russell page--bedside gardening

"pink and yellow water lillies, thalia dealbata with its lance-like leaves and spiky mauve flowerheads, cyperus and--the glory of any pool--the pink lotus nelumbium nelumbo. i know of no plant that gives me more pleasure than the lotus, with its circular glaucous green leaves so often with a dewdrop caught where stem and leaf meet, with the architectural splendour of its pointed soft pink petals and with the strange beauty of the seed pods, like cones with flattened tops pierced with about eighteen holes, each enclosing a hard round seed. at first, while the whole seed head is still green and moist, each seed is held firmly in a little socket which becomes looser as the head dries and the seeds eventually fall out."


russell page, the education of a gardener.