A LIFE OF PLANTS (PDF-1022)

There is no doubt I love flowers and green plants, just look at what I photograph. Here is

a flower I photographed last night. In some of the Buddhist texts this is known as the

Kamala flower, which is used (along with the Lotus flower) to adorn various deity

statues and drawings. This one is also called the Night-blooming Cereus in popular

speak, and it only blooms one night a year and can be about a foot long. There is no

other flower in the world that I am happier to see than this one. And aside from its

beauty, it has the single most beautiful fragrance I have ever known, so piercing that it

literally goes into your brain, deeply. It is like spiritual smelling salts, one whiff and you

are all tuned in. Well, this big sprawling plant lives in our bedroom and the single bloom

for this year bloomed all night. When the sun comes up this morning, it will be done,

hanging there like a tired sock.

While I am on flowers, I might as well tell you about the time that Margaret and I went

into the green plant business and ended up managing greenhouses in Florida with

19,000 Square feet of glass. Well, that happened. I will try to make this brief, but it will

stretch out a bit.