On 2014-04-26 09:16:48 +0000, kay said:
[color=blue][i]
Judith, Massif Central France.;1001218 Wrote:
On Tuesday, 15 April 2014 17:59:06 UTC+1, sacha wrote:

Shocked and upset, he was a brilliant man, over the years I knew him,
yes, I did as he let me into his gardening life. Rest in Peace Dear
Man, you will be missed. xxx

It came back to me this morning, the best bit of advice I remember from
David on urg "I like to well and truly kill a plant three times before
giving up on it".

And Sacha will like to be reminded that when she took the urglers around
Hill House, David looked in to one of the greenhouses and said to me
:Now, that's what a greenhouse *should* look like!"

I don't remember him saying that but perhaps I wasn't with you at that
time. He did love it here and he was certainly both a great admirer of
Ray and Matthew's work here and at times, a great help with plant
naming and advice. He made us laugh when we showed him something that
had defeated all of us, several visitors and 'the books'. David just
looked at it and said "Oh that's Ruspolia hypocrateriformis', as if he
was saying 'that's a dandelion'. He was utterly convinced - to the fury
of some Passiflora experts - that Ray has a so-called 'lost Passiflora'
and both he and Ray were and are indifferent to those who said
otherwise. Ray had been given it under that name 30 years ago, David
confirmed it and that was the end of the matter as far as Ray was
concerned! ;-) Ray has often said he has never met anyone with
David's astonishingly encylopaedic knowledge and his powers of recall
when it came to plants. We hadn't seen him for several months because
he kept having one illness after another (he had fibrosis, with a
deep-seated underlying lung infection as it turned out) and the poor
man could walk only a few steps without stopping to gasp for breath. We
never did get that final wander round the garden with him. His funeral
is to be on 6th May for family only but I know no more than that at
present. I do know that he's hugely missed by many people in the
horticultural world, both amateur and professional and the very many
friends he had in Torquay.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk