A Caribbean Garden

July's blooms

2009-07-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

Trio of hibiscus

petrea volubilis

aloe maculata

peeking through

Oleander, plumeria pudica, fragrant frangipani. Thought I'd show them together so you can see how they are related

Agave!

2009-07-12T10:09:00.001-07:00

Following on Pam’s Woody lilies love the heat and Danger Garden’s (what a sexy garden blog name!)
agave post here’s mine. I love agaves for their architectural lines and also because they are perfectly suited to the hot, dry island I live on. They offer so much drama for minimal care.

Most Caribbean islanders don’t appreciate agaves-this works both ways for me. Agaves are hardly ever offered for sale here so finding different varieties is challenging, but whenever you see any agaves (say in someone’s yard) they are usually more than happy for you to take them.

The first pic is of Agave desmettiana ‘Variegata’ with its lovely urn shape-and one of the few offered for sale.

The candy coloured teeth of bovicornuta and the red margins of blue glow, both of which I got at the fabulous Flora Grubb Gardens

The "girly" attenuata. Lovely and no sharp spikes or teeth at all.

Lophanta by contrast I think is my most dangerous agave. This is another one people admire when they see it in my garden.

"The artichoke" Agave victoriae-reginae

I think this one is Agave neglecta. Used to be very common in the coral islands but now these are scarce in gardens. They seem to still be popular in Barbados and Antigua.

Filifera I guess

I pulled this up as a small pup from a friend's yard-it may be a hybrid, I can't identify it and haven't seen any others like it.

Textural: my agave sisalina bloomstalk (next to organ pipe cactus)

Nursery visit

2009-06-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

I went down to the nursery as a shipment of plants is due this month-alas we have to wait for 2 more weeks as the shipment has not yet arrived. Meanwhile this is some of what they have. Mostly very large plants, not the 1-5 gallon sizes I prefer. I love these 2 frangipani (plumeria)

A towering palm planted on the grounds provides a “showpiece” for their huge selection of palms. Many people (and resorts) here buy large plants for instant landscaping, so the choice of small plants is very small. I’ve grown most of my palms from seeds collected from under palm trees as I can’t afford these large palms.

Fruit of the geiger tree

White cordia blooms

I love traveller's palms but on a dry island you have to spend hundreds on water to manage this...

At last some people seem to be interested in succulents and xeric plants so I am actually able to get a small selection

I got this one and love it. Sold as "cordyline" I think its actually yucca bright edge.

Big grasses: bamboo and sugar cane

To think my grandfather had 200 acres of sugar cane and I have to buy one plant now for $35...

The nursery has a range of unlabeled hibiscus-I've grabbed quite a few on various visits as different colors were in bloom-will post on those later

Pretty bougainvillea

Masses of ixora

June Blooms

2009-06-15T17:58:00.001-07:00

Thanks, Carol, for hosting another

Blooms Day

Lots of lovely flowers in my garden. We start with "nature's collage": fuchsia bougainvillea and white oleander below the agave bloomstalk in the sky.

more bougainvillea

Gorgeous hibiscus

Cool whites
Plumeria pudica and my new frangipani

Hot reds and corals:
Aloe maculata, coral hibiscus, russelia, Mirandy rose

Roses

2009-06-12T11:00:00.001-07:00

Though my subjects are quite limited I am pleased to be able to take part in this month's Gardening Gone Wild Picture Contest . After all, roses don't really thrive on my hot dry island, especially in the summer heat. For this same reason its not very often rose plants show up for sale.

This is a rose I acquired a few months ago when it was for sale at the nursery, a Mirandy rose. Mirandy is a Hybrid Tea Rose hybridized by Walter Lammerts in the US in 1945. It has a perfect rose form and a rich saturated velvet red color. So far it seems to be doing well, better that the other 6 varieties I bought a few years ago and which succumbed to the heat or whatever in 6 months. The plant has doubled in size in 6 months, something the other rose plants did not do.

Last week I got a small damask rose plant-these old fashioned types seem to do better here-so I have high hopes for that one.

Silver Salmon

2009-05-28T12:28:00.001-07:00

A beautiful sunset sky and seascape with the outline of the trees

This is a new agave bloomstalk!

