The common clone now grown in the Lampongs in southern Sumatra is ‘Belantung’ with large leaves and small fhiits; it shows some field resistance to foot rot; it is said to have taken over from `Djambi’ as the latter was very susceptible to foot rot in the Lampongs around 1930.

The flowers have no perianth and 2 -4 minute stamens are borne on each side of the ovary in hermaphrodite flowers and are 1 mm long with small anthers with two sacs. The ovary is globose, one-celled, oneovuled, surmounted by 3-5 rather fleshy stigmas, covered with papillae, white when receptive, later turning brown.

The fruit is a globose drupe, 4-6 mm in diameter, with a pulpy pericarp, borne in spikes 5-15 cm long. Each spike may produce 50-60 single-seeded fruits. The unripe fruit is green with the exocarp turning red when ripe, and drying black. The seed is 3-4 mm in diameter with a minute embryo, little endosperm and copious perisperm. The weight of 100 peppercorns varies from 3 to 8 g and is usually about 4.5 g.

According to Rosengarten (1969), custom records show that cloves were imported into Alexandria by A.D. 176. The Emperor Constantine is said to have presented St Silvester, Bishop of Rome, A.D. 314-35, with numerous vessels of gold and silver, incense, and spices, including 150 pounds of cloves. By the fourth century cloves were well known round the Mediterranean and by the eighth century throughout Europe.

The spice appears to have reached China in the third century B.C. and Alexandria in the second century A.D. Cloves were spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and were very expensive. The spice, whole or ground, has a number of culinary uses. Clove oils are obtained by distillation of the spice, dried peduncles or leaves; small amounts are used in medicine, dentistry and microscopy.

The orders were particularly cruel, as it was the custom in the Moluccas for the indigenous people to plant a clove tree for the birth of each child, which helped to keep a record of the child’s age; if the tree was subsequently destroyed it portended doom for the child. The Dutch aimed to create an artificial scarcity and maintained prices by destroying surplus cloves which came onto the market. They made Batavia (Djakarta) the entrepot for cloves. Rutnphius (1626-1702) gives a very accurate account of the clove tree and method of production in his Herbarium Amboinense.

The seedling produces a pronounced tap root which remains relatively short and is fairly quickly replaced by two or three primary sinkers which develop from it. During the first year, a mass of fibrous roots spread out from the tap root to a depth of about 25 cm and a radius of 36-50 cm.

The inflorescence is a terminal, corymbose, trichotomous panicle, shortly pedunculate and branched from the base, shorter than the leaves, and very variable in the number of flowers, from 3 flowers on a simple three-forked peduncle to as many as 50 or more when conditions have favoured the triple subdivisions of the peduncle. The angled peduncles and shorter pedicels, about 5 mm long, constitute the clove stems of commerce. The bracts and bracteoles are narrow, acute, 2-3 mm long, and quickly falling. The flower is hermaphrodite with a fleshy hypanthium which is surmounted by the sepals.

Orchids are shade-loving plants, and while they are growing they need the equivalent of the dappled sunlight they would receive growing in the tree canopy of their natural home. Too much light during the summer will harm the plants by turning the foliage a light green-yellow.

In more severe cases, direct sun will burn the leaves, causing black areas where the sun’s rays have destroyed the leaf cells.

Insufficient light, on the other hand, will create dark green leaves that can become over-extended and limp. The aim should be to give your orchids just enough light to produce a good mid-green, healthy foliage and pseudo bulbs that will develop flower spikes at the right time.

After flowering and before the new growth starts, Calanthe pseudobulbs can be taken out of their pot and left to dry until the new growth is seen.

Thunias are among the very few orchids that produce an autumn display when their leaves change colour before being shed. The leafless canes remain dormant for the winter.

Olearia nummularifolia always looks more like a hebe than an olearia to me, but botanists understand these things better than I do. Its rather stiffly erect branches, with their copper- green leaves, make a pleasant contrast in the borders to thalictrum or senecio.

The hybrid Profusion, purple-green in leaf with deep red blossoms, makes an ideal hedge and a perfect background to golden conifers. M. x purpurea, again with purplish-green leaves, is the most widely acclaimed of all the crabs and rightly so. Its deep rosy-crimson flowers are borne with a generosity that verges on profligacy, a virtue which makes this a singularly attractive tree. up to 25 ft. tall.

Of the crabs notable for fruit rather than flowers, none I have seen rival John Downie. Fruits are conical, large, yellow striped with carnival red and excellent for making the golden jelly so apt a marriage with a fresh-baked scone.

Mahonia lomariifolia is a very imposing species but it is only sufficiently hardy in milder districts. The deep yellow flowers are borne during winter on long racemes. The flowering crabs may not make the immediate appeal of the flowering cherry, but their acceptance of a wider range of soils maintains the balance between the two genera in the public opinion poll.

Tree Peonies are not usually considered easy plants, but I have nothing but the highest regard for the species. The young breaking leaves are delightfully tinted pink, yellow or bronze, while the flowers though small compared with the hybrids make up for lack of size by the quantity in which they are displayed.

