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Love blooms at Trinidad Garden Club which teaches horticulture and gives back to communities
WRITER Caroline Moses
PHOTOGRAPHERs SUSAN DE GANNES AND JEANNINE STORY
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As the rainy season rolls into gear and another
drought comes to an end, Caribbean garden
lovers flock to their lawns to groom and tend
to their plants. But for one group in Trinidad, this
happens year-round. This is the Trinidad Garden Club,
and at 130 members, the group has come a long way
in 22 years.
“It started off as just a small group of friends starting
a club because they were garden enthusiasts,” Chancy
Moll, past president and current vice-president of the
Trinidad Garden Club, said.
“Garden enthusiast’’ seems a fitting term to describe
the members of the club. This is more than just a
group of ladies who love to garden and keep busy.
Unsurprisingly, the men and women of the garden
club are more than the stereotypical housewives and
well-heeled husbands with too much time on their
hands. With some of the most respected names in
Trinidad, including doctors, lawyers and business
professionals, in the membership, there is a lot more
to this club than meets the eye.
growing
happiness
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With extravagant gardens and luscious flowers
being the symbol of wealth and status in Trinidad’s
earliest days, one might assume that members of the
country’s premier garden club would be among the
wealthiest of the nation, but that isn’t exactly true.
The executive board accepts every applicant who
shows love and dedication to horticulture and his or
her own garden. Credentials are straightforward: to
become a member of the garden club, one must be a
keen gardener.
“A garden is something that is shared by people
irrespective of class, creed or colour. We have people
from every walk of life engaged in gardening,”
explained Moll. “And that is why the club has become
so popular.”
At a member’s home in Westmoorings for the
month’s scheduled meeting, the enthusiasts gather in
the garden, participate in show benches and discuss
their love of their gardens and agriculture in general.
It’s these monthly meetings that solidify the bond of
the group.
But this bond goes far deeper than monthly
meetings. The members of the club pride themselves
on educating themselves and the public about
gardening techniques, the importance of gardening,
and horticulture itself.
Sponsoring a bursary at the University of West
Indies St Augustine campus for students studying
horticulture and agriculture, the Trinidad Garden Club
is passionate about fuelling the next generation’s
love for garden culture.
“The most important thing is education,” Moll
said, explaining the group’s dedication to facilitating
discussions and workshops and teaching both their
members and the public about gardening and
horticulture.
Besides teaching formally, they aim to share their
knowledge with one another—as each member has
a different insight to add to the discussion. According
to Moll, gardeners in general should strive to educate
themselves on the craft, especially when it comes to
purchasing plants and blooms. Not every plant can
Sponsoring a bursary at the University of West Indies
St Augustine campus for students studying horticulture
and agriculture, the Trinidad Garden Club is passionate
about fuelling the next generation’s love for garden culture
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Trees are critically important to the survival of most living things especially human
beings, and while this is a long-established fact, it somehow has not positively impacted
human behavior towards the environment. Trees are a source of beauty and shade;
they provide homes for birds and other wildlife and are beneficial in so many ways. Yet
they are removed indiscriminately. Everyone should try to plant a tree where possible. A
word of advice though: one needs to carefully research and select a tree appropriate to
one’s surroundings. Pay careful attention to size at maturity and root system.
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be placed just anywhere, with many better suited for
bright sunshine or shaded areas of the garden. Most
importantly, not every plant thrives in our tropical
climate, but when they do, they really shine.
“We have a lot of sunshine, we have a lot of rain,”
added Moll. “And that combination makes for a lot
of good gardening.”
Caribbean gardens really are unique in that way: the
bright colours, wild greenery and diverse selection,
almost as if they were made to mirror our own culture.
Trinidadians are a little bit of everything, and the garden
club takes inspiration from our people for their gardens,
with hybridization becoming a more and more popular
trend. Many members have done hybridizing of orchids
on their own terms and in their own gardens, putting
together what Moll calls the best of two worlds:
creating a somewhat “ideal’’ species, taking the best
qualities from each family to create a better flower:
better in form, better in shape, and better in beauty.
Through colourful blooms, lush greenery and
succulent fruit-bearing trees, gardeners have created
picturesque and somewhat serene oases, begging to
be photographed and shared with the world. Seven
years ago, Moll finally took the plunge, suggesting
the idea of sharing a little piece of their gardens
with everyone else, creating an annual calendar
showcasing 12 gardens of different members each
year, complete with tips and tricks to following suit.
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Flowering lilies are quite popular in Trinidad and Tobago. When I say lily, I loosely refer
to genera occurring in two classes: Liliaceae and Amaryllidaceae and narrowly to the
most popular flowering types grown in the Caribbean, Amaryllis, Crinum, Hippeastrum,
Hymenocallis, Griffinia and Gloriosa. A recent phenomenon that has been especially
exciting is lilies with coloured foliage, especially Crinums. These are now more widely
available and are rewarding all year rather than only when they bloom. These plants are
also very versatile as they vary greatly in size from the diminutive blue-flowered eight-
to-12-inch variety of Griffinia, to the enormous six-to-eight-foot Crinum “Sangria.”
Caribbean gardens really are unique in that way:
the bright colours, wild greenery and diverse selection,
almost as if they were made to mirror our own culture
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While all of the members tend to their own gardens,
the club has placed a green thumb on several larger
spaces throughout the country—landscaping areas
for the National Zoo, the TSPCA and the Tortuga
Church, among many others. In the past, the Trinidad
Garden Club would use the funds raised through the
annual calendars to landscape, upkeep and contribute
to these sites, but a few years ago members had a
better idea for the money.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2013, the
garden club donated $20,000 to different charities
throughout Trinidad, benefiting Vita’s House Hospice,
Living Water community, the Animal Welfare and St
Ornamental pineapples or Ananas have become a popular landscape plant in recent times. As more
varieties and cultivars become commercially available they are becoming increasingly sought after.
Pineapples have long since been a symbol of warmth and welcome, hence the reason they are
widely used as decorative pieces in concrete, coral stone and/or plaster at the entrance of homes
and businesses. Pineapple plants are now available in several colours, from pinks and pale creamy
yellow to white and creamy white to bright reddish brown and even reddish purple. They also vary
widely in terms of plant size, from 12 to 15 inches to three to four feet. They even vary in shape,
some are star-shaped, others recurve, while some have thorns and others do not.
Vincent de Paul, among others. Through plant sales,
tea parties and calendar orders, the group continues to
give back to the community—be it through assisting
in sponsoring healthcare, supporting a local charity or
providing for local churches and organizations.
“There’s something for saying when you touch the
soil, there’s something that touches you in your soul,”
Moll said.
With a unit that’s more like a family than a group
of friends, there is nothing quite like the bond that
the club members share. Their love for the art of
gardening, combined with their love for one other
makes this group one like none other.M