A colonial era garden

2009-05-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

My work recently took me to a meeting with the Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (I attended the university for both my graduate and post-graduate studies). The Pro Vice Chancellor’s office is in this lovely old colonial building, with thirteen foot ceilings and 8 foot doors.

What is always remarkable about the St Augustine campus of the University is the variety of fabulous tropical trees and plants, and the landscaping around the principal’s office is particularly lovely. The presence and sheer variety of this flora is due to the university’s history: in 1960, the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture became the Faculty of Agriculture of the then University College of the West Indies (now the University of the West Indies).

The Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad was the center for postgraduate training in tropical agriculture for the agricultural services of the British Colonial Empire. College reports from 1938 indicate that 159 past students of the College have been appointed to the Colonial Agricultural Service and allied services, in posts in thirty different parts of the British Empire.

Very old frangipani tree

Entrance to Principal's office

tall stately palms

Bromeliads on the tree trunks

Having fun with my new little pothound, Pott

2009-05-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

He came to me totally unexpected-a friend who saw him thought he’d be a good companion for PottRott (as he has turned out to be). Now he's quite a way from an undernourished, 2 pound, flea ridden and patches of hair missing puppy.

He is a most amusing puppy, very full of himself, but extremely self sufficient. Less than a week after I got him I had to travel and so boarded him. Amy said the first night she put him in a crate in a room by himself he screamed and screamed so she had to let him sleep with all the big dogs who were boarding. With his little two pound self he handled all these 100 pound plus dogs-including a male Rottweiler and a part Pittbull, with amazing aplomb.

Blooms Day April 09

2009-05-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

I was traveling on the 15th and 16th and did not want to miss another blooms day-so here I am two days late. A lot of blooms after a week of rain and cooler weather.

One of my new plants- a huge lovely red hibiscus

Hot oranges: tecoma elata and Mexican honeysuckle

Euphorbia milli in front of aloe arborescens

in hot pink

A very full bunch of ivory russelia

celestial blooms

Pink Tabebuia in its first bloom for the year

Picture this-an eight foot agave

2009-04-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

My entry for the Picture This: A Photo Contest

at Gardening Gone Wild

My agaves-I believe sisalina, as native as can be here as I plucked them out of the undeveloped scrub. Well if I lived in Trinidad more I could show heliconias and brilliant vermilion chaconia and a hundred other spectacular native plants but on this desert island this is about it. Also shown with a native cacti-name unknown, and yes, it was also plucked from the scrub and is indigenous to the drier islands of the Eastern Caribbean. The fuchsia bloom of course is bougainvillea.

The above agave's sibling which bloomed last year, putting on quite a show while providing nectar for birds.

Carib Reservation Dominica

2009-04-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

Eight Kalinago villages are located in Dominica's Carib Territory, a 3700-acre reservation ruled by an elected chief.

A refreshing waterfall

Atlantic coast

Men's house. Dances are performed on the stage inside

Traditional canoe

Check out the view from the cassava bakery!

This is what they use to bake the cassava on

Traditional crafts

Those red bananas are so sweet and perfumed when ripe

Blooms day Dominica

2009-04-15T04:01:00.001-07:00

For this Blooms Day I am working on the nature isle of Dominica, where exquisite flowers grow as weeds on the roadsides:

What is it?

2009-04-07T09:52:00.001-07:00

I first saw a pale pink, single version of this flower in a roadside garden in Laung Prabang, Laos, and fell in love with it there. I saw this one in St Kitts, though I still can't identify it. It seems possible it may be a a member of the cotton/hibiscus family. Got some seeds from this plant so keeping fingers crossed they will germinate.

Clippings from St Kitts

2009-03-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

I got a bonus on my work trip to St Kitts last week-no, there was no time for the beach or sightseeing, but I did manage to get a few cuttings and seeds of unusual tropical plants from the hotel grounds.

The two plumerias over the stream with the palms in the back makes for a lovely vignette

I first saw this unusual agave at the hotel in 2006-what luck that on this visit it has a pup I was able to get

This is a flower I do not know that's really lovely

The bougainvillea looks great against tropical wood

An unknown purple flower spilling over with yellow allamanda

Gorgeous foliage

Red blend croton

I don’t know what this is but I certainly hope my small cutting catches.

