Moving forward

You take your Cautionary Orchid – lifted from the wreckage of the glasshouse and the fallen stalactite – and plant its roots deep in the earth. Will it grow again? Prosper? Unlikely. But that is not the point. The point is to give it what chance you can.

You are the first to move, though not the only one. Londoners hand the trowels around, move aside so others can better reach the soil. They busy themselves with the work of planting. Several members of the incipient mob lower their implements – though others remain, guarded, angry.

The Starved Rose looks uncomfortable amid the brownery, but it will adapt, as the plantings around it must adapt to its presence. A loose stem droops, then drops to the soil, where it gently waggles, like a beached fish.

[This concludes the London Horticultural Show, and the Starved Men's misguided intervention against London.]