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**Fairy Lily Zephyranthes candida
The small bulbs of the fairy lily multiply quickly adding to their always green eight inch tall grass like foliage. That alone would make them a plus for border or sloping garden plantings, but they also have delightful white flowers reminding me very much of the crocus in my New England spring garden of long ago.
From: Southerly South America in swampy or marshy areas.
Photographed: In our wall garden by the driveway at our home in Montserrat.
Planting and Care: Plant the small, less than an inch in diameter, bulbs just about an inch below the soil surface in a sunny or semi shady area. It is said that they like regular watering or rainfall, but that has not been our experience. The plants did very well with very little water -- doubling the number of plants and producing lovely flowers too.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted © Krika.com 2008

**Fan Palm See The "P" Page -- PALM TREES - Fan Palm

**Fennel Foeniculum
This is one of my favorite plants here in Montserrat and not just because it is impervious to volcanic ash and acid rain. I am now trying to grow the bulb variety, hoping that it will be as happy here as the one we have now.
Photographed: In our upper garden at our home in Montserrat.
Planting and Care: Take seeds from your grocery herbal jar of fennel seeds and plant about four feet of a row in your garden. Plant the seeds about one inch below ground and keep moist until the plants appear. They will grow to be about four feet tall and will appear as you see in the photographs. Snip a sprig or two for a salad every day, let the flowers go to seed and harvest them for your Italian cooking. With no further work on your part, you will have a lifetime of fennel plants -- they self seed like nothing you have ever seen.
Text and Photographs Copyrighted © Krika.com 2009

FERNS

**Asparagus Fern (1), Plumosa Fern Asparagus setaceus or Asparagus plumosus
This is an extremely feathery long branched fern often used as greenery in delicate flower bouquets. It is not one of my favorite ferns, but it is a volcano survivor which gives it a lot of points in anyone's book!
Photographed: In our shady terrace garden at our home in Montserrat.
Text & Photograph Copyrighted © KO 2007

Bird's Nest Fern Asplenium austraasicum or Asplenium nidus

**Fish Tail Fern Nephrolepis falcata furcans or Nephrolepis biserrata var. furcans
This is one of my all time favorite ferns. Its color is wonderful and as you can see in the photos below and it has an exuberant amount of fronds when it is happy. Under the right conditions it spreads rapidly, enough so that I have to routinely pull plants or we would be overrun.
Photographed: In our shady terrace garden at our home in Montserrat.
Planting and Care: The fishtail is not particularly fond of mid-day Caribbean sun, though morning or afternoon sun is tolerated pretty well. It is most fond of bright sun-free spaces. It also loves a bit of water as do almost all ferns, but it survived the 2007 months long heat wave and drought here in Montserrat while we were away.
Text & Photographs Copyrighted © KO 2007

Fox Tail Fern, Emerald Fern Protasparagus densiflorus or Asparagus densiflorus
Photographed: At the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Planting and Care: This is one of those wonderfully hardy ferns that can handle life in full sun though it will also do fine in semi shady areas of the garden. Almost unbelievably it is also tolerant of its access to water, doing fine with routine rainfall or watering, but putting up with less if it has to.
Text & Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2010

Holly Fern,
I had one of these as a houseplant in Washington, DC, where I lived for several years. It never disappointed my in any way; it was always green and healthy. For a fern it is especially tough looking with thick leathery leaves. I was thrilled to see one growing outside.
Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Planting and Care: As with all ferns it is most practical to buy plants or get some from friends. Sometimes you'll be lucky and have a volunteer if there are some in your neighborhood. Plant them in a shady place and make sure they don't get too dry.
Text & Photograph Copyrighted © KO 2010

**Maidenhair Fern Adiantum raddianum
In New England I always had a pot of these lovely ferns growing happily on a northerly facing window ledge. What is so delightful here in the Caribbean is to see this delicate plant growing happily along the roadside, as well as in our shady terraced garden. They are said to be difficult to transplant successfully.
Photographed: In our shady terrace garden at our home in Montserrat.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted © Krika.com 2008

