This morning my wife returned from a visit to a plant nursery on the edge of the village where she had been collecting a few plants for a project that we are involved with in the village. She presented me with a large bloom that still held its scent despite looking a little past its best. (See photo). It was she said taken, with permission, from a tree in the nursery, a Gardenia thunbergia one of several that he had, some quite large. This I had to see as they are endemic to an area of southern Africa and rarely seen for sale, here in Cyprus at least. Sure enough the ones on display were tall, some with flowers and even ones with the distinctive large seed pods. When I say tall, I'm around 1.90 m and they were well over my head. Luckily he had a selection of smaller ones as I was afraid to even ask the price of the big ones. So we acquired one that I hope is around the height that they are said to begin blooming (1.5 m) or will soon reach it.
