That we live in a world dominated by electronic gadgetry is self-evident. But it seems that despite the dominance of the virtual image, there is still a place for the written word and especially for the purveyor of daily or weekly news – the newspaper. Consider this cautionary tale:
“I was visiting my daughter and asked, ‘Can I borrow a newspaper?’. ‘Dad’, she replied: ‘This is the 21st century. We don’t waste money on newspapers. Use my iPad’. You know something? That fly never knew what hit him….”
I deviate…. But it worth noting that the “Phuket Gazette” has just celebrated its 20th birthday and is going as strong as ever, even with the presence of a relatively new kid on the block. And while it’s true that pictures speak louder than words – especially in a column about visually appealing plants – words are still needed to explain how to cultivate them or what their unseen features are . You can’t smell a photograph of a gorgeous gardenia. If you don’ know a gardenia from a gomphrena, the fact that it is fragrant has to be told in words.
In truth, many books on tropical plants offer little in the way of cultural advice. For example, “Plant Materials in Thailand “ by U. Veesommai includes pictures of 1320 plants, the most complete catalogue of plants in the kingdom, and an indispensable reference book for the likes of me. But there is little advice about the needs of individual plants, apart from a few cursory notes listing categories: for instance: “plants for suburban streets,… for parking areas, or… for waterfalls”. Even “The Field Guide to Tropical Plants of Asia “ by Engel and Phummai, a constant companion on trips to nurseries because of its small size, excellent photographs and Thai botanical names, has only cursory hints on cultivation. Two books that do much better in explaining how to grow plants are not specifically about tropical conditions, though “the Complete Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs” covers most of the bases. And another weighty tome intended for North American readers, “Western Garden”, has the most complete cultural notes of all.
Both these books, incidentally, use the valuable system whereby plants are given a hardiness zone number. Most tropical plants, for instance, have a zone number of 11. Thus trees and shrubs that can survive the cold of zone 4 (frosts down to minus 20 F.) are unlikely to succeed in the heat of zones 10 or 11. It takes an exceptionally tolerant shrub such as the tulip tree (liriodendron tulipifera) to boast a wide-ranging growth zone of 4-10. Of course other factors such as humidity and rainfall patterns are also important when you decide which plants to acquire.
And talking of buying, Phuket is well stocked with garden centers. Both Chao Fah East and Chao Fah West have a number, colorfully adorning the roadside. Their small plants tend to come in soft plastic bags, the more mature specimens in six, eight or ten inch pots. While some are home-grown – produced from seed, offshoots or cuttings – the bulk of the plants are brought to the island from areas where land is cheaper. That indeed is one of the drawbacks here, since many of the old established nurseries have lost their land to the demands of landowners anxious to capitalize of the building boom. I can think of four that have disappeared in the last year to be replaced by apartment blocks, or in the case of one on Chao Fa West, by a Tesco Lotus supermarket.
One of the beauties of the older nurseries was that they offered more in the way of mature shrubs and unusual plants. I am currently searching for a couple of climbers: a passion flower (passiflora) and a flame vine (pyrostegia) , but the prevailing fashion is for easy, colorful and quick growing plants . And while most local nurserymen and women are reasonably knowledgeable about their charges, do remember to take a color photograph along as well as providing the Thai name. That will help things enormously. Impressed, they may even drop the price….
green galoshes 