Saturday 14 June 2008

Petrea Season

Petrea is still one of my favourite flowers. There are three varieties available locally. The older, light lilac one, a new vibrant purple (the one below) and a white one. In Guatemala, petrea are everywhere. Because of the combination of the dip in temperature and the volcanic soil, both petrea and jacaranda really put on spectacular shows. It's been years since I visited Guatemala but I still think of it as a purple country. The petreas are just coming in. Blooming usually follows heavy rain after a protracted dry spell.
The ones in North Eastern Trinidad have come in before their Western counterparts- strange- but I am hoping that my own will soon follow suit.

I was able to shoot these lovely blooms at Wendy Lee Yuen's farm where we are finishing up our advanced landscaping course. I really like horticulture. Could I do it as a business? The jury is still out on that one. But chances are that I will continue to write about gardening and see where that takes me. Whichever way, it allows me the exquisite pleasure of coming face to face with natural beauty on a daily basis.