I also don't know these flowers but they are lovely. Any assistance in ID is greatly appreciated.

Red Hot!

2009-03-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

Like Pam of Digging, my favorite flower color is red. Red looks simply stunning in our bright, intense light. So I thought I'd showcase the red blooms for this month's Blooms Day.
Mirandy rose. I bought a dozen roses a couple years ago now they are down to two. I decided to take a chance on this one when I saw it a month ago in the garden center.

Another new plant, a large hybrid coral/red hibiscus

I planted a packet of 5 seeds of these Erythrina Crista-galli ( from JL Hudson) only last August and one plant has already given me these gorgeous blooms. Can't wait till its a ten foot tree and covered in this.

See why its called "cockspur tree"

Old fashioned coral hibiscus-that's tomorrows bloom in the back.

This is what my red Kalanchoe blossfeldiana looks like in its third month of bloom-I quite love it.

I’ve won!

2009-02-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

I know many garden bloggers didn’t realize that the race had even started, but I, Nicole of Caribbean Garden hereby attest that on February 14, 2009 I picked my first fully ripened tomatoes for 2009. There were four of them, a bunch of Costoluto. Which makes me the official winner of the Garden Bloggers first tomato of the year 2009.

In case anyone cries foul, I’ve carefully read each blog and nowhere did they indicate that there is a zone or climatic condition, nor any separate categories for those living in the tropics, so I think I won fair and square!

Babita Goes Gardening

I am happy I helped advise someone in their first foray into gardening. Babita is a young professional Trinidadian who has been thinking about trying herb and vegetable gardening for a while. With the family’s and dog’s help she’s finally Gone Gardening.

This is a very rare thing among young Trinidadians or professional Caribbean islanders so let us truly appreciate her efforts and wish her well in this endeavor.

Desert Island Plant Challenge

2009-01-22T09:01:00.001-08:00

I first read about this on Gardening Gone Wild with Nancy Ondra’s choices for Shirl’s Gardenwatch fun idea: The Desert Island Plant Challenge

“If I was to be stranded on Dessert Island what three plants I would take? Food is taken care of and there are no limits to growing conditions.”

My Plant No 1 is the the Flamboyant or Royal Poinciana tree. It provides shade and is a beautiful umbrella shape. And of course erupts into fabulous blooms of red or orange.

Plant 2: I love bamboos-the elegant and serene, zen like effect. I know in the US there is the issue of it being “invasive” but I have never heard of that here. Possibly because bamboos are not grown in small surburban gardens, except the small types in pots or as accents. Also, most tropical bamboos are clumpers, not running bamboos. The bamboo plant is a very useful plant, the leaves can be used to wrap food for cooking, the canes for gardening and buildings shelters as well as making baskets and mats, and the shoots of some types are edible.

Plant 3 was a bit harder, as I wanted some colorful and /or scented flowers. The winner is bougainvillea, one of my favourite flowers, with lavender and zinnia coming in second. Bougainvillea can be grown as a bonsai, shrub or vine, and flowers used in vases. I love the clear, hot colors.

Blooms Day January 09

2009-01-16T06:40:00.001-08:00

A duo of coral hibiscus

A trio of desert roses

A quartet of heavenly blues

Blue plumbago

Pink Eurphorbia milli

Euphorbia always blooms red in time for Christmas

The large bougainvilleas are back in bloom after hurricane Omar

Heavenly Blue

2009-01-05T09:26:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I've grown this morning glory, and its name is truly descriptive. The flowers do look as if they are lit from within.

Happy New Year from a Caribbean Garden!

2008-12-31T07:54:00.000-08:00

A small recap of the year in gardening and blogging

in January we had this unusual and beautiful sunrise

the kitchen garden in February

spring flowers

the cherry blossom festival in San Francisco in April/May

and the wonderful Flora Grubb Gardens

May brought work in Hanoi

followed by a visit to lost in time Laos

and stunning Siem Reap, Cambodia

Flamboyant in June

In July I read several inspiring garden books (this pic from Designing with Succulents by Debra Lee Baldwin)

Trinidad in August and this lovely ornamental banana

the geiger tree in September

the petrea volubilis bloomed in October

November took me around the island to take pics of the native vegetation

in December the morning glories I planted 6 weeks before bloomed

Blooms Day December

2008-12-16T11:15:00.000-08:00

A day late and very rushed but I think its better than not posting!

