Nigel Colborn describes himself as "passionate but bungling" though there's absolutely nothing bungling about his blogging. His latest post, about crocuses, is enough to reanimate my interest in a bulb that I normally happily tread into the wet spring grass. (I know, it's bad.)
There's something about reading about how a bulb grows in the wild that makes all the difference to me; but also his photos are lovely. He also reveals we are about to be treated to his writing in print on a weekly basis which news actually cheered up my morning. Head over if you haven't already.
In tribute to him and as a cheer-up I'm posting the most garish thing I saw in Wisley alpine house on this day 2008. A member of the distinguished Hyacinthaceae, it's called Lachenalia aloides (ahh, it does remind me of my lovely aloes now you come to mention it) var "Pearsonii". I will be having a little fantasy that Dan discovered it now. They are, predictably, Cape locals; the one I need to track down for full hallucinogenic effect is aloides "Quadricolor" - as Tom Hart-Dyke would probably say: "yikes".
7 comments:
We all love Nige. Maybe you should put his picture in your sidebar then you would have The Good, The Bald and The Oldie.
I saw a display of Lachenalia at the Wisley glasshouse recently.
I'm all in favour of bright clashing colours but these were bilious. Perhaps the mistake was in grouping them together. They made an ordinary Hyacinth look quite demure in comparison.
Bilious is a funny word for flowers isn't it? It made me laugh.
good the bad and the oldie is very rude
Very funny though
always very funny
The colours remind me of a little wild plant called 'Eggs and Bacon'. It is ground hugging and grows in patches and I love it - but I don't think I would like it so much if it grew tall.
Esther
amazing how scale really matters with plants - i hadn't thought of it before, but Esther you are right...
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