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Nasturtium

Lowbrow  it may be, ranking just above mustard and cress in the world of infantile gardening, but I love the simple nasturtium, so bitably plump and crisp, so eager to scramble, so gay in its primary colours. There is always seed in the soil of our vegetable garden; we just weed out the plants that interfere and let the rest run amok, making up for the fact that its highbrow relations are decidedly miffy about our garden.  Tropaeolum  speciosum, the prima  donna of the family,  lurks in the roots of hedges, occasionally puts on a brief show, mocks me with memories of Scottish gardens where they probably curse it like bindweed.

Nasturtiums have been busily bred. I can’t remember whether this is ‘Jewel’ or ‘Gleam’, or even mind about its parentage. Were the breeders to engineer a white-flowered cultivar it would be another matter. It could outdo white begonias as the coolest thing in summer bedding.

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