A passion for citrus plants

DR SHAHNAZ CAMATCHEE, a north London GP, spoke at length on BBC TV’s Gardeners’ World last week about her passion for citrus plants – she has 34 – and the benefits of gardening.

“Now it’s very important not to underwater or overwater citrus,” she said. “If you don’t get the watering just right, it could lead to the citrus flowers being shocked. And just like human beings, when we get shocked and stressed then we kind of have a breakdown. That’s what happens with citrus plants and trees. They end up dropping their leaves. They look very, very sick and miserable.”

She spoke about her own background: “My love for gardening started when I was about four, five years old. I was born in Bangladesh. So I used to love visiting my nan’s courtyard garden because it was filled and packed with all the tropical fruits and plants that you can ever imagine. And she used to have huge lime trees. From Bangladesh, I moved on to Dubai. And I used to do a lot of gardening with my mum. She used to have all these cuttings that she used to acquire from the roadside and other gardens. And she had a little collection of plants in the balcony.”

She said: “I just can’t see anything not to love about citrus, a harvest that I get at the end. You love them and they give you enormous love back in return. It’s just a magical experience.”

She made a more general point as she gave viewers a tour of her fragrant conservatory: “So being a GP I do prescribe a lot of gardening to my patients. And it’s been more so over the last two years because of the rise of mental health illnesses. I suffer from a lot of stress and anxiety, and I have found plants, although being my obsession, it is my outlet where it kind of helps me focus, stay calm. It feeds your mind, body and soul.”