Prologue:

Two flowers, both alike in dignity,

In the beautiful garden city, where we lay our scene;

A story of hope and tragedy,

Where soil stains civil leaves.

A pair of root-crossed lovers take their lives;

Lovers that were in disguise.

A gloomy peace this morning with it brings.

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.

For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Tulipette and her Roseo.

after Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

There was once a beautiful budding flower named Tulipette, who was placed in the flower bed which was given the most light. She was the most beautiful tulip the other flowers had ever seen, so they were very envious of her.

One day, a vibrant creeper rose was placed right next to Tulipette, and this rose was none other than the fabulous Roseo. He was famous for his looks, and all the tulips were bud over leaves for him, but Roseo had only eyes for one flower in the garden: Tulipette. They were so in love with each other, that they would never spend a moment apart. The lovers would watch the sunrise and sunset together. Roseo shielded Tulipette from the strong winds and storms, and Tulipette released a beautiful aroma which sent the bees to pollinate her and Roseo. They entwined their roots so they were always connected.

But then, came Mr Dugg. He would always try to make his garden look tidy, and would get grumpy when the plants weren’t perfectly spaced out. He would randomly pluck out plants, thinking they were weeds. Mr Dugg never seemed to understand that nature wasn’t perfect. He saw how close the lovers were getting, and decided to move Roseo to the far side of the garden where there was an empty space. The lovers were devastated.

Tulipette could not photosynthesise for days, because her ray of sunshine (Roseo) was gone. She grew weaker and weaker. Roseo was devastated to hear of this and decided that he was going to be with his beloved no matter what happened. As a creeper rose he could travel very far. So for days, he stretched and stretched to return to his beloved Tulipette, but the sawflies would keep buzzing around him and gnawing at his leaves. Yet, he persisted and so, after a long journey, an exhausted Roseo arrived. Tulipette lay shrivelled on the soil bed.

Tulipette was wilted, and Roseo could not bear the sight of this. He let the nematodes living in the soil eat away at his roots so that he could go up into the sky and be with Tulipette.

Alas, the pair of  root-crossed lovers take their lives

Whose misadventures, piteous, buries Mr Dugg’s strife.