Our married life began in l978 and in the October we bought “Junkanoo” on Winton Highway. It came with a magnificent view, looking across to Rose Island, and a house and garden with “possibilities”. Some thirty-seven years later we continue to work on the “possibilities”!
In l984 David and I joined the Horticultural Society of the Bahamas (HSB) and were introduced to the then little known species Bromeliaceae. I confess initially they did not really appeal to me – those prickly, spikey, unmanageable plants! However, by this time we had acquired the lot adjacent to our house and began to clean it up. We cleared the undergrowth, got rid of the rubbish dumped there over the years, kept all the native trees and were ready to develop a garden. So much of the “land” was coral rock and the problem was “what to plant”? Suddenly those huge prickly bromeliads started to look very attractive, and so began what has become my love affair with bromeliads.
Like Rosemary, membership of HSB became a focal point for information, and the sharing of information at its monthly meetings which was invaluable in the trial and errors of putting my Bromeliad Garden together. Such was my addiction to bromeliads that I joined the Bromeliad Society International (BSI) which helped to widen my knowledge even more.
I attended BSI World Bromeliad Conferences and over the years brought back an even greater variety of bromeliads than are available in Nassau – hybrids, new and limited releases – adding to an ever and always growing bromeliad collection!
The Bahamian climate is excellent for growing bromeliads – following a good downpour of rain you can watch the plants practically growing before your eyes. There is no doubt our garden is a great source of pleasure, pride and contemplation as I wander around looking for new shoots, new inflorescences, and new surprises of nature.
Beryl Sheasby