This weekend, wandering with a good mate through the spectacular labyrinth of foliage-filled corridors that are the glasshouses of Cambridge University Botanic Garden, we got to talking about a perpetual hypothetical conundrum of mine. If either of us – as tropical plant nuts – were to have unlimited funds, would we prefer to have a vast glasshouse in which to live out our horticultural fantasies or would it just make sense to get a garden in the tropics?
As someone who’s been obsessed since childhood with the mysterious, storybook atmosphere that rainforest species are uniquely able to create, my answer to this one has always been a surprise, even to myself. Despite all the limitations of glasshouses, from dramatically restricting the number and size of plants you can grow, to the limiting scope of features you can create inside them, I think I’d still settle for a glasshouse. That’s because, for me, part of the magic of tropical plants is precisely their rarity and exotic nature.
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