Me-Now-Views; Less Speak More Peek

Last week hints were dropped. What then, was so special to get me driving over to Edinburgh again?

A flower.  Yup. No ordinary flower. The Amorphophallus Titanum; or the Titan Lily to you. The specialness comes by virtue of the fact that thing takes over a decade to flower for the first time... and then is jolly erratic, but never closer than 3 years between flowerings and sometimes 20 years.

The specimen at Edinburgh Botanics (this is me making use of my new 'friendship' card, ie free entry) was presented to the gardens some 13 years ago from the Amsterdam equivalent. This was the first flowering event and there was quite some excitement let me tell you. From me, it was because only a short few months back, the Melbourne one flowered. I wasn't there of course. Blogbuddy Stewart was though; (here's his post). By the time I and Mac2 and NeighbourM were going (the Monday) it was 3rd day of flowering - still quite good, but not at its best. This also meant that the stink for which the flower get's its common name (Corpse Flower) was pretty much gone.

A twenty minute bus ride from our side of town (South) to the other (North).


(Is this the place to say that Edinburgh bus routes and service are pretty darn close to being the best in the world? Not an idle boast. I've tried many of the world's public transport systems remember!)

The entry gates are nearly as impressive as those at Bowmore... but these ones are silver...

The trail was well marked -

This lady is the main keeper of the hothouse and was waxing lyrical with the story of 'the opening'. It made for great entertainment as we waited. Crowd control was at max, shifts of 15 at a time...

According to this, we might have expected to see a rather droopy item. Fortune was with us, however. Nature's architecture never fails to amaze, astound and to instil a sense of awe...

I couldn't stop thinking of radicchio... or triffids, for that matter. Are you impressed?

This wasn't all we did, of course. More next week.