Cannas like it hot
A very happy Christmas to all my readers. There are many shrubs that are pruned with shears. The bougainvillea is not one of them. The best way is to cut all the old flowering shoots with secateurs down to a few inches in length in order to stimulate the growth of new shoots during the [...]
Plants can be a welcome present
Life and work in the garden rotates with remarkable speed, and absolutely nothing seems to come round with such speed as the Christian festival of Christmas. At least not for me, and this month I am always reminded of it because Christmas music starts quite early, led by Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, and Perry Como [...]
Poinsettias get you in the mood for Christmas
Mexico gave us the Aztecs, the delicious tacos and very large hats. It also gave us Euphorbia pulcherrima, which is now as closely linked to Christmas as the holly, ivy, turkey, and black cake. In Europe and North America production of the poinsettia is worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year. The process of [...]
Growing bromeliads
Solving one problem in the garden always seems to lead to another one, for our hobby is a never-ending one – joy, sorrow, frustration or anger. Move one plant and it exposes another one or even several to problems that didn’t exist before. We influence the plants in the garden and the plants influence each [...]
A spectacular shrub
There is an enormous family of plants called the Rubiaceae. It comprises certainly 400 or more genera, and many thousands of species. The most common genera include the mussaenda, ixora, gardenia, coffee and quinine, and as you can see by this very short list, many plants are highly desirable from an ornamental viewpoint and many [...]
Jamaica was once an important research centre for botany
The history of West Indian gardens is absolutely fascinating and the wealth of plants to be found in the region is due largely to the botanical gardens established in the middle of the 19th century. The names Bath, Castleton, and Chincona probably mean little to most people this Sunday morning. But not to Jamaicans, for [...]
A decorative plant
Ornamental gourds can be very exciting plants to grow nowadays, and can result in the most amazing shapes and sizes. The regular size of gourd was very popular in biblical times, and even now in parts of Africa the common gourd has been used for carrying water for thousands of years, when the ornamental gourds [...]
An extraordinary plant
The Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) is one of the most extraordinary plants. It is a native of Asia (particularly Sri Lanka) and can grow up to 100ft, although in Guyana they don’t get as high as this. They produce the largest inflorescence in the plant kingdom (up to 25 ft tall which is estimated to [...]
A curious plant
Diaries can be repetitious things and I often find that in this diary my memory tells me that I am dealing with things that I have talked about before. Never mind that, because gardening is like that. We are governed by the seasons and we have to respond to the changes in weather patterns each [...]
Take care of your trees
I am often asked to give an opinion on the health of a fern called Polypodium aureum popularly known as the Breadfruit fern ( because the shape of the leaves is similar to those of the Breadfruit tree). It is enormously popular for growing in hanging baskets, on walls and as ground cover in shady [...]
Plants of shade and sunlight
Begonias spend their entire lives germinating, growing, flowering, seeding and germinating in the twilight zones of the forest. Sheltered mostly from the heaviest rains by the dense canopy of leaves. They have adapted to the shade by developing red pigmented undersides to their leaves. The light passes through the leaves and as soon as it [...]
Test the pH of soil
When I was at junior school we were taught about the pH scale, a scale which determines the level of acidity or alkalinity of the garden soil. I never realised then how important it was to become later on in my life. A soil with a neutral pH was 7. Anything that had a lower [...]
Give nasturtiums a try
There is a plant which has been grown in Europe for over four hundred years and which I believe originated in North America. It is often referred to as the penny plant but it is perhaps more widely known as Honesty. It belongs to the family Cruciferae and has as its relatives such stalwarts as [...]
Bonsai
Altitude, lack of water, poor soil and swampy conditions are all things with which the gardener is familiar, and which influence the size of the plants we have in our garden. The dwarf pomegranate, the dwarf bamboo and the dwarf golden apple are good examples of plants which have evolved to take account of their [...]
No excuse for not growing… citrus
Year after year we are engaged in operations that we did the year before, and by doing, so we learn. We learn what has succeeded, what has failed and hopefully and more importantly, why. it’s worthwhile bearing in mind that it is good practice with all trees and shrubs to cut back or cut out [...]