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I am living in Veltem-Beisem near Leuven, Belgium.
I am both French- and Dutch-speaking. Because of my former occupation I am also practising the English language.
Since my adolescence I have a passion for botany. Botany has become in a way a second occupation. My passion for gardening began about twenty years ago.
I have a passion for above all rock plants and botanical bulbs - particularly hardy autumn-flowering bulbs, of which I have about thirty different species - and garden cyclamens. Within this framework I have special contacts with specialised nurseries of botanical bulbs as Verberghe Bloembollen, Rita van der Zalm and De Bolle-Jist, and of perennial plants as Jan Spruyt-Van der Jeugd, and experts as Mark Griffiths and Jan Bravenboer.
I am friend and botanical adviser of Ivo Pauwels - a green author well-known in Dutch-speaking Belgium - whom I have met about ten years ago during a memorable garden tour in Portugal. Shortly thereafter Ivo made an article on my hobby and we progressively became friends. Ivo has said once that my garden - although relatively small - was a living herbarium. I am reviewing and criticising his books and his articles in order to ensure their botanical accuracy.
I have participated with Ivo and other green journalists in garden tours. So, we have visited gardens and natural reserves in Portugal, Madeira, the Canary Islands, France, Wales, Ireland, and Belgium. I have also visited several times the garden fairs, among others that of Beervelde and of Hex.
I have written some botanical articles in Les Jardins d'Eden – De Tuinen van Eden, among others about hardy autumn-flowering bulbs, Araceae, cyclamens, Actaea species and snowflakes, and about the flora of the Pyrenees. I have also been an advisor of botanical books edited by Ludion.
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Back to the roots
In Tenerife with Ivo Pauwels and a fellow traveller
In the Pyrenees with Nathalie Morel and Jean-Sébastien Gion
In the mountains of Norway
In the laurisilva of La Palma
In the Vanoise
With Ivo Pauwels at the Prieuré d'Orsan
In the Hautes Fagnes
In the Grandes Rousses
In the rain forest in amphoe Umphang, Thailand
In the bay of the Somme.jpg)