Cool white on white

a new euphorbia milli

Opuntia

Cape honeysuckle-I must propogate this

Desert Rose

Lavender bougainvillea

LAVENDER STAR FLOWER (Grewia occidentalis) on cool blue agave

Flowers of my Caribbean childhood

2008-12-06T06:25:00.000-08:00

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane as I share with you the flowers of my childhood. I was setting out seeds for celosia, zinnias and globe amaranth and remembered how ubiquitous these flowers were in the cottage gardens of my childhood, and how very rare they are now. In fact I had to order seeds online. When I was a child many women were homemakers, and even for those who worked, hours were strictly 8-4, so of course people had more time to tend a garden, particularly one with annuals.

Hibiscus of course was one of the most popular plants, the old red or white varieties as well as a few hybrids that existed then. Colours then were strictly red, white, pink and salmon/peach/orange.

Ixoras were also a favourite. We used to pick the whole bunches for vases on the dining table, the blooms forming a perfect bouquet. Children used to pull out the flower stamen and suck the nectar.

As mentioned, no cottage garden was without zinnias or celosia (known only as cockscomb at the time). Our favourite varieties of zinnias were the cactus and pompom types.

Fewer people had lantana, though the wild variety grew in many places. We used to eat the fruits of the wild lantana-which I have read on the internet is poisonous-go figure

African marigolds, called “gaindas” were popular and also used by Hindus in prayers.

Datura/brugmansia seeds were brought by the Indian immigrants

Pride of Barbados was also pretty common. Is such an easy plant so I don’t know why people don’t grow it more. I guess upsized houses and downsized yards. I loved pulling the blooms apart to observe the complex structure.

Heleconias, anthurium lilies, gingers and orchids were grown by the more savvy and dedicated gardeners. I remember how expensive such a hobby was in those days and how rare and exciting they considered the acquisition of a new variety.

These are the same folks who had roses. They loved red and pale pink roses. My mother had a huge rambling rose in pale pink fade to white on the front fence.

The more savvy gardeners also had three ever blooming plants- plumbago, euphorbia milli (then available only in red) and this other plant for which I don’t know the name, which was called shrimp plant.

I associated bougainvillea (always red or hot pink) and frangipani with wealth, as it seemed to me only the nicest homes had these.

Powderpuff and bottlebrush were more common than now

Poinsettia was grown outdoors for bloom at Christmas time.

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The immortelle trees were a sight to behold

Two more beautiful trees, then often found in parks and public spaces, the yellow poui and the Royal Poinciana.

Growing tomatoes in the Caribbean (and tropics)

2008-12-01T07:50:00.000-08:00

With the recent shortages and increased prices of produce in the Caribbean more people here are finally getting interested in growing their own food. The tomatoes grown by farmers in much of the Caribbean are commercial hybrids, bred for disease resistance, shelf life, consistency in appearance and ability to be transported. Taste and flavor are nowhere on this list! On top of that unless you know an organic farmer, much of what you buy is loaded with pesticides and chemical fertilizers. No wonder so many people I know say they don’t like tomatoes.

I try to ensure as much of my food as possible is organically grown. The irony is that some of the best produce I have ever tasted has been in/from the poorest countries in the world-Haiti, Mali, Cote D’Ivoire, Laos-from areas with rich soil and grown by farmers who can’t afford to buy chemicals.

I have been growing tomatoes for four years now and thought I’d share my insights, as there are very few online or print sources for tomato growing in our climate. The best time to stsrt your tomato seeds in the Caribbean is just before your coller season in your island. Eg in the Eastern Caribbean October or November.

Choose your tomatoes

For the tropics you of course want heat resistant varieties. Since the point of growing tomatoes home is to get flavorful vine ripened tomatoes grown without megadoses of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the heirlooms are recommended. While heirlooms may not always be evenly round and “pretty” there is no comparison for flavour.
Here is a list I and others have found successful, though a few are hybirds:

Costoluto Genovese

Costoluto Fiorentino
Carolina Gold

Heatmaster, Calypso, Purple calabash, Arkansas Traveler, Pink accordion
Black Krim

Porter, German Green, Cherokee Purple, and various cherry tomatoes.

