BARBADOS, IN BLOOM
My friend and I are bumbling around a rural landscape in the middle of the tiny Caribbean island of Barbados, in a small car with the windows down. We find ourselves tapping our fingers to upbeat Soca songs on the radio, and going nowhere in particular.
The sugarcane is high, there’s a scattering of little wooden houses painted in cheery colours, abandoned windmills, girls in short dresses, unclaimed ruins, more ruins claimed by foliage, white pom pom flowers, green monkeys, black bellied sheep, and plenty of bearded fig trees (Los Barbados), after which the Portuguese sailors named this island.
There’s a flurry of signs at the crossroads for a giddying number of attractions: Harrison’s Caves, Flower Forest, Welchman Hall Gully, Andromeda Gardens, Orchid World, Polo fields, all really close, but hard to find. Fortunately, there are plenty of rum shops where the locals hang out and being the friendliest folk on the planet, they’re happy to point the way.
We stop for some refreshing coconut water, stumble upon an illicit cockfight, and while our time away like everyone else, chit-chatting with strangers as we watch the locals play cricket.
GREEN HELL
We’re fast discovering that high luminosity and plentiful moisture allow plants to thrive on this coral island, and the Brits who took over in the 1630’s were able to set up massive and successful sugar plantations. They’d often refer to their own gardens as ‘green hell.’ How very apt; you make a clearing, turn your back, and it’s all grown back again!
We decide to explore the various green oases and are walking the long, narrow path at Welchman Hall Gully, a practically untouched gorge with ancient trees and a network of gnarled caves. We come across some weird and fascinating specimens never before encountered, such as a mammee apple tree with apricot-like fruit introduced by the Amerindians, macaw palms with menacing leaves
covered in thorny black spines and edible lily bulbs.
Next, we visit the gently undulating Andromeda Gardens, planted by Iris Bannochie in 1954. This sixacre botanical haven is set against views of the ocean. We run our fingers through the aerial roots of an enormous bearded fig tree and feel the velveteen texture of musanda flowers.
Flower forest, once a sugar plantation, is yet another labour of love with a zigzagging, shaded path that takes us past fuzzy red roundels of the annatto tree, as well as bright, tropical flowers such as gingers, heliconias and bird-of paradise.
HUNTE’S GARDENS
We’ve stumbled upon paradise. Hunte’s Gardens is so unexpected, so beautiful, we feel especially rewarded and triumphant for having discovered it. Planted in a
giant, sun-soaked sinkhole, this, too, was once a part of a sugar plantation. Horticulturist Anthony Hunte’s single-minded passion and exquisite taste led to creating this unparalleled Eden in the Caribbean.
Slowly, our eyes take in a series of magical niches with pretty chairs and tables that urge the visitor to tarry a while. Waterfalls tumble earthwards while stately palms reach for the clouds. It’s a dramatic setting with the added dimension of high and low vistas, vertical backdrops and the notes of classical music lend a dash of romance.
We discover maidenhair fern, ground orchids, and rare jade vine. Lavender, lilac and fuchsia flowers stand out against the green tones, red anthuriums and pink begonias lace the pathways and bridges.
Anthony likes to invite all the visitors to his wooden patio for a drink and a chat; there are some freeloaders that didn’t pay at the gate, but swooped in to bask in this idyll. Purple hummingbirds, rose-ringed parakeets, yellow chested banana quits and all manner of birds have staked their claim in this green haven and are in no hurry to leave. It most certainly shows their sense!