Gillian Vine

Singapore is the place for flower-lovers this year, says Gillian Vine.

Getting lost is the big attraction of hedge mazes. Gillian Vine reports on the re-creation of an English one.

Tasmania's climate is often compared to southern New Zealand's. Gillian Vine discovers why in a garden specialising in spring bulbs.

Turn a heap of rubbish into goodies for your garden, suggests Gillian Vine.

With varieties that flower up to eight months of the year, irises are for everyone, says Gillian Vine.

Gillian Vine visits Woolmers, a grand Tasmanian property.

Gillian Vine is hung up over a subject she should have studied at school.

KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek ran the country under an often brutal martial law regime that did not end until 1987, 12 years after his death.

Don't miss the National Palace Museum, Taipei's No1 tourist attraction. Although it is invariably crowded, it is well worth putting up with the squash to see its amazing line-up of Chinese artefacts.

That plants have changed the world is not in dispute. In Fifty Plants That Changed the Course of History, Bill Laws looks mainly at edible plant produce - sugar, cocoa and tea, for example - but also medicinal species, such as Cinchona, from which quinine is produced, and what he loosely calls "commercial" plants, including cotton.

What was once part of a West Otago farm is, 14 years on, a splendid garden. Gillian Vine reports.

Camellias are promising a great spring show, says Gillian Vine.

There are about 850 species of Ficus; most are from subtropical and tropical regions.

Even those who are not dog lovers will be drawn to Chet, the canine that narrates Spencer Quinn's "Dog On It" mysteries. In To Fetch a Thief, Chet and his private-eye human, Bernie, are hired to find a missing elephant and its trainer.

A Mosgiel couple who began breeding roses for fun are soon to have their second commercial release, reports Gillian Vine.

What a pleasure it is when a writer who has gone off his or her game returns to form.