The lazy flower

The white hibiscus has got to be the laziest flower on the planet.

There's a tall plant growing just outside my bedroom window. And when I wake up in the morning, I notice the hibiscus flowers are still fast asleep. The long white petals are closed and the flower itself is drooping, as though nodding in its sleep.

By 9 o'clock the flower opens just a little, like some bleary- eyed teenager reluctant to get out of bed. But it is almost 11 o'clock before this lazy flower wakes up completely. Even then it looks a little sleepy, the petals curled back as though in a yawn.

I think I've discovered why the hibiscus is a late riser, though I'm certain the botanists have a different theory.

The hibiscus is a night bird. It stays awake quite late into the night. It is at night that the flower truly blossoms, so to speak. The petals are completely open, while the pistil and stamen stick out rather naughtily.

In fact, the blacker the night, the more beautiful the hibiscus plant looks, its open white flowers glowing in the darkness.

But for whom, I wonder, is all this loveliness?