Botany 1

Sunday past to Ventor Botanic Gardens. A bit cloudy and there was a lot of mist hanging on the hills above, but this made the light different, which was interesting, and less tiring which was good.

The dry beds were in very good form, with the big aloes above the hot house looking particularly well.

The giant water lilly in the hot house was present, but not on this occasion very giant. Perhaps the things have seasons and cycles - but see reference 2 for last year. Furthermore, the black fish, which I remember as being some inches long were now about an inch long. Perhaps they have seasons too. Round the back, an array of solar panels.

To the restaurant at the bottom of the lift - a lift which is almost a funicular railway but which was not, on this occasion, actually working - for lunch. Very good it was too. Amusement along the way from realising that the ever so chunky oak tables were actually some kind of a confection and any relationship with a farmhouse kitchen table - or even a refectory table - was very remote. There was also a barrel of beer on the bar, left over from a wedding. Sadly the clientele, mainly pensioners like ourselves, were not going to do it, but the young lady whom I asked assured me that it would go. But then, I suppose, she would.

On into the northern part of garden with plants from Australasia and with lots of hydrangeas doing very well in the shade of the exotic trees.

Quite a lot of arum lilies (which I had thought were called Aaron lilies). We wondered, given the large yellow pistils whether they were any relation of the anthuriums which often feature in the flower arrangements at the Wigmore Hall and described in wikipedia, I find this morning, as the largest genus of the arum family. Which looks promising, a further delving reveals that the arum lily is not a lily at all, rather a member of the large arum family. But it is a very large a very diverse family - including the duckweed which infests our ponds back home - and so the relationship while present, is not that close. Cookoo pint another member - see reference 4. Must arrange a visit to either Missouri or Munich, both places being homes to very large collections of said arums.

Back to the main border which was looking very well indeed. And once again we worked out how the echium pininana worked, how the huge but isolated flower heads came to be.

All in all an excellent place. Long live the Ventnor Botanic Gardens Friends' Society! Something of a throw back to the days of learned societies in the suburbs, but hopefully still thriving.

Stopped by Yaverland on the way home to take their last two rock cakes. Very good they were too, helped along by the very full-on seaside café ambience. Not to mention the wooden version of our loft ladder which they let down to get at the supplies of beach goods. Probably run by an extended family, rather than by immigrants.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/botanic-1.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/botanic-2.html.

Reference 3: http://www.botanic.co.uk/. They must have been quick of the mark to get this URL.

Reference 4: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/spring-is-coming.html.

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