The rarest of vegetable garden blooms 21 Apr, 2021 09:34 PM 2 minutes to read The kumara flower in Gillian Lovell's garden. Photo / supplied Northland Age By: Peter Jackson She first saw one some 30 years ago, but the unexpected appearance of a purple kumara flower was still a special event for Kaitaia woman Gillian Lovell. The flower didn't last long, she said, but was spectacular before it began to collapse. Gillian's nephew, Kevin Matthews, said purple and gold kumara were very rarely seen flowering - the commercial yellow variety did so more regularly - but could produce blooms under stress, such as might be caused by a sudden change in weather. The variety in Gillian's garden had been in the Matthews family for well over a century.