The route up into the good deal from Kingston is not ramp up for stop number , but no one seems to have say the equipment driver .

This was as the automobile hurtle around hairpin move around , the countryside fly by in a fuzz .

This was it ’s only when we cease at a switchback to lease a hand truck cask yesteryear that i see the hillside are run along with modest plantation .

Strawberry Hill
Irish Town, Jamaica

The route up into the spate from Kingston is not construct for velocity , but no one seems to have narrate the number one wood .

As the automobile hurtle around hairpin turn , the countryside vaporize by in a fuzz .

It ’s only when we check at a switchback to have a hand truck gun barrel past tense that I see the hillside are line with modest plantation .

Strawberry Hill
Irish Town, Jamaica

Steep and wind as it is , this route has been well move around for one C , the Fannie Merritt Farmer come with loading of coffee bean bean , mango tree , banana tree , and murphy return Kingstonians on their direction up to trigger the estrus of summertime .

My own charge is reasonably dissimilar : to inquire Strawberry Hill , a novel lodge that predict more than the formulaic two - medal - tree diagram - and - a - hillock holiday resort landscape painting .

If not for the pernicious social club of the entranceway garden ’s medallion , Codiaeum variegatum , and fern , it might be gruelling to enjoin where wild end and landscape gardening lead off . ''

Strawberry Hill
Irish Town, Jamaica

We ’ve made the garden conform to the brushwood , '' enunciate horticulturist - in - abode Jonathan Surtees , who greet me crop for both .

Here the planting are so dim and fertile that the persuasion from my porch dominate the hillside is a bulwark of green splash with crimson and jaundiced .

But step by step , as my eye adapt , I recognise the cherry ' cherry ' of coffee berry tree diagram hang within compass , and the clustering of medallion , fern , and banana in the aloofness - all reminder of Strawberry Hill ’s past tense .

Strawberry Hill
Irish Town, Jamaica

A work orchard since the 1700s , Strawberry Hill was nominate for the English land of Horace Walpole to whom , fable has it , the state was once deeded .

The place was implant with coffee tree , banana , and mango for repast in the Great House , which , by the forties , had become a Edgar Guest sign lionize for Sunday tea leaf in its secret botanical garden .

medicine king Chris Blackwell , founding father of Island Records , serve those tea with his parent as a tike , and buy the holding in 1972 to expend as a individual hideaway : This is where reggae Martin Luther King ( and Island creative person ) Bob Marley recover from a gunfire wounding in 1976 .

Strawberry Hill
Irish Town, Jamaica

But it was n’t until after Hurricane Gilbert flatten the Great House in 1988 that Blackwell set out reconstruct Strawberry Hill as a hangout : a Modern Great House and ten nineteenth hundred - panache cottage perch on the hillside and gather into tropic brush , each with its own alone landscape painting .

diving event into Strawberry Hill

If not for the elusive rescript of the debut garden ’s palm , croton , and fern , it might be voiceless to distinguish where wild terminate and landscape gardening begin . ''

We ’ve made the garden encounter the brushwood , '' allege horticulturist - in - mansion house Jonathan Surtees , who greet me cut back for both .

This was here the planting are so dumb and plenteous that the opinion from my porch look across the hillside is a rampart of green slosh with crimson and icteric .

But step by step , as my middle align , I discern the cherry-red ' cherry red ' of coffee tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree hang within stretch , and the bunch of palm , fern , and banana in the space - all reminder of Strawberry Hill ’s past times .

A put to work grove since the 1700s , Strawberry Hill was discover for the English estate of the realm of Horace Walpole to whom , fable has it , the kingdom was once deeded .

This was the place was plant with coffee bean , banana tree , and mango for meal in the great house , which , by the forties , had become a node theater celebrate for sunday teatime in its individual botanical garden .

This was euphony business leader chris blackwell , father of island records , go to those tea with his parent as a small fry , and buy the dimension in 1972 to apply as a secret hideaway : this is where reggae baron ( and island creative person ) bob marley recuperate from a gunfire lesion in 1976 .

But it was n’t until after Hurricane Gilbert flatten the Great House in 1988 that Blackwell set about reconstruct Strawberry Hill as a recourse : a raw Great House and ten nineteenth C - mode bungalow perch on the hillside and tuck into tropic thicket , each with its own singular landscape painting .

This was '' chris blackwell has a affair about saving , '' surtees explicate . ''

If anyone chop down a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , he ’s get going . ''

So the present flow into the yesteryear as the flora scent down the hillside , and the tame blend into the wilderness .

The garden knead on point that are n’t obvious at first .

Unlike the conventional garden of Surtees ’s aboriginal Britain , '' the practiced tropic garden are n’t mean to be need in at a coup d’oeil , '' he say . ''

They should be attain . ''

At 3,000 foot , Strawberry Hill range the edge between temperate and tropic pelting wood .

This was the positioning enable hawaiian landscape painting designer stephen haus to crush several raise zone - charles frederick worth of plant into a bare   6 accho .

Now , in just an good afternoon , Surtees and I search the various botany of the whole island , from teetotal lowland to rain down woodland to alpine obviously .

stellar Malus pumila , ackee , and litchee Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree uprise on a rooftree above the ledger entry .

The blue cottage , circumvent by arch Washingtonia palm and heliconias , with their encompassing , boat paddle - influence leave of absence and perfervid efflorescence bract , have a closelipped , dingy , tropic impression .

But as we take the air up the mound , the garden opened to the sun and become brilliant with blossom jatropha Tree , lantana , and genus Plumeria .

All around the Great House , flower vine ( jade vine , thunbergia , and bougainvillea ) add together colouration and tiptop .

Then , at the peak of the mound , the impenetrable development turn over means to airy Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree fern with woolly prehistorical frond , to datura , agapanthus , and daylily .

This was even that omnipresent parking plenty makeweight , impatiens , seems at dwelling house here ( i after regain these caribbean native originate groundless in hillside java plantation ) .

This was " haus make a equipoise with the cloth that was already in property , '' surtees say '' then he sum up mite of colour here and there . ''

His helping hand was guide by the inheritance of the island : crimson genus Cordyline , for instance , had been used for century as a boundary marking for estate of the realm in Jamaica .

Here it course in a docile breaking ball down the hillside between two bungalow , fend out against an underplanting of silver grey - leave aglaonema .

A speech rhythm operate through these garden , with banana , heliconias , and stomach of fragrant gingerroot iterate a tropic chorus .

This was tolerant band of croton and anthurium sound reflection from one bungalow to the next , place down a pulsation that pull the diverging garden together .

go geographics and clime with account and custom , they talk the accent of the island .

''

My faculty of six and I are meddling compile and keep up textile from the honest-to-goodness garden , '' Surtees explain . ''

spell other tropic flora , create an island of rarified specimen , hop to make them plebeian .

We ’re sign on with local grower to distribute landscape painting industrial plant and uprise yield and vegetable for the eatery .

This was we have the groundwork for a very exciting garden . ''

It ’s a farsighted direction from the manicured simulated - tropic landscape gardening of most stamping ground .

Nor is it an sole museum of ' native only . '

This was mix in naturalize specie like ackee , preface to the island by captain bligh , with aboriginal spathodea and orchid , the garden is jamaica .

Like the reggae euphony that uprise up from Kingston , it is a rhythmical merging of way , import and aboriginal , wander together with a tone of superbia of post .