The Flower of the Ginkgo — Suzanne Myers

Ben is inspired to love plants through watching his uncle Felix working in his Dorset garden, so when he comes to select a course at university he knows it has to be Botany. There he meets Asian student Juno whose delicate botanical art enchants him. He asks her which rare flower she would most like to see. She says the flower of the Ginkgo. After graduation Juno has to return to China but they resolve to keep in touch and be reunited to go and find this flower together as soon as possible.Meanwhile, Ben begins his career at a garden centre, dreaming of one day opening a nursery for rare plants. He has no idea how he is going to afford to start a business until Joe, his manager, offers some start up equipment and facilities. At the same time, Ben learns that his uncle Felix has died, leaving his entire botanical collection to him along with a classic car.Juno contacts him to say that she will not be able to return to the UK since her father has become unwell and she is needed to help her mother look after him and her grandmother. Ben starts saving to visit her in China.On the pretext of it being a rare plant expedition; to discover the flower of the Ginkgo, Ben books his ticket to Beijing. The joy of being reunited with Juno is tempered by the developing realisation that Juno will not be able to leave her family for the foreseeable future. She does her best to set him free but he is determined to wait for her.Pressing forward with his now thriving business, Ben travels to Amazonia to find the giant bromeliad. There he meets Kurt, a doctor of remote medicine, who is collecting for 'Big Pharma'. The issue of removing native species from their habitat and the impact it has had on the indigenous peoples who are losing their natural medicines, starts to matter to Ben.It is a hard trip but Ben finds the bromeliad, and more significantly, spots two native men of a previously unknown forest tribe. He reports this sighing to the Environment Services, who in turn offer to sponsor him to monitor these indigenous men. He agrees because while they live, logging in the area can be prevented for their protection.Back in the UK Ben resolves to change his business and turns to the idea of producing herbs and medicinal plants. He hears from Juno that her father and grandmother have died. Ben invites them to join him in the UK as his business partners. They readily agree.The business flourishes until Ben returns from his trip to Amazonia to find his business associates have vanished. No one knows where they have gone except a young semi-vagrant woman who talks of their abduction because of a connection to the Tibetan Dalai Lama. Baffled, all Ben can do is to write to Juno's Beijing address, asking her to be in touch.Meanwhile, Ben's aunt Kitty invites him to come to Dorset and take over the house and garden, so she can move into town for an easier life. Ben agrees and once there, learns more about Felix's dealing in rare plants. Some of his trophies are still flourishing in the greenhouse and so Ben, in-keeping with his new ethic, determines to return these to the wild. He sells the rare, non-native plants and used the money to finance a trip to China to find Juno; the rarest flower of them all.