Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Something blossomed

The other day while walking downtown, I spotted an ornamental asparagus in a street-side flowerpot. It was flowering. What made me stop was that I used to have one of the exact same plants, in another life. I bought it in London, at what is in local lingo called a boot sale – basically like a flea market. It must be sixteen years ago. The plant moved with us to Wales. It grew big and really quite handsome on the windowsill of my children's birth home. I remember changing it into a bigger pot; it had this peculiar cluster of almost tuberous roots, like little fists that seemed to clutch onto the pot it was in. It had long, feathery shoots of a fresh, young green colour. Before they opened, the young shoots resembled the edible asparagus but were much, much thinner. For some reason, I didn't want to keep it, though, I can't remember why. I planted it in the garden before a move four years later. Even in the Welsh conditions, it seemed to do really well outdoors, too, growing even bigger and bushier. But I had never known it would flower in the right conditions, until now. The blossom is a spray of tiny bells, akin maybe to lily-of-the-valley but smaller, much smaller. Looking at the flowering plant in a public flowerbed in a small Hawai'ian town I found myself wishing that I and my ex-husband would still be talking. Not married, no no. No. But fancy if we could be friendly enough for me to say to him, guess what, remember that big unwieldy frilly asparagus we had that I planted outdoors Penrhiw Uchaf in Llechryd, it actually blossoms here in the tropics.

Maybe my asparagus still grows in the first garden my children played in. Maybe it blossoms in a hot summer.

© 2006 Anna MR

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