MOTORING
Soft bellflowers of all shapes and sizes will ring the changes
YOUprobably have a better chance o fsneaking into the dark dictatorship ofNorthKorea than getting into Kia’s vast, top secretresearch and developmen tcomplexcreatingitsnext generation of cars bound for-Britishshow-rooms.
But this week, Imanaged to do justthat—asone of the first group of journalists to begrantedaccess to the fast-growing firm’s high securityNamyang R&D facility and testtrack anhour’sdrive south-west of South Korea’scapital,Seoul.
ThereI met its top executives and had achance to put some o fits new estcarsthroughtheir paces before they arrive in Britain.They’veeven replicated UK road conditions ontheirtest tracks — including all manner ofpotholes and ruts.
Iwas given a privileged peek into itsambitious plans to create sportier-looking,exciting cars thatwon’t break the bank.
Such was security thatmy smartphoneandlaptop were confiscated fo rthe duration ofthevisit to avoid me taking sneaky photographs. Butthere’s still lots to share.
Kia has been expanding aggressively ,and hasshamelesslypoached top Europeandesign and engineering talentto turn itsoncebland range into affordableandattractive cars .
Nowit is putting its energy intoensuringthe driving performancematchesthe good looks.
It’slaunching five brand newmodels—includingthe£22,000petrol-electric Niro, which goeson sale in Britainfrom August 8.
The five-door carries five peopleand theirluggageincomfort withfuel economy of up to 74.3 mpg and CO2 emissions as low as 88g/ km. Five refreshed models,includingtheRioandPicanto,arealso on their way.
Ialso had a preview drive oftwonew cars set to reach UKfore courts soon: the sleek, loadluggingOptima Sports wago nestate and the ‘green’ hybridOptimap lug-i nhybrid (PHEV).
Watchout for my road testverdicts in thecoming weeks.
THE designer of the original ground-breaking Audi TT coupe has transformed the look of Kia in the decade since 2006.
Bavarian-born Peter Schreyer, who studied at the Royal College of Art, London, introduced a unifying grille resembling a tiger’s nose, while ditching earlier neutral looks in favour of sporty and contemporary European styling.
He told me: ‘We’ve got the looks right. With our next cars, we’ll have to top what we’ve done so far.’
ALBERTBIERMANN, 59, whomKia recentlypoached from-BMW to be its newchiefengineer,toldme: ‘It’s a clear target thatthedriving experience shouldmatchthe sporty looks of ourcars .We’re concentrating on the-emotional side ,the sporty side,the drivingfun.‘Kia is the wild guy. With sportier GT models we areadding morespice ,’ says MrBi er mann ( right ).
‘ Theywill worknicely in theUK with all itswinding roads .’
THE biggest Kia dealership in Britain opens in September on the A4 Great West Road into London. Kia will be a visual landmark — and distraction — for thousands of motorists stuck in Heathrow or commuter traffic.
BRITAINisKia’sfourth-largestexportmarket after China,theU.S.andRussia,accountingfora hefty 20 per cent of itsEuropeansales. Kia is on coursetosell 100,000 cars a year in theUKby2020.
THE top six Korean sellers in the UK last year were the Hyundai i10 (23,846), Kia Sportage (23,010), Hyundai i30 (17,392), Hyundai iX35 (14,338), Kia Picanto (14,275) and Hyundai i20 (14,228).
BMW is putting financebefore driving fun and sufferingfrom a culture of endless meeting sand infighting ,claimed Kia’sengineering bossAlbert Bi er man ni nan astonishingsides wipe a thisformer employer-of 35 years.
Giving his opinion of thechangesatBMW, he said financial be an countershave the upper handover engineers.
‘The culture at BMW haschanged.It’snotlikeitwastento15yearsago,’hesays.
‘It’smore financially driven. IntheEighties and Nineties, it wasan engineering-drivencompany.’
By contrast today at BMW,hesaid:‘You get tired of fighting,fighting, fighting.’
This time of year can be low-key in the garden. Early show-stoppers such as bearded irises, lupins and big poppies are gone, but the hotter, sunnier tones of late summer are still a few weeks off. Yet in a well-planted plot, the mood changes pleasingly as we enter a period of quiet beauty with softer colours. And some of the loveliest plants for this are the bellflowers.
The bell family, Campanulaceae, contains some 400 species worldwide. Almost all are beautiful and several are native to Britain.
You can buy and plant containerised bellflowers at any time of year. They are easy to propagate and you can take cuttings in spring, sow home-saved seed in autumn or lift and divide mature plants in March or October.
Most campanulas are perennial, but there are also biennials such as gorgeous old-fashioned Canterbury bells, and even a few annuals. sizes run from 2m whoppers to tiny little alpines.
PERFECT FOR BORDERS
CAMpAnulA flowers are nearly always bell-shaped. some have elongated tubular bells with flared bottoms. Others are more cup-like and in a few, the cups have opened into five-pointed stars. They are mainly blue shades, but can be white or lilac pink.
native bellflowers are commonest in limy or chalky soils. Wild harebells, Campanula rotundifolia, flourish in my local lincolnshire limestone. Taller nettle-leaved bellflowers, C.trachelium, are common along hedgerows and make fine garden plants. From northern Britain, Campanula latifolia grows to 1.5m tall.
Tall varieties make great border plants. peach-leaved bellflower, C. persicifolia, takes the least space for the most colour.
Cup-shaped flowers are carried on slender 75cm stems above low basal leaves. Cut them back after flowering and new stems often come. For a more gutsy show, plant Campanula lactiflora. Generous sprays of gaping, midsized cup-shaped flowers are borne on 1.5m plants through the summer.
Greater bellflower, C. latifolia, is a massive perennial with broad basal leaves and tall, straight stems carrying big tubular flowers. Best of the blues is probably Brantwood.
LITTLE AND LARGE
THERE are plenty of little bells for patio pots or rock gardens. starry-flowered blue or white C. isophylla is perfect for pot culture. But tiny, harebell-like C.cochlearifolia will grow in paving cracks or wall crevices.
Be warned: some bells spread too freely, either by seed or with running roots. pretty but thuggish C. rapunculoides creeps like ground elder and rampaging C. poscharskyana is just as bad.
nettle-leaved bellflower doesn’t creep but self-sows copiously. The flowers are gorgeous, though, coming in blue, pale violet or white. named varieties include double-flowered Alba Florepleno and lilac Bernice.
My favourite recently bred campanula is iridescent Bells. The 45cm stems carry dark buds that develop into pearly, translucent-looking tubular bells.
For a hot dry spot, our native clustered bellflower C. glomerata is a good choice. The deep blue flowers are clustered atop each stem as well as down its length.
in my part of Britain, it’s rare — when i spotted my first truly wild plant on the roadside, the excitement made me fall off my bike.