This particular plant is old. It was growing in the garden of a cottage that my partner and I moved into in 2005 and it was old then. For reasons I forget, it had to be moved and so I popped it into a pot and mistreated it terribly. Tucked away behind the garden shed for most of the year, I would grab it as soon as it flowered, whip off any unsightly yellowing leaves and put it center stage on a sill by the garden gate. When it had finished, I’d stuff it back behind the shed without so much as a thank you – after snapping off a couple of offsets and planting them up.
This winter though it has lived the life of Riley. Toasty and dry in the Priory greenhouse, watered carefully (so as not to splosh water all over the leaves – they hate that) it and all it’s offspring look in fine fettle and are producing lots of bud.Perhaps next year I’ll make a small auricula theatre at the Priory so that I can share their beauty with others and it isn’t confined to my glass lair (STAFF ONLY).
