A memory of Nepal

This summer I realised that this flowering spike of Euphorbia cornigera is all that's left of a large plant that I grew from seed that I'd collected from Nepal in 1990. Formerly known as Euphorbia longifolia, this is an attractive perennial species which grows to about 3ft. (Now I look at this again I'm unsure if this is the correct identification - more research required I think!)

I well remember staggering into a village one late afternoon and discovering a whole bank of this species in seed. I set about some seed collecting - nobody else in the party seemed interested, or maybe they were just tired - and after searching through hundreds of plants found just three seeds!

I sowed them when I returned home and only one germinated! I grew it on, rooted cuttings of it and soon had a sizeable clump. Over the years, for whatever reason, this clump has reduced in size, maybe through overcrowding, until there's just one stem left.

I must be careful to rejuvenate this plant, take more cuttings and make sure that I don't lose it. I shall go back through my collecting book and find the location of the original plants - all part of a wonderful memory of a fascinating country!