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A Nursery in Portugal

I have just returned from a local Nursery/Garden Centre here in the Algarve
in Portugal.  It is the exact opposite of the well organised, well laid
out, well labelled and expensive nurseries that most medit gardeners are
used to.  Most of the stock has been around for many years and outgrown
their pots and become a jungle.  As nothing was labelled it was a good test
to spot the interesting plants lurking in the undergrowth.  In a thicket of
Cassia didymobotrya which were 2-3 meters high I spotted a shrub with
orange-scarlet flowers 3-4 inches wide, could it be Tithonia speciosa?

Clambering over broken pots, dead plants and rubbish (Hygiene who said
anything about hygiene?) I saw a Chorisia speciosa that was once in a pot
but had fallen over many years ago and grown up again, now some 4 meters
high. Others in very large pots were well and truly rooted into the ground.
Pushing through the head high Malvaviscus arboreus which still have their
bright red or white flowers on them I saw a large Acacia karroo with its
long needle like thorns which had turned into a respectable sized tree.
Some of the Sparrmannia africana were being lent on by a row of Populus
alba.  Unfortunately I do not have enough shade in my garden to grow the
fine specimens of Begonia fuchsoides that were on offer.

In the end I bought two large Pittosporum tobira, two medium sized Cassia
didymobotrya, a Eucalyptus torquata that was in full flower, a Montanoa
bipinnatifida, Daisy tree that I had to break the top off to get it in the
car, and I had to have the 'Tithonia speciosa'. Seven plants that only just
fitted into our estate car for 3100 escudos (say GBP10.50 or $17 at the
present exchange rate).  How do they make a living?  3 times this price
would still have been reasonable.
----  Graham Payne  ----  dpsgkp@mail.telepac.pt  ----
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