After a recent journey to Moidart Rare Plants near Bowral, our friends’ dog came to stay. And in a box on the verandah it discovered an enticing, large woody capsule.

The hound worked its teeth and Cardiocrinum giganteum spilled its plentiful seed everywhere.

Now to task of raising this splendid ‘lily’ from the fruit of the dog’s labour. As my 1950 Country Life edition of Lilies of the world records, it’s a plant that’s ‘the noblest of them all’ – reaching two to four metres in height and carrying numerous white flowers with red-purple stripes within and a greenish bloom without.