Florence "Flo" Mary Scobie

Like her grandmother, Florence always had a pet. Not an animal, but a plant kept, not in a zoo, but a garden. Wherever she lived, and certainly in Winston Salem, North Carolina, where I spent time with her in 1969, Florence always had a garden, however small, or at least a window box that fairly shone, like a spotlight.

At her last home, in Victorville, CA, she literally made the desert blossom, writing to me:

"Did I send you a picture of this enormous rose bush? I didn't know what it was until I saw one that Irma has and I've since identified it as 'knock-out' rose. Irma has it in pink and red."

At Victorville, as in smaller spaces she decorated earlier, neighbours and passers-by were often drawn to take a deep breath. Stop. And have a friendly chat with the gardener.