My Life in Plants
The first plant I ever grew The first plant I grew, when I was 15 years old, was Paphiopedilum insigne, a slipper orchid from the Himalayas. It was weird, bizarre, ugly and fascinating and it got me hooked.
The plant that shaped the gardener I am today That would be Ophrys insectifera, the fly orchid. I was too shortsighted to play cricket aged nine, so I went plant hunting instead!
My favourite plant in the world I love Lycaste aromatica, a fragrant, free-flowering orchid from Mexico. It was fed with cold tea leaves by my mother when I first grew it 50 years ago.
The plant that made me work hardest Cannabis sativa – skunk, weed, marijuana, pot or whatever you prefer to call it! Half of the admissions of men under 25 to my psychiatric unit in south London were due to cannabisinduced psychoses, although occasionally I’d be beaten up by someone high on khat – Catha edulis.
The plant I’d like to grow more of Species of nicotiana. This year is the 500th anniversary of the arrival of tobacco seed from Mexico to Spain, a more lethal introduction than gunpowder from China. I find it astonishing that Nicotiana tabacum was smoked for 350 years before it was pointed out it caused lung and other cancers.
The plant I am in human form I’ve never felt I was a plant and so don’t have such an avatar. I don’t talk to them either!
The plant that helped shape my life My dark green-flowered Ida locusta gained an RHS Award of Merit on the Orchid Society of Great Britain stand at Chelsea in 1978 and it set me on a path from orchids to medicinal plants – an absorbing hobby.
The plant I’d always give as a gift I like giving a phalaenopsis hybrid from a garden centre as they stay in flower for months, and if it’s a special occasion, I put three together in a pot for dramatic effect. In my retirement from orchids I plan to grow one with more than 200 flowers just to show it can be done – the Japanese do it, so I may need to work as hard as they do in achieving horticultural perfection!