This garden is located on an island with an active volcano.
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Featured image courtesy of Monserrat National Trust Botanical Garden
Transcript:
Hey there, Garden Lovers,
Today is February 4, and this is A Garden A Day with Mædunbroc Gardens.
Thank you for listening.
I woke up this morning to a lawn, driveway, and steps covered in slick ice and a dog who kept looking at me like it was my fault when I took him outside to do his business. The high today is supposed to be only eighteen degrees. The seven day forecast shows little relief.
So, I think, folks, we need to head to the Caribbean again. This time, to the British West Indies, to the island of Monserrat to the Monserrat National Trust Botanical Gardens.
Monserrat is called the Emerald Isle both for its lush green canopy and for its Irish-Carib heritage, and this tiny island has it all — a tropical rainforest with hiking trails, overgrown banana plantations and rubber tree groves, mysterious petroglyphs, black sandy beaches, and an active volcano.
The island is also a birdwatcher’s paradise with hummingbirds, cuckoos, and purple-throated Caribs to name a few, and a popular spot for scuba divers interested in exploring undersea magma and coral reefs.
The Botanical Garden is fairly new as far as botanical gardens go. It began in 2005 to provide a resource for islanders as well as an attraction for tourists. It replaced a previous botanical garden, located in Plymouth, the former capital of Monserrat.
In 1995, a series of eruptions from the Soufrière Hills volcano sent ash and lava flows to cover much of Monserrat, including the capital city of Plymouth. A series of eruptions followed, covering the city with more than four feet of ash, causing buildings to burn and making habitation impossible.
Plymouth and the entire southern half of the island was designated an “exclusion zone.” No one is allowed to enter the zone for their own safety.
Nearly two-thirds of the island’s population was evacuated oversees and most have not returned.
Plymouth was the seat of government as well as the center of commerce and services for the island. Some of what was lost was rebuilt on other parts of the island, including the botanical garden.
The botanical garden provides an educational resource for children and adults and also conducts scientific research into the island’s plants and ecosystems with efforts toward long-term conservation. The garden grows plants in a plant nursery with a focus on growing and establishing plants that are endemic to the island.
A pretty little flowering shrub called the Pribby hedge or ‘Rondeletia buxifolia’ is endemic to the island. The garden has planted it along the garden’s boundary to demonstrate and encourage locals on the island to choose native when planting hedges on their own properties. The shrub was once thought to be extinct, but the botanical garden has successfully propagated the plant, and it is now flourishing.
They are also working to conserve the Centre Hills, the largest remaining intact forest on the island. The garden displays some of the native plants that are found in this rich, biodiverse region. They also provide an education center to provide the community with information on how to conserve the Centre Hills.
The Monserrat National Trust Botanical Gardens include a medicinal plant garden, a “ghaut” habitat representing vegetation growing on the steep slopes of the islands mountains, an orchid house, a cacti and succulent garden, and a palm promenade, a gorgeous and shady walkway showcasing the wide variety of palms found in the Caribbean islands.
The Orchid House is one of a few places to see the endangered Monserrat Orchid. Seeds from the orchid have been collected and stored in the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to ensure the flower does not go extinct.
The Orchid House also includes other regional orchids and a growing collection of hybrid orchids.
The Medicinal Garden showcases plants used traditionally to cure and heal on Monserrat. Plants were used in salves and teas and many have been found by modern scientific research to do just what the ancestors already knew.
The botanical garden is a peaceful and beautiful retreat for nature lovers and a must see and do destination for tourists.
Well, that’s about it for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s garden.
Thank you so much for listening. Join me tomorrow to find out where we are going next. I release a new episode every single day.
If you like A Garden a Day, and I hope you do, please consider liking, subscribing, and telling your friends. If you are able, please also consider giving us a five-star review. It lets me know you like the show, and it also helps others find the podcast. I really appreciate your support.
If all goes well, I will be right back here tomorrow. See you then!
To learn more about the Monserrat National Trust Botanical Garden, check out these links:
https://montserratnationaltrust.ms/botanical-garden/
https://www.visitmontserrat.com/healing-secrets-in-montserrats-botanical-gardens/
https://www.allatsea.net/8-top-caribbean-botanical-gardens-to-visit/
https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-montserrat/
https://montserratfocus.com/attractions/
https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Montserrat_Botanic_Garden
https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Plymouth,_Montserrat
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