of my life in the South Lakeland area.

I have a keen interest in plants and gardening, photography and motorsport.

I am involved in re-writing a book my father first wrote in 1972, 'Commemorative Plant Names'. I have OCR'd the manuscript into my computer and cleaned up the text to ensure spelling accuracy and consistency, I am organising the entries into a database, adding photographs and doing additional research to enhance the already considerable data contained in the work. The manuscript contains some 240,000 words as typed by my father. It had been accepted for publication with the proviso that the corrections and consistency editing be done by my father first. Sadly with his eyesight failing, he died before he could do that.

I have been working on this since about 1988 when I got my first Apple Mac, eventually I am going to call a halt to enhancing it and publish... One way or another, it seems to have become a part of my life.

After four years in a town centre flat, I have found a little sea side cottage, complete with a small back yard. It's only 12ft by 10ft. I plan to rip up the concrete, build a small greenhouse, 6ft x 4ft, and create small beds for climbers and a few favourite plants. I plan to replace the concrete and gravel with some local green slate paving, with perhaps some old brick edging around the beds, to keep the cost down.

As you may expect my main interest is in commemoratively named plants, which I travel the length and breadth of the country to photograph for the book.

I am also very interested in Infra Red and Ultra Violet photography, my avatar is an African gerbra daisy, lit with pure 365nm Ultra Violet light in a pitch dark room taken with a normal camera and lens. The bright parts are inflorescence caused by the UV light reacting with the pollen and other contaminants.

 

A warm welcome to the forum Plowii.

What a wonderful thing - to be able to continue your father's work. We all wish you the very best with it. Ensuring accuracy of spelling of plant names is quite a job. My spell checker gives up on latin names.

Thats a stunning picture. I think there is great scope for plant photography - I only wish I was better at it.

 

[size=medium]Welcome to Gardeners Corner Plowii.
That some fascinating projects you have on the go there. Look forward to hearing more about them.
And I just love that pic [/size] [size=medium]Could we see some more of them.Please [/size]

 

Hiya and Welcome to GC

 

Hello there and Welcome :WINK1:

 

Thank you all for your kind words!

I am sure I will find many friends here, you are very friendly and welcoming.

I don't have many UV images, because the company who converted my camera were so slow to complete the conversion that I missed the season last year. I have high hopes for this season.

I will append a couple more images, which you may like.

The first is another UV only Fluorescent image.

The second a pure UV image as an insect might see the flower, but in colour. The pattern changes with the condition of the reproductive parts of the flower, thereby indicating to an insect wether it is fruitful to visit.

The third is a snapshot I took at Kew Botanic Gardens last year. I say snapshot, because I made no preparation, no tripod and was taken through glass in a fleeting retreat, being herded out of the glasshouses at closing time by someone wanting to get home for his tea!

 

Hello Plowii and what a wonderful project you have and still have continuing your father's works.

I wish you all good wishes but it is important that you get it correct ...

"my avatar is an African gerbra daisy"

Your avatar is a African Gerbera Daisy ...

 

Whoops!

Thank you Victoria. I got it right on the photo, wrong in my description. [hang head in shame]

 

That's okay Robert .. just get it right in the book xx ... and let us know when it is available for purchase. :thumb:

 

Hello and welcome from me, I'm new here too, love your pictures, amazing, look forward to seeing more:thumb: