One must have more plants......
I know the royal ginger; intense bloom. Can't remember the scent. I love Plumeria; scent, flower and form. I've only seen them in HI. But I don't get to So Cal anymore.
At the Hawaiian Garden I mentioned, I think on Oneoma Bay (a dreamy, pristine cove) north of Hilo, they had a "forest" of a ginger unlike anything we'd ever seen. The stem-trunks were up to about twelve feet high, and a brilliant cinnabar color. You could walk through the trunks on a pathway; like surrounding yourself with red lasers. Under the chartreuse leaves, in the ultra-comfortable air, it was exotic. Like a child's summer tent of a Bali fabric. Jello translucent; shiny, glistening tissues. Black lava stones. New, pointed, blood-coloured shoots.
Went back two years later; with my parents on a trip that turned out to be one in a lifetime. Walked looking especially for the ginger, and something had wiped it out. No big trauma though. My Mother and I were fascinated by the traveler palms ~ the ones that fan out like astral/Byzantine banana trees? She painted one in watercolor from a photograph when we returned. It's on the kitchen wall, part of a small triptych with a large-leaved emerald and coral tradescantia from the same garden. Which is neat, because she can't see anymore. I can tell it's going to be my most important memento of her. (Except myself, of course.) |
