JANET MORGAN and Peter Kiernan have returned to Jamaica to continue their hobby of researching Jamaica's rich and varied heritage. Both are working for the south London and Maudsley National Health Service Trust in England. Janet is a community psychiatric nurse working with older people and Peter works on a brain injury and neuropsychiatric unit. Horticulture, which is one of their enduring common interests, has led to Peter's winning a Prince of Wales award in healthcare, for developing the garden and promoting a healing environment at the Lishman unit, where he works.
Weekends for the couple are usually spent visiting, working and learning about plants in the dreamy temperate gardens of southern England.
Janet, who left her native shores when she was nine years old to join her family in England, and Peter visited Jamaica for 10 days in October of last year and succeeded in locating the 'Lost garden of Walter Jekyll' in the Blue Mountains, beyond Mavis Bank.
Walter, who was youngest brother of 'Her Botanic Majesty' Gertrude Jekyll, spent the last 35 years of his life in this land of his adoption, and is buried at the parish church in Lucea. Between 1900 and 1904 he corresponded with his sister, who was then the editor of the Garden Magazine in London, about his garden and the plants of Jamaica and these letters were printed. New information about his life and activities in Jamaica has led to a request from Mr Jekyll's descendants in England to Morgan and Kiernan whether they could write this important man's biography.
Unpublished descriptions
Their research for last May's Chelsea Flower Show led to the discovery of some unpublished descriptions of Jamaica from the writings of the botanical artist Marianne North. Miss North produced nearly 50 oil paintings of the plants and places of Jamaica in the 1870s and some members of the Natural History Society of Jamaica have shown great interest in the botanical and historical value of these images.
Morgan and Kiernan hope to be able to bring together the paintings and literature of Marianne North in a unique book to be called Marianne North's Vision of Jamaica, when they find the right publisher. This year they have received a Royal Horticultural Society travel bursary to study the plants of Jamaica, which will enable them to better appreciate the amazing botanical and horticultural activities of characters like North and Jekyll. Andreas Oberli, director of the National Arboretum Foundation at Hope Gardens, has undertaken to help Janet and Peter better understand the flora of Jamaica by introducing them to the importance of Jamaica's endemic plants at his ex-situ conservation programme at the Plant Conservation Centre.
Flowering shrub
They met Dr. C. D. Adams before the Chelsea Flower Show last May, and feel very fortunate to have been able to help him have the exclusively Jamaican, beautiful flowering shrub, Portlandia grandiflora presented to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, and the Royal Horticultural Society garden at Wisley.
Dr. Adams wrote the Flowering Plants of Jamaica in the 1970s and this remains the seminal work on the subject. Adams gave them some background information that he had in his files about Walter Jekyll and helped them interpret the 37,000 words Jekyll wrote about the gardens and plants of Jamaica. He also had some suggestions for a book that he would like to see published about Jamaican plants, but did not have time to write himself when he lived on the island many years ago.
Peter hopes to give some more talks to interested societies and groups about the writings and pictures he has brought to the island, before returning to London at the end of this month. He will then be giving one of the Garden History Society's prestigious winter lectures in February 2005, the title being 'Walter Jekyll and his Jamaica Garden'.
Janet and Peter continue to help the Jamaican Chelsea Team and hope that next year they can also do a Jamaican entry of their own, namely Walter Jekyll's garden, which he described so beautifully in Word Photographs. The Jekyll families are thrilled with this idea, the necessary skills and resources have already been identified to create the exhibit next May, and efforts are being made to have some of his writings published to coincide with the Chelsea Flower Show. Sponsorship for the project will of course be necessary, but Janet and Peter are confident that Jamaica's business community will see the benefits of this promotion and support their efforts accordingly.
Places, people and plants
Janet has had to return to London to get back to her four children and her job as a nurse, but during the five weeks spent in Jamaica this summer they managed to tour the country together in a rented car several times. They clocked up nearly 5,000 km in their quest to learn more about the places, people and plants of the island. Peter has had to take a sabbatical from work to continue their research, and hopes to come across lots more interesting information at the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston and the records office in Spanish Town. There is very little known about Walter Jekyll's life in Jamaica between the years 1914 and his death here in 1929 and it is Peter's quest to fill in this gap by locating archived material at these institutions.
Hurricane Ivan provided lots of food for thought for Peter in his study of Jamaica's plants, the native ones showing better adaptations to the damaging forces of nature while many exotic and introduced species were smashed and fallen by the winds and rains. Adams' idea for a book, The Best of Jamaica, is to promote the horticultural development of some Jamaican endemic plants, for Jamaican gardens. Peter is missing his plants and the gardens in England now, feeling homesick for family and friends, looking forward to getting back to Janet his partner, to share with her the wonders and delights he has uncovered in Jamaica since she left.
