A Gardener’s Diary

I am presently in England again having been coopted into the heavy gang to move my son’s belongings from the London University hall of residence near the Strand to a place not many miles away in Clerkenwell,  in readiness for the start of his masters degree at University College London in October. It having been perceived that I am somewhat at a loose end it has been decided (by she who must be obeyed) that our garden should be redesigned,  notwithstanding the fact that I have worked above and beyond the call of duty in the last two weeks lifting weights that an elephant wouldn’t be asked to do. Well what can you do?

John Warrington

It is during the month of August that the hours of daylight start to slide toward equality with Guyana, and in a few months towards winter. On the way back to Manchester from London I spent a couple of days in the Cotswolds, one of the most beautiful areas of England.

At a little town of Burford I went to look at a local garden which sells plants.   The owner, it turned out, recognised something of my wife’s accent and it transpired that he had been stationed in Guyana in the 1960s at about the time of our Independence, and loved every bit of his time there.  Mind you he has his own little bit of paradise now, and grows and sells plants to the garden mad English.  We bought a load and I have been employed planting them.

Several of them are hydrangeas, plants which are found from the Himalayas to Japan, and even in the Philippines. They have also been introduced to Guyana where they do not do so well, and certainly nowhere as well as they do in Europe and the USA.  It is of course just possible that they will grow beautifully inland at higher altitudes where it is cooler. I also bought several ornamental grasses to soften the look of the fencing, and some plants of one of my favourites, commonly called here ‘cherry pie’ and more correctly Heliotrope, which is already in full flower. The flowers are a rich deep blue and in fact last for many months during the summer, which as far as summer bedding plants is concerned, is from May to October.

It is amazing how popular the bromeliads of South America are in Britain, particularly the  Aechmea, Billbergia, Pitcairnia, Vriesia and Tillandsia, all of which are found and grow in Guyana.

Nearly all bromeliads are epiphytic, that is they grow in trees and get most of their nutrition by catching it in their ‘urns.’ Some like the Pitcairnias are terrestrial, growing in the ground.  Here in England they are grown and sold in pots, and unless you have the warmth and humidity to keep them alive during the winter they will die. At this point the growers will be rubbing their hands with glee as they gear up to sell you another lot.  Never mind that.

Exotic plants from South America are in permanent demand, and bromeliads in particular will survive the sometimes chilly nights which occur during the summertime. Did I mention Passiflora quadrangularis a week or two ago?  The giant Granadilla. When I left New Providence it was growing prolifically and producing very large fruits, and the flowers were gigantic.  It will take our rains without any trouble, and is easily grown by means of cuttings as well as from seed.  The parts of the flowers are also used to illustrate the apostles at last supper and the feeding of the multitude with the loaves and fishes. On that  biblical note I wish you safety wherever you are and may your God go with you wherever you  live.