A tuberose by any other name is a Nardo

 A few years back someone told me that the name 'Nardo" is the name of a white flower that grows in Spain. Feeling such a long and profound connection with plants, this felt like an affirmation of the latest evolution of my life with plants as a floral designer. It didn't matter that I personally wasn't Spanish, but Sicilian. Spain was but one of the myriad countries that invaded and occupied Sicily throughout it's history, so I come up with this little scenario...

Perhaps some of the little tubers were carried across the sea in the corset of a courtesan. Once established in the newly acquired royal garden on Sicilian soil, the tubers were thus entrusted to a peasant, well known in the land for their talent in growing. The flowers grew so abundantly in the familiar hot summer conditions that great bouquets of Nardos filled the church on Worship Days. Henceforth, the gardeners that were charged with growing the seed - oops, little tubers were also called Nardos and thus.....therefore, thou....

Fantasy aside, (plus my brother, the family historian, tells me that our surname is not derived from a flower), plants often were transported from one Continent to other as another form of extreme souvenir collecting. This was sometimes benign; in others thorough enough to decimate entire plant populations. A little online delving reveals the tuberose was subject to this form of collecting as it is native to Central America. While the Spaniards were  conquering in the Southern Hemisphere they must have found this new flower with it's heady perfume and long lasting waxy flowers quite appealing; surely a discovery to impress a queen. It could have taken many lost tubers to learn how to keep them viable from the journey from the New World to back to the Old World.

It was only slightly disappointing to learn that the white flower was the tuberose, a flower I've avoided using the past few years, because the double blossomed, cultivated variety is just awkward and clumpy, somehow. The scent was sometimes too overpowering. However the native single blossomed variety is a different creature for me, each flower separate on stems that have curves, movement, and a delicacy it's much hybridized relatives lack.

Two weeks ago, this flower became available from my favorite grower at Front Porch Farms in Healdsburg:
https://fpfarm.com/flowers/ 

As Zoe relates, "the tubers were given to me by an old man from North Carolina who's been farming for 40 years. They were given to him by a woman who was old when he was young. These things are special, that's all I'm getting at". After a week, the scent is still going strong and the flowers continue to bloom with a little clipping of the spent blossoms. I couldn't agree more Zoe!