Although Pride of Barbados is the island’s national flower, it’s not actually as common in gardens nowadays as it used to be. As a chid growing up, I remember every garden having a hedge or cluster of Pride of Barbados resplendent with it’s yellow/orange/red flowers. They are still just as beautiful but not quite as common.
The plants produce a green seed pod about the size of a thing pea pod, and these young seed pods gradually turn brown as they dry up, and split open to release the flat seeds. The flowers are quite small and delicate, with little or no fragrance. Birds feed on the seeds and the nectar in the flowers, and sparrows (bullfinches) sometimes build their nests in these shrubs.
People do use them as hedges, but they don’t form tight hedges that would keep an animal in, but are strictly decorative and relatively easy to maintain - just trim periodically and that’s about it. They even survive the dry season with relative ease. A long line of Pride of Barbados plants can be quite spectacular when they are all covered in flowers.
No comments:
Post a Comment