My name is Jozef Lemmens, but my friends call me Jef. I am 57 years old and married to Maggy. We have 2 adult children (Ilona and Kenny), who have flown the nest a few months ago. Since 1 December I am a retired fireman. We live in Wilsele, a suburb of Leuven, a small University city around 30 km North of Brussels in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium.
My 2 most important hobbies are rock garden plants and photography.
Alpines
My favourite plants are cushion plants like Androsaces, Dionysias and Saxifrages. I am however also interested in Daphnes, Primulas and Gesneriaceae. Actually, I like all alpines. I have the greatest pleasure in propagating plants from seeds and taking cuttings, particular from species that are not available in ordinary nurseries.
I regularly travel to mountain areas to admire these plants at their most beautiful. I have been to most of the mountain ranges in Europe, visited the Himalayas in Nepal three times and travelled to China seven times.
I am a member of the Vlaamse Rotsplanten Vereniging, the Nederlandse Rotsplanten Vereniging, the Alpine Garden Society, the Scottish Rock Garden Club, the North American Rock Garden Society and Klub Skalničkářů Praha. A few articles and photos on rock garden plants were published in magazines and books in Belgium, the Netherlands, England, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Japan and the United States.
Photography
Six years ago I joined a local photography club and the hobby took up more of my leisure time. I especially enjoy nature, in all its aspects, sports and travel photography.
In early 2007 I started to participate in national exhibitions and one year later in international exhibitions. I received my first “international” medal at the PSA exhibition of 2008, (silver in the photojournalism section – Human Interest). This was the beginning of taking part in many exhibitions which resulted in more medals. I received the PPSA distinction in September 2010, the EPSA distinction in January 2012, the AFIAP distinction in March 2012, the MPSA distinction in January 2013 , EFIAP in March 2013, EFIAP/b in March 2014, GMPSA January 2015 and EFIAP/S March 2015.
Thank you so much for visiting my website.