**Rabbits Foot Fern Davallia fejeensis
This is one of my long term favorites -- a large wide lacy fern frond growing on a furry foot.
From: The Canary Islands
Photographed: In our shady terrace garden at our home in Montserrat.
Planting and Care: This is one of those ferns that grows on a thick (1/2") stem that grows on the ground when they are in their natural tropical habitat. In more northerly climates, it is an indoor plants almost always potted as a hanging plant with the feet growing over the edge of the pot until it is almost covered. Often they are planted in wire baskets to be hung on terraces in the summer, but these are hard to care for when brought inside in the fall. They will not winter over outside in a northern climate. Here in our Caribbean garden we have planted ours in our shady terrace garden where it is doing very well. It has proved pretty hardy, having survived a four month drought while we were away last year.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted © Krika.com 2008

**Staghorn Fern Platycerium superbum
This is a very exotic looking fern that attaches itself to and grows on trees. We were given one a few years ago and planted it in the perfect spot on the neem tree in our shady terraced hill garden. It had three tiny leaves back then and though we tended it carefully, it didn't die, but it never grew. Then one day my husband had an epiphany -- nothing will grow on a neem tree. We moved the fern to a different tree and it is now growing happily adding new leaves each week.
From: Australia
Photographed: In our shady terrace garden at our home in Montserrat and at a friend's home also on the island.
Planting and Care: If you are lucky enough to get one of these ferns, find a bright semi shady tree (not a neem) and attach your plant to the tree with cotton twine or with two inch torn strips of cotton cloth. Give the tiny fern a daily dose of water and a weekly dose of a liquid fertilizer. You will be as thrilled as I am every time you see a tiny new leaf and a flat round circular green attachment to the tree.
Text and Photographs Copyrighted © Krika.com 2008

**Sword Fern, Wild Boston Fern, Macho Fern Nephrolepis exaltata
This fern so closely resembles a Boston fern that it seems identical in appearance. Their differences lie in the conditions under which they will grow and thrive.
Photographed: In our shady terrace garden at our home in Montserrat.
Planting and Care: Unlike the more delicate Boston fern, the sword fern will grow happily in full tropical sun as long as there is regular rain or hand watering. We have had plants with fronds that are almost three feet in length though this seems to be the happiest end of the spectrum. Normally, with little or no care the fronds will be about twenty inches or so. They do like a very occasional dose of fertilizer, but seem indifferent to the type of soil in which they are planted. Here in Montserrat almost all soil is acidic.
Text & Photograph Copyrighted © KO 2007

**Tattoo Fern
This lovely lacey fern showed up in our garden this year all on its own and it seemed to have found its own sort of eden as it flourished and spread rapidly. One afternoon visiting a friend in her garden I was told of this fern's local life. For the children of Montserrat in days gone by this fern provided free, instant and very decorative tattoos as you can see in the photograph below on the right.
Photographed: At a friend's home in Montserrat.
Planting and Care: As this fern was a volunteer in a sunny place in our garden I'd have to say it would do well there, but it would have to be given regular rainfall or watering to be at its best. It is a much more delicate plant than the sword fern or many of the other long fronded varieties we have in the garden.
Text & Photographs Copyrighted © Krika.com 2008

Tree Fern Cyathea arborea (L.) J. E. Smith or Cyathea dealbata or Asparagus virgatus or Schizolobium Parahyba (from Brazil) or Dicksonia
These enchanting wonders will grow to a height of 20 to 30 feet given the right considtions.
From: The Dutch East Indies.
Photographed: At Rancho Grande Inn in Panajachel and in the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Planting and Care: Tree ferns are always said to be shade loving, but I most consistently see them growing in full sun as you see in the photograph to the left. They are also said to love moisture and a damp humous rich soil. I don't yet have personal experience with growing one though I hope to change that soon. They are exquisite plants.
Text Copyrighted © KO 2007 Text and Photographs Copyrighted ©KO 2010

FERTILIZER

Before buying property in the Caribbean happily thinking you will have a year round productive vegetable garden you may want to do a bit of study on tropical gardening. If you live in the US, Florida is a good place to start your studies, but the Caribbean will confront you with soil inadequacies, viral and bacterial infections, in every garden I ever had I used organic materials exclusively. Here in Montserrat the soil is of such extremely poor quality I can't imagine having a garden without the use of commercial fertilizers. We have added truck loads of sawdust and manure and we have used every bit of unwanted greenery we could get our hands on all buried in the garden -- still, it is not nearly enough.

Soon after settling in on the island we became members of the Farmer's Coop where for an annual fee we receive a discount on farming supplies, mostly fertilizer and occasionally seeds as we don't use any their many types of very popular pesticides, herbicides and the very commonly used animal poisons.

