Xue Mei

I bought this plant many years ago. It has never grown any bigger since then because it was a bonsai plant. I never did anything to arrest its growth and over the years, it got out of shape, its bark was attacked by fungus but occasionally, it would give me small pretty flowers that were fragrant, usually after I had trimmed its unruly offshoots.

It has stayed in that particular spot in my garden in the last five years, never demanding much probably because it knows that I cannot give anything other than the basic care that a plant needs.

Sometimes I would look at it and wonder if I should paint it. Most times I do not have the time to carry through the thought. So the best I can do is to make drawings of it once in a while.