In the grand manner
Denis Wood
As everyone knows, the Conspirators' Club between the Reform and the Travellers has a large, twenty-acre garden. Overlooking this and running the length of the building is the wide terrace ending in the old orangery which has now been efficiently heated and given a glass roof to provide top light so that many plants can be grown inside as permanent residents. Among these are climbers, particularly scented ones, stephanotis, Jasminum polyant hum, Hoya carnosa, sometimes called the wax plant from the appearance of its flowers, and the blue Plumbago capensis (the last-named is not scented).
Beside these, a number of plants in large tubs of the same pattern as the classical Versailles caisses in which all four sides are detachable so that the trees inside, originally orange trees, which may have been more than a hundred years old, can have fresh soil and fertilisers added directly around the roots. There are several daturas, the ones which I used to know as hnightii, but which now have to be known as D. cornigera; with protection from frost, these plants from Mexico grow very fast and make little trees 10 ft or more high in their tubs in the course of a few years. The large, white, funnelshaped flowers hang downwards and are very strongly, almost overpoweringly scented; they are susceptible to rough winds, and the plants have to be hustled back into the shelter of the orangery when these threaten.
There is a pair of pomegranate trees. Punica granatum, pro ducing bright scarlet flowers be tween June and September. Also in these large tubs are six agapan thus, the tender A. africanus,
known also us A. umbellatus, which has large, bright blue um
bels of flowers on tall stems and is much more effective than the hardy or semi-hardy agapanthuses which have to take their chance planted in the ground out of doors; and twelve enormous mop-headed bay trees, now 10 ft high, which although they would almost certainly have survived the mild winters of recent years out of doors, are for safety's sake, trundled back into the orangery between October and May. With the resources at its disposal, the Club is able to maintain in the celler a fork-lift truck which, when required, can be caused to emerge through a trap-door into the orangery and used to bring these very large potted plants out on to the terrace for special occasions in calm weather.
Inside the orangery is a number of pots of Humea elegans, a tender biennial plant reaching to 4 to 5 ft with coral-coloured flowers in drooping panicles, decorative but used for its strong and unusual spicy smell of incense. These are brought into the club rooms and stood in the fireplaces for decoration on certain occasions. There are smaller plants of considerable elegance, what are known as standard moon daisies, such as could be seen in the church of San Michele on the Cemetery Island of Venice. They are simply largeflowered marguerites, 4 to 5 ft high with wide heads, quite plain, even undistinguished, starry white flowers and yellow centres which, probably because of their simplicity, distil an extraordinary serenity. These are also brought into the club rooms from time to time for decoration on great occasions, so also are standard heliotropes which, after a few years, develop substantial rounded heads of familiar lilac-coloured flowers with their refreshing nutty scent.
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