I once knew a conservative vicar with an unusual obsession.

He took me into his confidence when I sat next to him at an Easter luncheon one year.

The vicar recently had attended a conference in the US and afterwards stayed on to holiday in America. I asked him what was his favourite spot in the USA.

Surprisingly he said, Graceland, home of the late Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee.

I hadn’t realised this quiet man of the cloth was a huge Elvis Fan.

Throughout lunch the vicar entertained me with descriptions of Graceland and of his extensive Elvis Presley record collection.

Oddly this reminded me of my collection of succulents.

Like the vicar, succulents have a conservative quietness for most of the year but do show a truly surprising aspect.

When succulents bloom they reveal their wild side and produce bright dynamic flowers, stronger in colour and bolder than most others in the garden.

I like to call them Rock n Roll Blooms.

One day the succulent is growing quietly in your garden and the next they can be sporting  brazen flowers of astonishing colours.

The colour of these blooms in the photograph is superb, it’s a blistering hot pink.

I think they are as flamboyant as Elton John’s costumes, as striking as Beyoncé on a red carpet and as electrifying as Pink herself.

So you see, with such flashy, crowd pleasing flowers, this is why I call them Rock n Roll blooms.

What became of the rock n roll vicar? He eventually became an eminent Bishop and I smile to think of Elvis Presley’s ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ rocking the halls of his Bishop’s Court.

JT