Dominica / Special Interests / Flowers & Gardens

Dominica’s rapid changes of elevation from sea level to nearly 5000 feet on a relatively small land area, and its rich volcanic soils and ample rainfall have given rise to a wide variety of habitat and vegetation. The entire country is a garden in effect, some of it not well tended, granted, some of it is inaccessible after all, but the all pervasive greenery is striking on arrival. Roads, those narrow slivers of tarmac snaking round the island, are still in deference to the landscape not a detriment. Gardening, a tending of the earth for sustenance, has been a way of life for generations - sweet potatoes, yam, dasheen, plantain, tannia and pumpkin which are their staple crops. Everything else is a God given bonus. Bananas were a cash crop for years, and Dominica has a tremendous array of fruit like soursop, papaya, cherry, mango, pineapple, guava, sapodilla, passion fruit, acres of avocado, citrus fruit and cocoa. Coffee, citrus fruit, coconuts and bananas are still grown commercially.

More formal, floral and private gardens island wide reflect the broader view where riotous displays of heliconia, ginger, wild anthuriums, bromeliads, croton and orchids are fairly commonplace amongst incredible shrubbery, strange new succulents and fernery of impressive scale - 195 types of fern are identified, 75 orchids, with eleven species of plant listed as endemic.

Woodlands extend from the western coastal woodland which are dry, partly semi-deciduous (home of the national flower - the red bloom of the bwa kwaib tree which flowers between February and June), through littoral woodland, coarse leaved, salt resistant, often bent to the whim of the wind on rugged eastern shorelines, to true rainforest with deeper soil structures sustaining towering gommier, chatanier and karapit with giant buttress roots. Slightly higher in the montane forest, vegetation and trees become more stunted in height and girth, seen in the extreme immediately above, in elfin woodland amid the cloud forest. Everything is low growing in miniature where swathes of kaklen trees predominate, draped in moist mosses and ferns, the occasional mountain palm standing short and defiant through the mist.

The island’s Botanical Gardens are slightly above sea level, best accessed off the Bath Road in Roseau by the ylang ylang tree, a wonderful place to relax and appreciate some of nature’s bounty on the outskirts of the capital. The gardens began life as a crop nursery in 1890, later benefiting from the patronage of Kew Gardens, with dozens of stately palm and a delightful cricket ground. Hurricane David wrought severe damage in 1979, a huge African baobab demolishing a school bus which is still there today as a starkly poignant reminder. Around 50 types of tree remain, including a very large mahogany standing guard over the parrot sanctuary, behind which you can walk up Jack’s Path to Morne Bruce for panoramic views over the city and the Roseau Valley.

“Lawns as perfect as the most ancient and august in England rolled in gentle slopes shaded by clumps of enormous unknown trees, except for another banyan under whose convulsions I lay for an hour or two and watched my cigar smoke drifting through its trunks. It was a casual and empty paradise, with no other purpose it seemed, than to furnish a solitary refuge for the Marvellian reveries of the wisely recumbent gardeners and me”. So noted Patrick Leigh Fermor in The Traveller’s Tree, and sixty years on that same languor prevails.

Eggleston and Giraudel ‘garden’ villages are on the cooler western slopes of Morne Anglais a little way south at around 1500 ft and are renowned for their vibrant displays culminating in the annual flower show in May. It is a breadbasket area of the country too, the community are committed to groundbreaking agri-business and geotourism projects. Atherton and Fae Martin, environmentalists and informed activists, are prime movers in promoting the Community Gardens and Culinary Tours concept and their own base at Exotica Cottages nearby and its Sugar Apple cafe is a centre of organic gastronomic excellence.

Green Mountain Flowers, Giraudel is worth a visit.

Giraudel/Eggleston Flower Growers Inc, for cooking and garden tours.

Recommended Reading

Peter GH Evans and Arlington James have contributed a number of informative works on the natural world, including Nature Sites and the Flora and Fauna of Cabrits National Park.

Gardens of Dominica (Papillote Press 2000) by Polly Pattullo and Anne Jno Baptiste.

An Illustrated Guide to Dominica’s Botanic Gardens by Arlington James 2007.

Contributor: Stephen Thorpe (update 2011)