Arts
A delicate, rare bloom which is “like the blood diamonds of the flower world” and fetches millions of euro is the subject of poet Paul Perry’s first solo novel. The Garden centres on an orchid farm in Florida, where the owner is desperate to revive his fortunes by growing the highly-prized ghost orchid. But to find one of the orchids, he needs the help of the local Seminole tribe living on a nearby reservation. Paul, who worked on an orchid farm in Florida for three years in the 1990s, says: “An underbelly and black economy has grown up, so you have poachers and a whole other economy parallel to the legitimate ones.” More about The Garden here: https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/the-garden