Usually we buy bags of unbranded 12-24-12 from the Coop along with Miracle Grow. When the 12-24-12 is not available we use their only alternative 12-12-17. What the numbers mean is the percentage of nitrogen (which gives vigor and a lovely deep green color to your plants and lawn), phosphorus (which encourages root development and blossoming), and potassium (which gives plants strength or hardiness and which encourages blooms and fruit development).

What is most wonderful about natural material compost is that it contains all the trace minerals and nutrients that commercial fertilizers sadly lack. So, in a tropical environment use as much natural material as you can find and manage and make up the difference with commercial fertilizers as we do.

Ficus, Variegated
Photographed: At the entrance to the Hotel Riviera on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted © KO 2010

Fireworks, Clerodendron, Winter Starburst Clerodendrum quadriloculare
The small plant in the photograph to the left is a young fast growing tall leafy bush or small tree which when mature has very appealing large droopy flowers. The leaves have a purple hue above and a full purple on the underside.
Photographed: In our garden at our home in Montserrat.
Planting and Care: It is growing well in our Caribbean garden in a semi shady area. It does love moisture and does not appear to be at all drought tolerant. It is said to be accepting of being set in full sun or bright full shade.
Text & Photograph Copyrighted © krika.com 2009/2010

**Florida Royal Palm See The "P" Page PALMS

FRANGIPANI

**Frangipani Tree Plumeria rubra L. (Red frangipani) or P. acuminata AIDED. or P. acutifolia POIRET or P. alba L. (White frangipani)
Flourishing in full sun, the odd-looking frangipani loses all its leaves every year for several months. Shorn of its leaves, it rests and finally blooms with fragrant, velvety, very showy flowers. These are the blooms used in making leis in Hawaii. In Mexico the flowers are joined in long strands as decorations on religious holidays. We have several here in Montserrat and one in our garden in Taxco, Mexico. The sticky white sap is poisonous, but may be used externally to get rid of warts. The frangipani is native to southern Mexico and Central America. It rarely grows more than fifteen feet tall.
Photographed: In all areas of our garden at our home in Montserrat.

To see more frangipani trees click on either of the above photographs!

One of the pests to watch for is the Pseudosphinx_tetrio caterpillar. They are spectacular to look at as you can see in the photograph, but with the capacity to grow to six inches, better not to wait. Hand pick them off whenever you see them or they’ll ravage the new leaves on your frangipani. These caterpillars also like to eat yellow allamanda, Allamanda cathartica, but I think they prefer frangipani. Watch for very large dark brown moths in the garden. Eliminating these moths that have a five inch wingspan will prevent the next stage in their life cycle, the frangipani caterpillar.
Text & Photographs Copyrighted © Krika.com 2008

Frangipani Bridal Bouquet Plumeria pudica
This is a very unusual member of the plumeria family as it blooms almost year round and it never sheds its leaves. That alone would make it very appealing, but its leaves are also striking and the flowers are truly as beautiful as they are plentiful.
Planting and Care: The ideal situation for this plant is in full sun, but it will also tolerate a bit of shade. It is fast growing; it will grow to the size of a small tree in no time at all. As if all of that were not enough to recommend it, it is resistant to many of the pests that can affect other frangipanis and it will handily adapt to dry periods.
Text Copyrighted © KO 2010

FUCHSIAS

Fuchsia "Dark Eyes" Fuchsia
This is one of my all time favorites and so far I have not found one available in Montserrat to add to our garden. If anyone has one or seeds for one, please let me know.

Some years ago I had a wonderful opportunity in a small town outside of Taxco, Mexico, to see what a fuchsia can turn into in the right hands. The lady of the house we visited sells flowers in the Taxco market on Saturdays. The rest of the week she is at home in her true wonderland of flowers. She has one of those special characters that plants respond to as if they were under Eve's care in Eden. Her fuchsias were not only covered in blooms, but covered almost the whole front of her house -- remarkable!
Photographed: In Tenerillas, about an hour's drive outside of Taxco, Mexico.
Planting and Care: They like moist well drained fertile soil and will grow well either in full sun or in a partly shady spot. They need shelter from hot winds and like to be pruned after flowering.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2008

Fuchsia #4 Variety Unknown
Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted © KO 2010

Fuchsia #11 Variety Unknown
Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Text and Photographs Copyrighted ©KO 2010