New Calypso postings soon!

We are having internet problems since arriving on the Island a week ago, we will be posting new pictures etc about Calypso when these are resolved. In the meantime, please note that you can navigate throughout our main website calypsocalypso.com using the 2 links on the home page, and then the links provided on the other pages. Please be patient, the information is all there!

Welcome to Calypso-Eleuthera!

This blog will resume shortly! It will provide up-to-date information that supplements our website calypsocalypso.com. Please note that a temporary glitch has removed most of the navigation bars from the top of that homepage. However, with patience you can navigate to other pages via the links in the text under the main photo. We will be providing further links from this blog.

An interesting floral mix

The flowers in the bottom image include plumbago, ruellia, purple allamanda and frangipani. Also visible are the long fronds of cycads (Cycas circinalis) and the colourful leaves of Ti plant.



In the top image, we have a native orchid (unknown species), growing in a sour orange tree, in blossom

Firecracker (Russellia equisetiformis), a great hummingbird favourite. I will feature hummingbirds in future posts.

Tropical Flowers

The top image shows a frangipani (plumeria) tree in bloom, with a rainbow behind. This tree blooms in late may,  at the end of the dry season. The bottom picture shows, between the trunks of gumbo limbo trees (Bursara semiruba), the red flowers of an ixora, with the pond behind.

Calypso Garden - An Oceanfront Garden on Eleuthera

Calypso Garden is located on the semitropical island of Eleuthera, in the Bahamas, where I spend the first 5 months of each year. It fronts the Atlantic Ocean, but not many plants can be grown close to the shore. Oleander and coconut palms, shown here, are some that can. Initially, I will describe what already exists, and then, from time to time, update this blog with musings, successes and failures.

Let's start with a few of my favourite scenes. The garden has 2 sections, the oceanfront section and the back garden, lined by a long causeway which crosses a long pond. 

The top image shows the view from the causeway across Calypso pond to the pondfront shore of the oceanfront section (I will have to create a map to makes this clear; the oceanfront section lies between the Atlantic ocean and Calypso pond. The image shows desert roses in terracotta pots sitting on limestone "plinths", with coconut palms behind. Desert Roses (Adenium obesum) does very well here. They have the amazing virtue of surviving - indeed, flourishing - in pots without any added water (other than natural rainwater). However, flowering is induced by watering, with a sprinkle of "Osmocote". In hurricane season, the pots are taken down from the plinths. Luckily, we have not had a hurricane for several years, so the garden is recovering from the devastation wrought by Floyd (Category 4).