A sun-soaked stroll along the beach between Broadstairs and Ramsgate, picking up chalk pebbles and gnarled flints, ultimately leads us back to The Italianate Glasshouse in King George VI park. Through the delicate structure the solitary panicle of canary yellow blossom belonging to Agave americana still lurches defiantly into the sky. A thick blanket of white cloud now obscures the heavens. The first flowers, having opened just three weeks ago, are already turning brown and collapsing. The curious spectacle puts me in mind of Donald Trump’s wig stand.
Inside it’s a different story. The agave’s thick, plumptious leaves have started to sag downwards, flailing helplessly, pock-marked, yellowing and puckered near the central rosette. It’s as if something were sucking the very life out of the mighty plant. The death knell has sounded and the agave has begun its slow, ugly death.
Rain begins, coursing precisely down the armadillo form of the glasshouse, cascading from the apex of one pane to the top of the next in neat rivulets. It is as if the building were weeping for the plant which it has protected for the last 40 years.
Nearby a small offset no more than 2ft across languishes in a brightly glazed pot, witnessing its parent’s fate. A reminder of how the mighty fall and how life goes on.
The Italianate Glasshouse is open to the public from 9am to 5pm until September 30th 2015.
Categories: Beautiful Strangers, Foliage, Kentish Gardens, Parks, Plants
Thanks Frustrated Gardener for your sensitive observations. I have some large bromeliads that do the same. The flower spike can last for several months before their final demise. Emergence, glory, the swan song – then stage exit for the next generation…
Thanks Kim. I wasn’t sure if bromeliads were also monocarpic but I assume they produce lots of little offsets to succeed them? I’m all for going out in a blaze of glory! Dan
Wonderfully written . . . liked your inclusion of the armadillo imagery. And the Donald Trump quip made me chuckle. Crazy people with crazy hair . . . perhaps we could ship him off for long stay at the King George VI park.
Well, you know what they say about people in glass houses? Perhaps it might do him good, and he’d be quite a tourist attraction. We will need something to replace the agave.
Ha, ha!
The words and the photos create quite the story. 🙂 As for The Donald, well, you may be right. I like Jan’s idea for sending him over for a visit. Could he stay until late November 9, 2016? And could he bring a few friends?
I get the impression Mr T is none too popular over there? Here he’s known only for Ivana, his hair and his towers. I suspect there is more to him than that. Until I’ve done more research I’m not prepared to offer him a long term visa 😉
The tragedy is that he does have some interesting ideas but his ego has no filter when explaining them.
Oh poor agave…it’s quite sad to see it decaying like that…love the DT analogy…you are spot on…and armadillo shaped… again a perfect description!
Thank you! As a result of some comments I now know a whole lot more about DT than I did before. That’s why I love blogging: I’m always learning something new.