Saturday 8 March 2008

A Nice Green Leaf: A Nice Green Flower

Dsc_1124jpeg



Here's my plant of the week: the gorgeous Gladiolus viridiflorus. It's ridiculously pretty, and looks like it was designed to go with the interior design scheme of a smart new London hotel.

However it is the real deal. A subtle flower, pale, with a darkish bruise-coloured stain criss-crossed with pale green lines. Originally from South Africa where it grows on Cape sandstones, I saw it flowering in the sparkly new Alitex-sponsored Alpine house at Wisley where the Alpine House growers have done themselvesDsc_1114jpeg proud already this spring. As recorded by their blog which is astonishing for the fact that they have recorded a completely different set of plants to the ones I saw over exactly the same period.



Another instant love thing for me were the Muscari - grape hyacinths, but not as we normally know them. These exquisite plants combine the dark plum and fresh grape green of real vines. Muscari muscarimi: yum yum yum.

No comments: