Category: Gardening

I have always been interested in gardening having inherited this from my mother, the late Clarice Albury and from her father, the late Harry McDonald. As a child I remember preparing the flower beds for planting annual seeds. We saved the seeds from year to year and I learned the correct time to plant to get the best results. We also had many beautiful roses in the garden. My interest in other ornamentals came much later in life.

As a young adult I visited Europe, South America and Asia and enjoyed going to the various parks to view the flowers whenever possible. I especially remember visits to Kew Gardens, The Chelsea Flower Show and the Singapore Botanical Gardens and somewhere along the way the orchid “bug” tried to bite me. I purchased a cattleya and a terete vanda, but not knowing much about orchids, promptly planted them in the best garden soil that I could find, and they both, a little less promptly, died. However, some time later, I was fortunate to receive a vanda orchid “Chiang Mai Smile” in bloom as a Christmas gift along with a book on how to grow orchids. After that there was no stopping me – I was addicted! My orchid collection quickly developed to about 30 plants.

In 1996 I joined the Horticultural Society of the Bahamas, having been invited by Mrs. Stephanie Harding. Thus began my interest in Bromeliads and other tropical plants. My thirst for knowledge about orchids continued and I purchased almost any book about them that I came across. My orchid collection has expanded to over 300 plants. I enjoy attending plant shows and conferences and have so far attended four of the World Bromeliad Conferences; my bromeliad collection is still somewhat behind the orchid collection but is fast growing.

I do not have a shade house but have a lot of shade from the tree canopy as well as lathe structures (pergolas) that provide good growing conditions. My garden is relatively small and as a result, I have tried to go vertical with many orchids and a few bromeliads being established on the various trees in the garden. Also, I have many of the shade-loving ones growing under the carport. Other plants grow throughout the garden and on the deck and fences in the back garden.

Being in the garden is one of life’s greatest pleasures for me and is a place of serenity and reflection and where I turn when my spirit is down and needs a lift.

                                              Hubert Albury

 

I fell in love with plants at an early age. During the summer, my brother Stephen and I spent time in Aunt Clara’s garden watching and helping her with her plants. As a child, her garden became my favorite place.

Eventually, I grew my own garden with Bachelor Buttons and Marigolds at first. My garden was full of flowers, each one with its own peculiarity and personality.

Then I met Sarah Bardelmeier, Founder of the Horticultural Society of The Bahamas; my garden   began to bloom and, as the saying goes: “the rest was history”.  I enjoy attending the monthly meetings at members’ gardens, where we exchange tips and also get expert advice from various speakers. Gardening is a joy to me and bromeliads are now my favourite plants.

Ona Bailey

 

I have always felt closest to my Creator when connecting with nature.  As a child, rambling in the wild in New Providence and Eleuthera, I became fascinated with a variety of plant life, wild flowers, unusual rocks and wood.  I try to bring all of these aspects into the confines of my garden.

There are many images of life and life lessons that are learnt, in the garden.  I have become tolerant of a snake in my garden (a small one of course) with beautiful markings on its skin which I could speak to (from a distance).   I once watched with fascination as one gracefully slithered over to a patch of plants, skillfully grabbed a lizard scurrying by, embraced it completely (loved it to death), devoured it before my eyes and went merrily along its way.  It is also a delight to watch the turtles, including 30 year old “Mutt”, after escaping the harassment of “Mr. Speckles” (a different breed from the others) basking in the sun before plunging back into their pond.  There they enjoy a feast of gelatinous eggs left by the frogs after a night of symphony (croaking like you have never heard).

It is a peaceful experience to sit by the fish pond listening to the trickling water and watching the goldfish, sharks and albino catfish swim aimlessly together.  This is sometimes temporarily interrupted if a heron manages to force its way into the pond enclosure to snatch a goldfish.  While my first instinct is to “wring its neck”, I accept it is only doing what it was designed to do, and gently shoo it away.  The peaceful mood is restored when suddenly a pretty little hummingbird appears, stopping in mid-air for two seconds, eyeing me before yielding to the seduction of the bromeliad’s bloom tasting its sweet nectar.  

Of course there is always the element of surprise in finding a beautiful orchid in bloom (my favourite flower) that was not there the day before.  Or the explosion of colour from the orange blooms of the plant that gives painful warning from its thorny branches to “touch me not”.

Gardening, in all of its aspects gives balance and wholeness to life.  It is therapeutic, a kind of medicine for all ailments.  With nurturing, pruning, patience and placing everything in the right spot, the result is sheer joy.  The gardener would say after we finished watering the plants, “They happy, they smiling.”  And so am I.

Marjorie Archer

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