A bit strange that tomatoes from Russia and Germany would perform well in our warm climes, I have found Black Krim (Russian) to be one of the best performing and tasting tomatoes. Costoluto is great for pizzas and fresh pasta sauce.

Getting your tomato seedlings

I sow my tomato seeds in 3 and 7 gallon pots filled with a good potting soil mix and just carefully dig out the seedlings with a trowel when its time to transplant. This saves time and having to water flats or those little pots all the time. Also, in the tropics, the plants grow much faster and quickly outgrow tiny pots. If you are very klutzy by all means use one of those starter six packs.
Moisten soil in pot. Sow the tomato seeds and cover ½ inch with soil. Keep moist by watering with sprinkler every day or every other day, depending on your weather. Keep pots somewhere that gets sunshine but not hot blazing sun. I keep mine under an eve where it gets morning sun and evening shade. When the seedlings are 4 inches I move the pot to a slightly sunnier position.
When the tomato seedlings are 8 to 10 inches tall (three to five weeks) then its time to transplant.

Preparing soil for planting
While your seedlings are growing start preparing your tomato bed or large pots for growing. Tomatoes grow best in the tropics in morning light and evening shade. They also need to get a lot of water, so arrange for easy watering and the area should also be well-drained so as to not get water logged.
Use good quality garden soil or loamy soil and add a few spadefuls of aged manure or compost to the bed, bending well. If using pots (at least 5 gallon size) or a half barrel make a mix of potting soil with 1/6 manure.

Transplanting
Transplant your seedlings in the evening or on a cool, overcast day. If you transplant in the blazing hot sun the seedlings will immediately wilt. .
Wet the soil in the bed/pot. Dig a hole. Remove bottom set of leaves. Set plants a few inches deeper than they were originally growing so lower leaves are just above (but not touching) the ground, as roots will develop along the buried portion of the stem. Water gently but thoroughly, as the plant needs this moisture to recover. Don’t worry of they flop over a bit, in a day or two they should be upright again.
Tomato planting distance depends on the type of tomato grown, with 24 to 36 inches between plants the ideal spacing for most home gardens.

Staking

When plants are about 2 feet tall then you can stake plants with 4-6 foot stakes using thin bamboo poles, 1 x 2 inch pieces of wood, broomsticks etc. Use soft cord, strips made from an old t-shirt or nylon pantyhose for tying plants to the stake. Be careful not to drive stake into roots or stem.

Watering
Soak the soil thoroughly when watering and water the bed every other day unless it rains. Frequent light watering will encourage a weak root system. Plants growing in containers may need daily watering.
Maintenance & Harvest
Pull out weeds or mulch to prevent them. Work some manure into the top spoil every 3 weeks. Separate a head of garlic into cloves. Stick the cloves facing up all over the pots or bed. Not only will you get delicious garlic greens to snip but this also deters some insect pests.

In 2 (cherry tomatoes) or 3 months from transplanting you’ll start harvesting vine ripened home grown tomatoes. Never refrigerate them or the flavour goes.

Happy gardening and eating!

Blooms day November 08

2008-11-14T13:08:00.001-08:00

with the hurricane exactly one month ago I thought I'd not be able to do a post for http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/ venerable Blooms Day this month. But while the garden is not awash with blooms a surprising number of plants have put out a few. Like 3 of my aloe maculata, what a rewarding plant, requiring almost no care.

my lovely Diablotin rose. This is one of the first plants I checked to see whether it survived the hurricane. well, what do you expect of the Devil?

dramatic orange sparks from the Mexican honeysuckle. I am eyeing the red one in the garden centre

euphorbia mulli-365 days a year in bloom

soft salmon pink oleander

purple allamanda

Kalanchoe. I actually like the architectural leaves of this particular type even more than the blooms

pillowy puff of tree morning glory

some sort of cassia (I grew from seed from a tree in one of the hotels)

who's been eating my flowers?
this little caterpillar is the exact yellow of the bloom!

Ode to Summer

2008-11-08T06:54:00.001-08:00

With the summer trips and heat gone. looking back...

There were sunsets

And sunrises to remember

A visit from my sister and neice

Lovely scenery

Horses and a lucky horseshoe

The dog days of summer