NOW, botany,’ said my host, ‘I reckon it would be first-class cover. Good excuse for being in bad places. Get the act right and the locals would think you were just another barking gringo or gweilo obsessed with their stupid weeds.’ I was tempted to point out that several of his fellow professionals, far from acting, had been serious devotees of botany, but it seemed uncivil to cloud what my host plainly thought was his blue-sky thinking. We were at his club, after all, and he was paying for my pre- Christmas lunch. So I mentioned none of these men who’d taken advantage of their careers in diplomacy and espionage to travel in search of plants—not even the American whose great botanical coup was doing its best at that very moment to bring seasonal cheer to the drab dining room.
His name was Joel Roberts Poinsett and each of his foreign postings was an opportunity to explore a new flora and collect plants for his garden in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1825, at the age of 46, he was appointed the first US ambassador to Mexico. It was in the third winter of this five-year mission that he encountered a species that would make its breeders rich and his name immortal.
He’d gone to Taxco in the southern mountains to investigate the local silver mines that had raised this fine city to glory. There, he found a different treasure. It was a shrub with slender, sparsely branched stems to about 8ft tall. At their summits, golden bead-like florets were encircled by large leafy bracts of a texture more luxurious and a scarlet more vivid than he’d ever witnessed before in Nature.
Denne historien er fra December 11-18, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra December 11-18, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
