Chocolate

Again, another post that is telling on how long ago I wrote this. For me, this is possibly the best thing that happens at Christmas. About fifteen years ago, I went to the Melbourne Flower and Garden Show. It’s been running annually since 1995 and I distinctly recall the first time I went because of a purchase I made that time. I’ve maybe only been once since because all the soil I own is in pots and I’m always feeling too poor to go. Paying an admission fee is one thing, but if you don’t have some spending money it’s just easier not to go.

So, a long time ago I went with a college friend, let’s call her Jane (it’s been a while since we used Jane, right?). We wandered around outside before venturing inside into the Melbourne Exhibition Building. It’s a beautiful landmark as it’s Heritage listed, it’s in Carlton, close to the city.

https://museumsvictoria.com.au/reb/ (Royal Exhibition Building)

As we wandered around we heard a voice calling out ‘Hot Chocolate’ over and over again. It was monotonous. We kept wondering around down stairs, before venturing upstairs. We kept hearing this chant, ‘Hot Chocolate’.

Seriously, when we found him, he stood at an exhibition stand with tall posters made of plastic fabric. We asked him what he was going on about. “Hot Chocolate”.

Their was a spectacular lily with a rich velvety colour and variegated leaves. The product came in a white plastic tub in the shape of a coffee mug. The packaging came with a bag of soil and another bag with a bulb in it. They were $50.00. We both walked away from that stand carrying one each. And he was still alive.

We were promised we would have flowers the first year. We should have killed him because that didn’t happen. After, I think two years I re-potted it into a bigger pot and some years later, I re-potted it again into an even larger pot.

That $50 really was an investment because I think it took about five years just to get foliage and about ten years to get flowers.

Even now, Christmas 2016 I got three flowers the first year I had flowers the requests started from family and friends alike for a part of the bulb when it multiplied.

They stopped asking…

At the start of Summer, the pot, a large plastic pot in the corner of my back yard, that I start to water religiously in Spring, starts to get little spikes in it.

I’ve found Jamima nestled on top of the pot and I’ve had to shoo her off.

The spikes become too tall here, leaves open and stretch upwards and around a week before Christmas comes the best reward.

Tell me if you think it was worth it?