By Kirsty Ross
A READY-made bouquet from a once-in-a-lifetime bloom, might be enough to persuade Mrs Smith to walk down the isle again.
Alwyn and her long-time hubby Ron from Altona are the proud and surprised cultivators of a very unusual “freak” Protea.
“It’s beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Mrs Smith.
The couple couldn’t believe their eyes when they discovered the 19-head protea on their seven-acre bush property in Tatong, near Mansfield.
The protea usually blooms with just one head.
“Actually I thought it was a pod, then all of a sudden it started to burst,” said Mrs Smith.
They didn’t think anyone else would believe them either – so out came the scissors, and homeward bound the exquisite cream coloured automatic arrangement travelled.
The hardy flower needs no looking after, no feeding, just plain acidic soil, Mrs Smith said.
It’s inception is a mystery.
“It might be on a fertility drug up there,” she laughed.
