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    Gods and Green Fingers
    Gods and Green Fingers
    Gods and Green Fingers
    Ebook155 pages1 hour

    Gods and Green Fingers

    By Linda Talbot

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    In Gods and Green Fingers discover how myths emerged from a profusion of simple plants and how we can cultivate these plants today. This anthology for plant lovers combines fact with fiction. Insights into plants, from familiar flowers to trees, climbers and curiosities - are interspersed with short stories of perturbing perspective. What happens to someone, for instance, trapped in a maze? What is the power of a peacock's feather in a garden where wishes are granted, on condition the feather is returned? And are there really fairies in the flower border?
    The mythology of plants is particularly powerful. Heracles, for instance inspired one about the hellebore, when he deceived his wife Deianeira, who took malicious revenge on him. The sacred oak of Dodona still seems to house the spirit of Zeus and even the humble crocus appears; mysterious yet persistent in Minoan art.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLinda Talbot
    Release dateJan 22, 2014
    ISBN9781311000767
    Gods and Green Fingers
    Author

    Linda Talbot

    Linda Talbot has written fantasy for children and adults and for many years reviewed art, theatre and books in London. She now lives in Crete. She published "Fantasy Book of Food"; rhymes, stories and recipes for children and "Five Rides by a River" - about Suffolk, seen from a bicycle! She contributed a chapter to a book about Conroy Maddox, the British surrealist and features on art to "Topos" the German landscape magazine. She published short stories with the British Fantasy Society as well as stories and poetry in other magazines. And she launched "Wordweavers", an online supplement of poetry and fiction, published in conjunction with The Cretan International Community.

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      Book preview

      Gods and Green Fingers - Linda Talbot

      GODS AND GREEN FINGERS

      An Anthology for Plant Lovers

      by Linda Talbot

      Illustrations and photographs by Linda Talbot

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright Linda Talbot 2014

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes.

      Thank you for downloading this ebook. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This work may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      If you enjoyed this book, please return to smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. A review would be much appreciated. Thank you for your support.

      Contact blog: http://lindajtalbot.wordpress.com, where you will find a list and summary of all the works by this author, together with extracts. You are also very welcome to subscribe or add a comment.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      wild iris

      [short story] - The Maze

      hellebore

      [short story] - The Peacock's Eye

      poppies on Crete

      [short story] - The Intruder

      heliotrope

      crocus

      myrtle

      hyacinth

      lotus

      anemone

      [short story] - The Windflower

      narcissus

      lily

      [short story] - White Lilies

      exotic eccentrics

      More Bizarre Beauties

      cockscomb

      Curiosities to Cultivate – Succulents

      Climbers

      morning glory

      [short story] - The Hanging Gardens of Nalybob

      Trees

      [short story] - Olive

      Gardens of Quartz and Gold

      The Quartz Garden

      The Golden Garden

      The Rock Garden

      The Basalt Garden

      The Conglomerate Garden

      A Palette of Plants

      Rose Window in Chartres

      Author’s thanks, contact blog and short note

      Introduction

      I have long loved growing plants, from Californian poppies that recklessly colonised a border in an East London garden to Oriental lilies nurtured for their fragrant transience in pots.

      I discovered that often plants one expected to proliferate, did not appear, while others considered difficult, flourished. I began to write about plants for a local paper after moving to Crete, where I have also enjoyed growing Mediterranean species that would have died in northern Europe.

      In Greece, the gods look over one’s shoulder. They have close associations with the plants grown in gardens and which flourish in the wild.

      Headstrong gods, mere mortals, the brief beauty of flowers; this heady combination has defied time and is still a riveting read.

      Women turned, with immortal help, into foliage and flowers. Young men were accidentally slain and blooms, now commonplace, sprang from their blood. And in ritual and finely wrought artefacts, flowers were revered for reasons we may never fully understand. In this book I recall the myths these plants inspired with hints on how to grow them in your garden. As they unfold you may recall the fantasy they fostered when man had closer links with the natural world. So I have selected plants, from the commonplace to the curious, pursued their mythical past and given tips on how to help them flourish.

      And I suggest how to plan a garden that reflects a painter’s palette and another based on minerals and rocks.

      And I include short stories inspired by plants and gardens.

      A garden is a lovesome thing…. some poet said. But a garden may be rife with surprises, not to mention danger…plants may heal, poison and fire the imagination and will probably be around when we are long gone. So don’t take your garden for granted!

