Camellias are delightful. They were introduced into Europe at the end of the 17th century and are named after the Jesuit Georg Joseph Kamel. By the 19th century, thanks to the Empress Josephine who set the fashion in France, women wanted them everywhere: in their salons, their alcoves, in the theatre. In flower language, its name means perfect beauty and has connotations of being in love.

Alexandre Dumas’ ‘Dame’, Verdi’s Traviata and Coco Chanel’s buttonholes have all done their bit to immortalise camellias. However the camellia reminds one equally of the ‘Japonaiseries’ of Odette de Crécy.
Practical tip: put teabags or just tea on your camellias.

Even prettier than pansies (from pensée – thought) are heartsease, their small and delicate cousins.
It was this and not the modern pansy that Ophelia was talking about, and Shakespeare also put it in Puck’s love potion. The Elizabethans called it ‘love-in-idleness’ and a dozen other names suggesting love and flirtation but they used it as well as a remedy for diseases of the heart.
Of asparagus they say ‘de la pointe au talon tout est bon’ but this is not strictly true as the ends can be tough and stringy towards the end of the season. Cut them off and stew them up with chunks of veal, adding a little fond de veau, some spring carrots and new potatoes, my market butcher told me. Most successful. Note: to grow asparagus, see French News, March 2006 or read online at www.french-news.com.

Have you heard of a small tree from Canada called the amélanchier? At the end of March it glories in a week or so of superb white flowers. It grows in any soil, even poor ones as long as they are not too alkaline. There is no need to prune it. Put it in a semi-shady spot. After three years you should be rewarded with bunches of small browny violet fruits, which are sweet and tasty. Gather them in at the end of June and eat them raw, put them in tarts or make them into jam.
In winter, horses eat less grass and more hay or concentrates. The effect of their dung isn’t the same on the garden. Take dung from grass-eating horses and keep it for four years to kill off the weed seeds. Roses are particularly partial to a good bit of well-rotted horse manure.

There is a ‘Festival du Camélia’ on March 22- 24 at the Domaine de Trévarez,
29520 St Goazec (02 98 26 82 79) www.trevarez.com.