A Black House and a Baboon’s Bum!

The work of the under gardener can be varied and, as the title suggests, so it was today. It would appear – the head-gardener has told me so – that black is, well, the new black! The great and the good – the personalities, the celebrities of gardening – have recently espoused the use of black as a garden colour, one with which to paint our garden furniture and structures and so it came to pass that the children’s playhouse was to be brought to a fashionable black.

Ronseal’s “One Coat” Fencelife ‘Tudor Black Oak’ didn’t live up to its name, the “one-coat” part, as the previously applied ‘Forest Green’ stubbornly showed through the first coat. Some people and things simply are unable to leave the past behind, to move with the times, to colour as the celebrities do!

I’m sure you get a feeling for my thoughts on the black paint but, in case there is any misunderstanding, let me clarify that I don’t mind painting at all, not at all disinclined towards the colour black but choosing it because some gardening celebrity (a term I use to describe vacuous self-promoters) has recommended it does annoy me. However, the head-gardener liked the end result; she is happy and that makes it all fine with me. Truth be told, I think it was a good colour choice.

That “Baboon’s Bum” is a name applied to the very attractive plant, Fascicularia bicolor, which hails from Chile and not only produces flowers but also has a wonderful change of foliage colour to attract pollinators. We don’t have humminbirds here in Ireland and I wonder if this colour display is attractive to the Irish pollinators. I think this Baboon’s Bum would be very well placed on the terrace of the newly painted playhouse. It would remind me of the celebrity who suggested the colour!

Fascicularia bicolor – Baboon’s Bum!