Caribbean Gardens

However, splendid things do come out of the blue. One January evening, I got back here very late, and thought I'd have one last look at my emails. Unusually, I even had a quick look through the junk stuff. One of those read 'An offer you can't refuse'. Huh. And from a grand US university... Just about to press the delete button, I realised it was addressed to me. My email programme was wrong! And the offer? Well, a trip to the Caribbean, aboard an extraordinary sailing ship, and going to look at Caribbean gardens. Surely there must be a catch... Even so, I didn't get much sleep.

And it all turned out to be real. Starting off at Barbados, finishing up at Antigua, with Martinique, Dominica, and more in between. Downside? Doing some lectures. Do I know anything about Caribbean botany? No. Caribbean gardens. Ditto. Panic. I thought I'd have to refuse, then I began to think of that marvellous botanist/pirate William Dampier... Or of the medicinal plants that have come from Central America... and so on. So, indeed, I didn't refuse.


I've never seen a jungle before, never been to the tropics. Even Barbados itself was a revelation. The first garden we visited was the Andromeda garden, a real beauty (see pic), filled with ideas that would translate to a temperate or cool garden as well - well, that's if you have fabulous topography too. But more about that later...

to be continued!