Also known as
Spathi = spathe; phyllum = leaf: spathe-like leaf.
Ma and I were in Ikea. Actually, we were trying to get out of Ikea, laden with new bed linen, various bits of furniture, and an assortment of kitchen equipment, but our eyes were caught by a small, lonely looking peace lily.
Do you have any plants for your new house, Ella?
No, actually I don t.
Well, I ll buy you this one; homes need plants.
That was four years ago, when Lily was just two leaves and six inches tall. Since then, she has moved home twice, been repotted three times, been split into four separate plants, and recently suffered the indignity of being stuffed into a box, loaded onto a van, driven 193 miles, then tipped onto her side and lost amongst a hundred other boxes for twenty four hours. She emerged relatively unscathed. When my Ma assured me that they were easy to look after, she wasn t wrong; using the word resilient wouldn t have been unwarranted. This probably accounts for them being the sec