It is an unwritten rule of gardens (public and private) all over the world that you do not take cuttings from the displayed plants. OK. So it is a written rule at some (most) public gardens. So here it goes, I admit that yesterday I committed this gardening faux pas, sorta.
Yesterday I went to the Museo Larco Herrera in Lima, Peru with my aunt, grandmother and mom and while their display of Pre-Columbian artifacts was brilliant. It was their dazzling gardens that we oohed and ahhed over.
My grandmother, aunt and I
First of all when you walked in you were greeted by a wall of buganvilia trained to climb up over the 3 meter wall in a cascade of fuscia and orange. A walk up a steep ramp took you to the cactus display and while the Cereus Peruvianus Montruosus aka Monstrito cactus was cool looking it was the unmarked brain looking cactus that really caught our attention. Nevermind, that we were in a garden that had a wall of potted orchids and Hart’s tongue ferns hanging from the ceilings. The unusual green and white cactus with red growth had us gushing.
Monstrito Cactus
Unknown cactus we love
Now I will admit that my family has a strange obsession with odd plants. There is an strange looking furry spider legged fern in my apartment courtesy of my grandmother. I have purchased seeds simply because they are rare or endangered. And my mother has a bizarre fascination with bromeliads. This unnamed cactus most definitely fell in the odd-plant-I-would-like-to-own category.
As we sat under the canopy of buganvillias and ferns, drinking freshly squeezed orange juice and enjoying manjar blanco crepes and apple crocants discussing the beautiful pre-columbian displays we had seen. It was inevitable that our conversation circled back to the unusual cactus and how to obtain it. My aunt was the most pragmatic telling my grandmother to go to the cactuarium and purchase it. “There is a cactuarium?!” was my baffled response. (I want a cactuarium in my city just for the sheer delight of saying – why yes, I got that lovely specimen at the cactuarim. But I digress.)
Food eaten, ridiculously expensive gift shop explored we headed towards the exit where we were interscepted by a Peruvian Inca dog. Now, if you have never seen a Peruvian Inca dog let me inform you that they are hairless and they look like a strange cross between a gargoyle and a hare. Since my aunt owns one we had to stop to pet the elephant skinned dog and talk to the guard about it.
After 5 minutes of conversation with the guard (the dog’s name was Sumac, she was pedigree and yes they put body lotion on her so her skin didn’t crack) I don’t know what came over me. Lets just call it the little latin devil on my shoulder.
“Señor, would you be able to give me a little cutting of one of the cacti by the entrance? My grandma simply fell in love with the plant…”
Had I been anywhere else in the world the words would never have crossed my lips but for some unknown reason being in Peru makes me a little more impish and blase about rules.
The guard looked at me – pocket knife in hand and said: “Bueno señorita, show me which cactus it is you want.. is it the Monstrito? But we have to be quick, the owner doesn’t like it when we take cuttings.”
A quick jaunt back up the ramp and I emerged with a fairly decent cutting of the unknown cactus wrapped in newspaper so that I wouldn’t prick myself.
The cutting is now sitting on my grandmother’s kitchen windowsill.
So here is my question: if the caretaker/guard of a garden gives you the cutting have you commited a gardening sin by taking a cutting from a public garden?
Ferns hanging from Olive tree
Trailing ferns - so pretty
If you are lucky enough to be in Lima do go to the Larco Herrera museum – the archeological artifacts are amazing and the gardens are brilliant.
Accidental Green Thumb 