Once specimens are established, self-sown seedlings abound in the borders around them. Grow them with the old-fashioned roses, and enjoy the old world atmosphere they bring together with the rather herby fragrance. Paeonia delavayi makes a 6-ft. high bush on wet heavy clay. The deep crimson, yellowanthered flowers, rich with the odour of cinnamon, open from June until early August, and are followed by black-seeded fruits.

Belle Etoile, with chalice-like flowers blotched purple at the base upholds the family tradition for fragrance, but reaches 8 ft. high by 6 ft. across. Enchantment, with double white flowers at 7 ft. or the Manteau d’ Hermine, dwarf and bushy at 4 ft. are both reliable. P. x purpureomaculatus is a gem, the white flowers with purple centres and sweet ,scent open earlier than any other. Sybille has a- perfume unlike the varieties mentioned, almost like that of verbena. The flowers are also stained purple. Some growers give Virginal a poor rating, but to me it is the best double-flowered variety for scent and all-round quality.

Providing a framework for the growth of the kangaroo vine to cling to also sets off the pleasant green leaves of this Australian native to best advantage.

Although a note can he taken of particular plants which are suited to particular situations, given reasonable conditions the majority of plants, other than known tender ones, will do well. This is borne out if one visits the home of the she, will have plants in ever room in the house, from the loo to the larder.

My job takes me to many such flower shows, and requires me to answer a vast number of letters on the subject of indoor plants. Some letters are amusing, others quite sad; some concern premature loss of leaves while others are from perplexed householders who have room ceilings too low for rampant monstera plants.

The entrance hall is often the most suitable place for an effective grouping of plants, or for the more mature individual plant. It is the first place that the visitor steps into and there is much to be said for the warm welcome that a cheerful entrance hall can provide. Conditions are often cooler here, though, so one must choose plants carefully to ensure that they are not too delicate and will tolerate the lower temperatures that are likely to prevail.

Having an artistic bent also helps when plants are being purchased. It often saddens me to see a purchaser select the least attractive plant from a batch on display simply -because they are unable to appreciate fully the merits of respective plants. And one cannot stress too often the importance of purchasing good quality plants at the outset; the inferior plant cannot possibly he expected to do so well when introduced to indoor conditions.

The smaller plant is the creeping fig, F. pumila which, as the common name suggests, creeps along the ground and is ideal for finishing off displays and arrangements. Really, the figs do play a most important part in our work and it is difficult to omit the tough almost to the point of being indestructible, but also because she is very useful for providing a display with a change of leaf form. Also, the greenish-yellow colouring is complementary to many of the other plants in the house plant range.

Therefore, it can be assumed that unless one is an expert with veritably ideal conditions, almost every collection of indoor plants will contain at least a few inferior ones. In order to set these off to better advantage the possibility of grouping plants together in trays or troughs may well be considered.

Potentillas are absolutely indispensable shrubs. Amongst their virtues is the ability to grow practically anywhere in any soil except dense shade or a weeping bog. I cherish the dozen or so specimens and varieties which grow here, and enjoy the flowers which open in succession from May until September. They look a little untidy after leaf fall, but this can be forgiven in a shrub so thoroughly worthwhile.

Katherine Dykes, tall at 5 ft., opens primrose-yellow flowers throughout the summer. Klondyke, a dwarf at 18 in., has sparkling golden-yellow flowers. My own favourite, Longacre, makes a neat bush 18 in. high, and has cascades of good quality yellow blossoms. Primrose Beauty has more shape than most, with grey leaves and cream flowers. Tangerine has flowers of a delicate copper orange when grown on a lime soil in light shade and is well worth a corner.

Given an acid woodland type soil they make densely foliaged evergreen shrubs which deck themselves with racemes of lily-of-the-valley flowers in early spring. In some species the flowers are insignificant compared to the brilliant colouring of the young growth. The young growths open scarlet, change to pink, then pale cream before eventually acquiring the more sombre green.

Unlike the majority of gardeners I secretly prefer the species to the heavy-flowered hybrids which lack the beauty of shape or leaf to be worthy of a second look when not in flower. This may be because the species accept my acid soil with considerably better grace than the less agreeable hybrids. A neutral or alkaline soil is the ideal medium, but they do grow in well- drained acid clay. I feed each with a mixture of 3 parts bonemeal to part of sulphate of potash, at 3 oz. per sq. yd. in February.

Paul Thirion, the last to flower with trusses of rose blossom fading to lilac, is like so many inhabitants of this globe, admirable when young but with a distinct tendency towards decrepitude with advancing years.

Syringa x persica, the Persian Lilac, is a charming slender-branched shrub with lilac flowers in May. Its variety, alba, is similar except for the white flowers.

In S. x prestoniae can be found a race of hybrids quite unlike any of the others. They are vigorous and tolerant of a vast degree of exposure and soil types. The flowers are carried in large loose panicles. Audrey, deep lilac to pale pink, has made a bush 10 ft. high in 16 years in my garden and improves each year. Royalty has violet-blue flowers and is much the same height.