First Love

The last time something left me wanting to know more of it was when i had spotted it. A flower/plant i had never come across. Not even in any of the many readings i do what to talk of my conversations with people about exotic plants and trees.
https://shivanidiwani64.blogspot.com/2014/04/glory-be-to-this-pea.html
As if this knowledge was not enough i lapped up the local story behind the flower and had out poured my excitement in the following post.
https://shivanidiwani64.blogspot.com/2014/04/flower-of-blood.html
i really love stories related to plants and trees. Ever since i was maybe a teenager and Papa had gifted me that book written or rather co-written by Maneka Gandhi and Yasmin Singh. ' Brahma's Hair'.
Tree tales fascinate me. Something which perhaps was sowed long before i could even read and Ma used to tell the bedtime story of the king and his three queens. The youngest of whom the king was so fond of and who gave him twins...
Believing or disbelieving is another thing because sometimes i'm also a logical person having my own share of skepticism about tales/ stories. But let's just say the tales feed me enough. Like stories that feeds a child's curious hunger to lap up something fantastic, mystical and magical.
i wish all trees had a tale associated with it. And this i believe that they do. Someone should be there to tell.
Only thing i have not yet found the story about this one which again is a native of the land "Down Under".

This time again i have something before me of which there is an intense desire to know more.

Risking chances of infection donning a face mask and carrying a pocket sized sanitizer bottle just a day before the first phase of lock-down i had visited a local plant nursery far away from where i reside looking for an Ixora plant and saplings of other summer seasonal flowers. Not that Ixora is my favorite plant but because i also love to see the visitors that frequent the bright blooms of Ixora. The birds, bees, insects and definitely the butterflies.
Now i don't claim that i am an avid gardener but i would say i enjoy the act of planting. Then whatever follows quenches my thirst for more. Slowly things are revealed .
As it takes root, i notice the crispness, feel encouraged to see it acclimatize to my garden soil and surroundings and finally feel rather blessed when the plant stabilizing itself starts springing forth new leaves. i feel like it has acknowledged my intent which is a major catalyst to perseverance. Then on i am in a la la land of my own quite content with whatever is revealed to me through observation and practice .
Some people are avid gardeners, some love to add beauty to their homes by including plants, some are more of collectors and yet some love to garden simply for the fact that the flowers will attract butterflies, birds and bees to their garden. But i find the act of planting, nurturing and even preserving very compelling. It fulfills me and keeps me satisfied even though i fail in getting a grasp of what went wrong.  All i can say is what happens during and after is a bonus that i derive. Love for planting takes one to very interesting places. Hence the pleasure/ advantages derived cannot be summed up in one sentence or two but i can say that i am all of what i just listed and yet none at all. Definitely the process helps me forget all kinds of pain, suffering and hopelessness and in a way connects me with the 'Unknown' whom we often have referred to as The Divine. Many a times it actually restores my faith.
Sometimes when i close my eyes to pray or just sit in silence with my eyes closed, i see images of life i had seen earlier on the terrace. The light of bliss/calm eludes me and there in my mind's eye i see Gardenia/ smell the fragrance or any other bloom or that caterpillar i saw, insect that happily nibbled the leaf into a green lace, bird that flitted across looking for this or that and the colors on wings i saw flashing in reckless pursuit.

This time a plant was handed over to me but again with the wrong identity. The seller told me it was Chinese Ixora. Since it was a small plant (in the black poly bag plant) with just a couple of branches of healthy looking green leaves i came back and re potted the plant carefully into my earthen pots.
Last week i was delighted to see the cluster of buds appearing and this week i was more than just surprised to see the blooms. The gasp after watching the blooms indeed escaped but not without few exclamations.
" Oh My!.Who are you... !!"
It is not that easy to get the name of certain plants on the world wide web if you have never studied Botany but because i did in my high school and still remember a few terms like racemes, elliptical i could get not only the ID of the flower and the evergreen tree but a lot more on the internet including the fact that it is Australian as i have mentioned before and that it is a hard wood tree. The wood used by the indigenous population to make spears and shields.
Sometimes just knowing the name gives a lot of insight. Other times it leaves you in the lurch.
The common name is Golden Penda and now in India they call it First Love. Probably the plant is an import from Thailand where it is called rak raek pob (love at first sight). i can very well understand why the name First love or rak raek pob and why Golden but Penda still draws a blank.
Scientifically Xanthostemon chrysanthos is Greek meaning Golden flower.
Last time i was quite annoyed by the gardener but this time i am rather pleased with mistaken ably finding my First Love. Some great surprises really spring from having it all wrong in the beginning. This was an epiphany one of the many i keep having every now and then. 
i hope some day i will also come upon a great story associated with First Love but right now it suffices to know that apart from butterflies and bees a strange insect i know not of called Spitfires by Aussies breed on this tree. Otherwise called Sawflies the larvae of which when aroused eject or spit a yellow fluid from their rears. This could be nasty as if it gets into the eye it could sting bad.

My observation of many endemic flowers that now don the gardens in India is that they certainly have something missing. So is the case with First Love. Back in their native place they are supposed to be sweetly fragrant with glossy leaves. It could be due to many reasons. Could be the soil, climate, the air...
However i am happy to have yet another from as the band Men at Work sang in their song, "...a land down under, where women glow ..."

i also hope to update this blog if and when i find out why or what is 'Penda'.  

i don't know if it happens with other people too. There actually is not much to tell but yet when i sit to tell it does stretch. Will have to confess that many times it is just like that for me. But of course i'm not a writer and can't be artistic about this special characteristic of mine. i have also come to accept that it can't be done any other way but this however boring or long it may seem to anyone.