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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Grand Bahama
Freeport, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas - Orchids (a.k.a. Orchidaceae) can be found in almost every habitat on Earth, and at least 400 orchid plants can be found in Barry Parker’s garden in Lucaya. Hooked from the time he coaxed a bloom from his Cattleya orchid in the mid-1980’s, Barry has since used all of his spare time cultivating his orchid collection. He has bought some of his orchids from local nurseries, others have been given to him (temporarily) as rescue projects, and he has rescued native Bahamian orchids from certain doom at construction sites. More than 25 years later, Barry is retired and can devote all of his time to his precious blooms. His orchid house has proliferated much to his – and our – delight. Barry learned to give his garden this constant attention and care from his father and his grandfather - you could say that Barry’s green thumb is in his genes. His father, John Parker, had an award-winning flowering garden in the suburbs of London, and his grandfather, Victor Brant, grew vegetables for the British royal family since before WWII. Just as Barry grew up learning about tending gardens, he also learned about environmental conservation and protection. Because of the delicate nature of many orchids and their habitats, most orchid growers are environmentalists, too. As such, Barry only uses organic fertilisers, and rarely uses pesticides. He also meticulously sterilizes the tools he uses to repot each plant, because orchids can get sick with viruses, too.
The star of the show this spring has again been a single white Cattleya plant, which at one point displayed over 60 fragrant blooms, with each flower more than 6 inches across. He also had a wall of his orchid house devoted to the popular Phalaenopsis variety, ranging from purple to yellow and white, and all kinds of stripes and spots of colour in between. If you would like to see Barry’s orchids (he loves to have visitors to his orchid house), feel free to give him a call. While the number of orchid blossoms diminishes as we move into the heat of the summer, with Barry’s tender care, he predicts he’ll be able to make most of his blooms hang on until the end of June. He can be reached at 242-373-2543.
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