      BACK TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

      The awkward flay-leafed flag flower or the iris…… So ran the first line of a poem I once wrote while watching irises prance in the wind by the pond in our Suffolk garden. Even then I was drawn to their fluttering fragility.

      Iris was the messenger of the gods and the flower was named after her. She led the souls of the dead along a rainbow whose colours reflected her iridescence. Iris ran fast, when she was not soaring on golden wings. Zeus took advantage of her alacrity.

      When the gods on Olympus quarrelled or lied, he sent Iris to fetch water from the dark River Styx in a golden goblet. If a god told a lie by this water he was struck unconscious for a year. And after that he suffered more mysterious and no doubt pernicious punishment. For ten years he could not serve on godly councils or even join in celebrations with their amiably erring traits of humanity.

      And Iris was sent to fetch Demeter who had turned the flourishing earth to dust as she mourned for her daughter Persephone, abducted by Hades and hidden in the Underworld. Iris went to Eleusis and found black-clad Demeter in the temple. But she refused to leave. So even the persuasive powers of a gods’ messenger were not guaranteed.

      Iris florentina - large, white-flowered and sweet smelling, inspired the Fleur-de-lis, the French heraldic symbol and is found on rocks in the Mediterranean, while the Yellow Iris (iris pseudocorus) thrives in swampy earth in the Greek mountains.

      There are at least five kinds you can grow in your garden. Their needs are surprisingly diverse and those that do not need watering, ideal for a dry climate. Most irises emerge from rhizomes - long, horizontal underground stems with a bud at one end.

      Iris japonica - the Crested or Orchid Iris - originally from China and Japan, is one of the loveliest; pale lavender with gold markings, its petals are gently frayed. Plant it in a light but not too sunny place in moist and well-aerated soil, rich in organic material. Water well and remove dry leaves and floral stems in autumn. You can then divide the rhizomes but do not plant them too deeply.

      The iris germanica or German Iris, often known as bearded because of yellow hairs along central veins, is one of the most versatile. This herbaceous perennial has a large creeping, branched rhizome; an aerial shoot that is foliar and floral at the end of each branch.

      This is a cultivated hybrid and probably originated in the eastern Mediterranean. It likes sun and will grow in any soil so long as it is not waterlogged. There is usually no need to water. If it looks poorly, a little bonemeal should suffice.

      Colours range from white and mauve to a deep yellow with frilly leaves, another has a yellow flower with the striking contrast of reddish lower petals.

      Iris lutescens from south western Europe, has deep purple to sky blue flowers with yellowish marks inside and should be treated like the German iris. The Algerian iris (iris unguicularis), from the Mediterranean region of Africa, is particularly beautiful with lilac petals and handsome, feather-like markings. This plant is happy in sun or shade, needs no watering and likes to be left alone. The Spanish iris (iris xiphium) is another good looker with lilac petals streaked at the base with yellow. It loves sun, plenty of manure dug in the ground before planting and ample water. This plant has bulblets, but it is best to buy fresh bulbs.

      BACK TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Seen from above, the solution of the maze seems simple. High laurel hedges are clipped to reveal narrow dust paths, dead ends and a clear cut way to reach the empty grass circle in the centre. But that is from above.

      Who devised this dubious means of fun, providing diversion in so many great gardens? For, once inside, the hedges soar and enclose, creating chronic claustrophobia and a disorientating sense of being severed from reality.

      The maze lies in the grounds of an anciently mellow house owned by a wealthy eccentric who has mischievously enlarged the original maze, so one of his four gardeners is constantly extricating lost visitors.

      In the empty central circle had stood an elegantly poised statue of Adonis. But some louts had covered his classic body with graffiti and he had been removed for cleaning. Sadly, the inferior material from which he was made, used to cut the cost of the commission, had crumbled and he had been whisked away with the following week’s rubbish.

      The eccentric owner had strode restlessly through the maze and, addled by its madness, had proclaimed, A young man resembling Adonis will enter the maze, be enchanted and transformed into that epitome of proportion and grace! The gardeners, who were constantly searching for their master in the maze, smiled sadly and shook their heads.

      Come on - it’ll be fun! Bryan urges Penny, his diffident partner. She views the opening in the ominous hedge, admitting the unwary.

      It isn’t far to the middle - I’ll beat you to it! And Bryan has gone - a shiver of white dust rising in his

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