When I see flowers as exotic as this one on my walk, unless there’s a hundred of them in the same place, I think that only recently they came from a nursery. They come in six-packs with plastic tags showing the flowers to expect. Once they flower, it’s not certain if they’ll be there next year. The flower, after all, isn’t everything. The plant itself has to fit the garden. The plastic tags seldom tell you what the plant itself will be. A container garden, one consisting of plants in pots, can afford to try almost thing out, watch it grow, and then find a replacement if necessary. But the rules for a garden in the ground are somewhat different. You want the space to grow and be beautiful between flowerings. So the flower is the cherry on the ice cream sundae, as it were, to stick to the exotic theme. But the ice cream itself is still the treat. Many of us set the cherry aside and accept it as mere decoration. Flowers are difficult to put aside, but an ugly plant is much easier to dig up and replace than a beautiful one. Beautiful plants call for other measures. As you can see, this concept isn’t exactly clear. It consists mostly of gray areas interrupted by beautiful, exotic flowers. But all this passed before my mind as I stood and considered this flower that will probably not be there next year. I suspect the gardener will find something more predictable, dependable, easier. Though, for the moment, isn’t it absolutely beautiful?