Cessation of Hostilities

The "Crazy Garden Lady" next door to one of the properties I maintain handed me this exquisite Passiflora blossom today. She has been looking for seeds or cuttings of Pua-Keni Keni, Fagraea berteriana and has been picking my brain for locations of known plants to pilfer parts from.














It is wonderful that she is speaking to me again after about three years of hostilties. I was caught up in the dispute between her and my client over his Royal Poinciana tree. She wanted it beheaded to get more sun in her garden and he loved it as a tree and was spending thousands of dollars to properly limb it up and shape the tree back to health from years of abuse. It was truly sad to see two avid gardeners, almost junkie like in their passions fighting with each other over a tree.

She told me the name of this Passion Flower is Crimson Beauty if I was listening right. It is a hybrid with four parents and was named as a memorial to 9-11. She mentioned that part of the flower looked like tears. A lazy internet search did not find her flower, but very likely one of its parents Crimson Tears.

I can not help myself as I work along the long stretch of newly defined property line and constantly peer into her garden to see what is growing in there. She was forced back to her side of the line from substantial encroachment during the dispute. The jungle knows no boundaries like that and keeps wanting to cross back over the line. I look for interesting and coveted plants that may just need to be excavated to keep the boundary clear.

With the end of hostilities though, the generous sharing that gardeners are known for is likely to produce better results than strict monitoring of the property line. Maybe there is a lesson for the world at large in here some where.

I just remembered where many more Pua-Keni Keni are.