My Gloriosa rothschildiana, a most aptly named plant, is in full flower, and embracing a large plant of Prickly Pear just by my gate. Always a plant that really does need support for its scrambling and clinging habit, my Gloriosa lily has found the perfect mate. It is a plant of Africa with tuberous roots. Its leaves are spear-shaped, and narrow into a tendril by which means it wraps itself round any convenient support. I have actually seen the Gloriosa lily growing wild in central Africa, but never clinging to a Prickly Pear, which is only found naturally in the driest Americas. In the driest weather Gloriosas die down, and when nature telegraphs that moisture is on the way new shoots are produced from the tubers. I am lucky that when this happens in my garden the new growths almost exclusively confine themselves to the nearby Prickly Pear for support, and as a result, the tubers are shaded from the sun and are, year by year producing more and more shoots and flowers.
I often think that it is a shame that some of my particular friends are shy and retiring when it comes to showing off their gardens. In Britain they have a national scheme which lists the gardens of those that are willing to let fellow enthusiasts visit for just one or two days to have a look at their successes and, it must be said, some of their failures as well. There is normally a nominal charge for the visit, and the cash is either kept, or donated to the care of the elderly, the young, places of worship where the fabric of the buildings is always in need of repair, dogs homes or cats homes or a hundred and one other causes which always need help.
Most people are highly conservative about their gardens, and jealous of their plants, and it must be said, reluctant to display their failures. When I do visit gardens here in Guyana I always seem to say at some point (to myself) that so and so seems to have the same problems that I have, or I wonder why they don’t have the same problems that I have with some plant or other!
One garden I see regularly on my visits over on the West Bank seems always to be a in state of flux. The owner is a workaholic who strives to produce a garden which gives peace, tranquillity and beauty, which is in conflict with massive television antennae, and dishes like gigantic dinner plates − not easy things to hide away in some little corner. Still, it is a fact that once you have been there for a few minutes you don’t see the television paraphernalia − just the plants. These comprise a very fine collection of Mussaendas, a great colour border which includes Acalypha, angelicas, crotons and hibiscus, and a hundred or so other species, and a fine orchid collection and shade shelter based on a design once used in the Ceylon Botanical Gardens, a century-and-a-half ago. I have never visited the garden when something hasn’t been going on. Change is all about. Never mind the crime situation, the appalling economic state, lack of investment and the fact that we rely almost totally on hand-outs. None of that cuts it in this place.
Change and improvement is all about. Exciting stuff. The only problems I see are those that confront us all. What to plant? Where to get it? How to get rid of it? How can it be made to look better? How can I cure it?
Is it only a few weeks to Christmas? Drive very carefully all the time now. Drink very carefully and may your God go with you.
