lily

And for Maya, it always was like, “Put two more things on before you go. Gild the lily.”

The line brings to life the garden’s delicate wildflowers and rippling fountains in playful, painterly prints, featuring blossoming orange poppies and deep purple lily pads.

This class of “carrion flowers” includes many species, but few are as charismatic as Rafflesia arnoldii, also known as the “stinking corpse lily,” which also holds the record as the world’s largest flower.

We might plant hopes for luscious flowers and fruits, only for berries and daisies to arrive in abundance instead of melons and Casablanca lilies.

A bundle of lilies in a vase sat in green water, petal-less.