NASTURTIUMS!

To the eyes of a 16th-century Swedish botanist, the trumpet-shaped flowers of a nasturtium resembled blood-stained helmets, and the round leaves looked like shields … If you squint a little, you’ll see what he means. Because of these morbid imaginings, this cheerful-looking plant earnt the name Tropaeolum, meaning ‘trophy pole’: a nod to the post-battle custom of Ancient Greeks and Romans who heaped the