Hothouse Flower - and the Nine Plants of Desire

Zusatztext 77519132 Informationen zum Autor Margot Berwin earned her MFA from the New School in 2005. Her stories have appeared on Nerve.com, in the New York Press , and in the anthology The Future of Misbehavior . She worked in advertising for many years and lives in New York City. Klappentext Lila Nova is a thirty-two year-old advertising copyrighter who lives alone in a plain, white box of an apartment. Recovering from a heartbreaking divorce, Lila's mantra is simple: no pets, no plants, no people, no problems. But when Lila meets David Exley, a ruggedly handsome plant-seller, her lonely life blossoms into something far more colorful. From the cold, harsh streets of Manhattan to the verdant jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula, Hothouse Flower is the story of a woman who must travel beyond the boundaries of sense and comfort to find what she truly wants.Bird-of-Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) Native of South Africa, member of the banana family,  prized for its tall, highly colored structures.  This plant is not for the easily disappointed, impatient, or bossy,  as it can take seven years to produce a single bloom.  Perfect for the person who gives and gives  without getting anything in return. You know who you are. I inadvertently became interested in tropical plants because that’s what the man at the Union Square Green Market sold me. I used to believe that sentence, but now I know better. Now I know that it was meant to be. Here’s how it happened. I had just moved to Fourteenth Street and Union Square, into a small, newly renovated studio with absolutely no character. It was a square-shaped box with parquet floors, no molding, no details, white paint, and low ceilings. It was exactly the kind of apartment I wanted. Its newness meant that there were no memories trapped in the walls or the floorboards. No arguments or harrowing scenes of unrequited love staring at me from the bathroom mirror. It was brand-new. Just like I wanted my life to be. I thought a bit of foliage might spruce the place up, no pun intended, and add some much-needed color, so I walked across the street to the Union Square Green Market to make my purchase. The man at the plant stand was a throwback. He had streaky blond hair and a dirt-colored tan that came from being outside all the time. In his worn-out flannel shirt and beat-up Timberlands—worn for work, not fashion—he stood out in stark contrast to the manicured metro-sexuals perusing the market, wicker baskets in one hand, Gucci sunglasses in the other. This man was different. He was a rugged country-sexual. He asked me to describe my apartment not in terms of the square footage or the make of the stove and the fridge, but by the amount of light, temperature, and humidity. I told him that I had floor-to-ceiling windows, which was mostly true, although they were more ceiling-to-heating-unit than ceiling-to-floor. I told him that I had an unobstructed south-facing view, hard to find in New York City, and that as long as the sun was shining it was hot and sunny all day long, even in the winter. I hadn’t lived in my apartment through a winter, so I’m not sure why I said that, but I guess it sounded good to me, and also to him, since he bent down amongst his plants, head covered with purple flowers, butt in the air, and emerged with a big smile and a two-foot-high bunch of leaves. I was disappointed. “What is it?” “A bird-of-paradise,” he said, holding it up toward the sky and twirling the pot around with his fingertips. “A tropical plant?” I asked, zipping my coat against the late-March wind and picturing its imminent death. “Hawaiian, to be exact. Strelitzia reginae . A member of the banana family. She needs lots of sunlight, not too direct, and let the soil dry out between waterings. She’s tough to raise, and she won’t flower for five or six or maybe seven years, depending on the weather. And the love,” he added with a wink. I unzippe...

Product details

• Authors: Margot Berwin
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.06.2010
• EAN: 9780307390547
• ISBN: 978-0-307-39054-7
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 202 mm x 22 mm
• Series: Vintage Contemporaries; Vintage Contemporaries
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature