Bajan bloom under threat

Barbados’ increasing infrastructure may be adversely affecting some of its most traditional plants seen at Christmas time.
The poinsettia, snow-on-the-mountain and Christmas candle are starting to disappear from the landscape and one horticulturist thinks it is the fault of too many artificial lights.
Anthony Hunte, owner of Hunte’s Gardens in Castle Grant, St Joseph, told the Sunday Sun: “I think the major reason [for the decrease] is that the people who grow them get fed up and dig them up.”
Hunte said these plants required shorter days to “shock” them into bloom and thus tended to reach maturity at the end of the year.
However, with the increase in street lighting and security lighting, he said, the plants were not getting the darkness they needed.
Please see Sunday Sun for full story.