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Monday, November 3, 2008

The Quest

The Lemon Myrtle is mine. My Quest for the Lemon Myrtle has ended in a resounding success. I not only have the dried leaves in the freezer, and the seeds in the mail, I have the Lemon Myrtle tree itself sitting in a pot, in my garden. For the moment, it is going through the usual quarantine and sanitization procedures to confirm that it is free of insect pests or fungal infections that if left untreated, will spread to all my other plants. This is the culmination of 3 whole months of determined search and creative solutions.

I tried everything. I wrote a piece on the Lemon Myrtle for this blog. I emailed every Australian nursery I could find. I commiserated with like-minded people on the GCS forum. I called NParks. I called the Botanic Gardens. I activated relatives and friends and the families of friends. I yearned and hustled and despaired. Until today. A new forummer posted a query for me. She asked me if I would like to have some fresh leaves from her small Lemon Myrtle plant. I fought the desire to ask her/him for a cutting of her/his plant because I had noted that it was a smallish one. But I did ask where she/he got her/his plant. Which nursery? Where? Whom? How? When?

It turned out that an obscure nursery tucked away in Bedok opposite a Matsushita-Panasonic factory carried the plant. I dared not let myself hope. I told myself that it might not be it. BUT IT WAS! I held it and sniffed it and turned it over. I poked into the soil and examined the underleaf. Yes! Yes! I had found my elusive Lemon Myrtle! The bushman plant from Australia sits now in my garden, small and tidy and fragrant.

Mine.

Now, to find some crocodile so I can make Lemon Myrtle crocodile - a bushman delicacy.

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