Dede Sophie

With more than 10pc of Audis sold in Ireland last year being electric, it’s clear that Volkswagen’s premium brand is playing its part in the push by the group towards an all-electric future, writes Brian Byrne. Nearly half of those sales were of the Q4 e-tron, the newest and smaller of the three Audi EVs available. My review car is newer still, as the Sportback version of the Q4 e-tron, and I was quite taken with the softer rear roofline compared to the full SUV version’s. It has the style of a coupe liftback, but without sacrificing any of the passenger space, and only mildly diminishing boot capacity. In size it not surprisingly is close to the VW ID.5 equivalent and a bit more compact than key competitor Hyundai’s Ioniq 5. I thought the car’s shape was very well displayed in the non-metallic grey — they call it Pebblestone — of the review car.  The Q4 e-tron stylists held on to the sense of a grille front end, which I still think gives an EV more presenc...

LOOKING FOR RARE AND UNUSUAL PLANT SEEDS? THEN CLICK HERE FOR THE ‘SEEDS OF EADEN’ SEED SHOP Like many of us who holiday in tropical or Mediterranean climates it is easy to become tempted into buying bare root, plastic covered exotics at the airport as a souvenir of your travels.  Now depending on the country you are in, or from, the plant species you have purchased and the import laws relating to bring in unlicensed plants without the appropriate paperwork, you could inadvertently be breaking several laws. So it is always best check your governments relative websites for details before buying. For the UK check out the following link: https://www.gov.uk/bringing-plants-and-wood-into-great-britain How to pot on and grow bare root Bird of ParadiseHowever, assuming your paperwork is correct and you have managed to bring home a Bird of Paradise stem carefully wrapped in cellophane just what do you do with it? Well you need to act quickly as the longer the plant is without roots ...