• In the Garden

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Accidental Green Thumb Has Nice Surprise

posted by Terry OShaughnessy at 9h28

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Cobea scandens flowers are sometimes called 'cathedral bells.' (Photo by Terry O'Shaughnessy)

Gardening disasters come easily to me. Whether it’s a case of floral attention deficit disorder (FADD), or just occasional malaise--okay, maybe laziness too--I’ve grown used to killing things by accident.

Sometimes it’s something I’ve been cultivating for a long time too. But it just takes a slip of the shears, or an awkward pratfall just when I’m holding onto, say, the single foxglove bloom I’ve managed to coax from my garden after two long years of waiting, and presto. Another disaster. So when the opposite happens, and a wonderful surprise occurs (also known as a ‘reverse-disaster’ to those of the more pessimistic school of gardening), I need to talk about it.

This week, maybe the loveliest flower I've ever not killed appeared on a vine bought in the spring to surround my front window. It was a cobea scandens vine, and was up about 6 inches in the pot when I bought it at the garden centre. In the two months since, however, its healthy leaves and sticky climbing tendrils have surrounded the window frame at least once, and I’m training it to cross over the glass as well, making it green and lovely inside when I look out.

I acquired it strictly for the vine itself, never really thinking about the flowers it would produce. But what beauties the cobea scandens flowers are. Shaped like bells in a kind of white that deepens to purple, the blooms actually start off looking more like leaves until they get going. As for the mature flowers, they look exactly like the ones in those old fairy tale books I had long ago (well, to be honest, I still have them hidden away). They are my “mind’s eye” image of a flower perfect for fairies, and their unexpected unique beauty is more than payback for all those other garden disasters, I’m thinking.