A Blaze of Colour

At this time of year, Barbados is a blaze of colour. Everything is either flowering or coming into flower. If this is important to you when visiting a destination, be sure to book your Barbados trip for sometime between February and April.

Some things have a few flowers all year long, like Bougainvillea and Hibiscus, but early in the year when the nights are longer, everything is absolutely covered in flowers, with just a few leaves thrown in for good measure.

It really is quite spectacular to look around and see natural colour everywhere, whether it be a tree or a shrub, you can’t miss it. A fabulous feast for the eyes!

If you’d like to read more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.

The Season For Losing Leaves

Believe it or not, Barbados experiences enough changes in weather and daylight hours to affect the bahaviour of plant life on the island. At this time of year when there are fewer hours of daylight, many trees lose their leaves, such as the Frangipani tree shown below. In a few weeks the same tree will be wearing an umbrella of spectacular flowers with a few leaves thrown in for good measure.

The Women’s Tongue Tree shown here is covered in brown seed pods. In a few weeks, these will be replaced by new leaves, and the tree will go from yellow/brown to bright green - quite a dramatic transformation.

Though January is, technically, part of the dry season, these changes are governed by the number of hours of daylight. If these same trees were growing in close proximity to a streetlight, the leaves would not drop off, and far fewer seed pods and flowers would be produced.

Many shrubs and trees are governed by the changing season - poinsettia, flamboyant, golden apple and plum are just a few.

If you’d like to read more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.

Orchids & Barbados

Barbados has a flourishing Orchid Society and many enthusiastic orchid lovers. Not only are orchids exhibited in the Barbados Horticultural Society Flower Show (25 and 26 January 2014), but the Barbados Orchid Society also hosts their own show in March.

Not to be forgotten for lovers of these amazing plants is Barbados Orchid World, where thousands of different orchids are grown and displayed year round. This attraction is located in the center of the island, is well sign posted, marked on maps and is well known by taxi and bus drivers, so it’s easy to find. It’s even practical if you’re just visiting for a day on a cruise ship.

My personal experience of growing orchids is limited, though I have attached two to a tree stump behind my home. They seem to be growing, so I’ll just have to wait and see what flowers appear - I’ve forgotten what they are now. Also sprouting up next to the stump is a young pawpaw (papaya) tree - presumably from seeds dropped by either birds or monkeys.

If you’d like to read more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.

Barbados Horticultural Society Flower Show

Every year at the end of January, the Barbados Horticultural Society hosts a 2-day flower show at their headquarters at Balls in Christ Church. It is an excellent opportunity for interested visitors to see local blooms at their best.

There are flower arranging displays, fruit and vegetable displays, exhibits of tropical ferns, succulents, cacti and other plants, plus demonstrations. Plants, flowers, garden equipment and accessories, locally made jams and jellies, craft works and a host of other items are also on sale.

The Flower Show is open to the public from 10 am until 6 pm each day, and there is lots of well organised parking. There is an admission fee of BD$20 per adult (US$10) and BD$7 (US$3.50) for children under the age of 12.

The BHS also sponsors an Open Garden programme from January through March each year. Private gardens are opened to the public for a small fee, and refreshments are served.

For more information on either of these events, please visit the BHS website.

If you are interested in reading more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.

A Cloud of Dragonflies

I live in a two-storey building, and there’s a huge tree about 50 feet behind my home - I think it’s taller than my building now. Anyhow, this morning as I’m sitting on the deck enjoying my breakfast, I see this cloud of dragonflies (I don’t know what you call a large number of dragonflies collected together) about equidistant between my home and the tree.

I’ve seen them there before - I guess that air funnels between the building and the tree and there must be something particularly appealing about it to dragonflies. Every few minutes some from the front drop back and others take up the lead - much as in a bicycle peloton. 

The dragonfly cloud will be there for hours from morning until well into the afternoon. If I’m really lucky, sometimes one will come really close and I can see the iridescent reds or greens or blues from just a few feet away. They really are quite lovely. I feel quite privileged when I am lucky enough to see them at such close quarters.

If you’d like to read more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.

Christmas Blooms

One of the things associated with Christmas in Barbados (and other parts of the world) are the flowers - certain things bloom at this time of year and add to the Christmas feeling.

It's easy to see how the Christmas Candle pictured above gets its name.

Everyone knows Poinsettia (show above). This is the common red one that grows in many gardens around the island.

Snow-on-the-Mountain pictured above. It's easy to see how this shrub gets its name.

I call this Christmas Vine - I don't know it's really name but it grows wild all over the island, and at this time of year the vines flower profusely and, from a distance, a whole field covered in these delicate little flowers give the impression of a snow covered field.

If you'd like to read more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.

Immortelle Trees

I absolutely love Immortelle Trees. They are so easy to grow - break off a small branch, stick it in a hole in the ground, prop if necessary, water, and voila, in a short period of time you’ll have a mature Immortelle Tree growing in your garden.

In my childhood years I first heard of these trees in relation to Trinidad and Grenada as we didn’t have them here in Barbados. They were everywhere on these islands, and a drive around the countryside revealed these stunning trees with variegated leaves and bright red flowers interspersed with the verdant green of the rainforest and the bright yellow flowers of poui trees.

Now Immortelle Trees are found all over Barbados, but sadly, there is a moth infecting them so many aren’t looking very healthy. The moth causes the leaves to shrivel and turn brown before falling off.

There are two such trees on the street where I live that are in close proximity to each other. I hope they recover. There is a third tree on the street which was cut back severely and, as you can see from the pics, it looks very healthy now. Unfortunately none are flowering at this time of year.

If you’d like to read more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.