A Bounty of Basilicum—cont
In a woodland setting there are no better plants for early season impact than the large-leaf rhododendron. The big drawback is their slowness in reaching the age of puberty. One can rationalize about this characteristic by reminding oneself that one must treat rhododendrons as foliage plants; as a bonus they occasionally have flowers. Now that there are one or two that indulge themselves (and me) in an annual floral extravaganza, I consider the twenty or thirty or more years waiting to see a bloom time to be well spent; yet there can be no denying the obvious truth that, in modern times, when the average person will not buy a green banana, the large-leaf rhododendrons are merely botanical curiosities.
Some authorities claim that a flower lasts for as long as it takes to get the job done, i.e. to effect pollination. I am not expert enough to be able to say if basilicum is one of the plants that does not ever self-pollinate. There are other rhododendrons blooming close enough to basilicum that would probably have compatible pollen. So this year I will leave the spent flowers on the plant and determine if any seed have formed. I then plan to sow these seed. I may have time to find out if the seed will germinate but….
We are now at the end of the last weeks of April and the first flowers are adorning the driveway. I will not remove them. I will indulge the garbage collector and let him press them with his heavily laden tires. Plants give pleasure in so many ways. Basilicum deserves a few bravos and olés. “Large was his bounty and his soul sincere.”
Postscript: Not fifteen minutes after I typed the word ‘sincere’ above, the garbage truck was here and deftly put a gouge in my wife’s car. I must exonerate the driver. This was his first time here (not the usual driver) and he came in the wrong way. He had not seen basilicum at that point. He was still able to crush the flowers on the way out.
Editor’s Note: I bought a beautiful young
Basilicum plant at the RSF on the Bus Trip
last spring. The adventure begins….
