St. George Botanical Garden
While recently visiting her brother in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, GCO member Nancy Sloan was fortunate to be able to visit the St. George Village Botanical Garden. The garden had been damaged in a recent storm, and cleanup was still ongoing, but there was nevertheless plenty to see and to learn. Nancy has kindly provided some of the history and her lovely photos below.
St. George Village Botanical Garden on St. Croix in the Caribbean spans 16-acres among buildings and ruins of an 18th and 19th century sugar cane plantation. Its botanical collection features over 1,000 varieties of plants which demonstrate the horticultural potential for the U.S. Virgin Islands. They emphasize the cultural and historical importance plants have been as a source of food, medicine, fiber, color dyes, and building material in the Caribbean. The SGVBG property also overlaps what was once an Amerindian settlement dating back to c.100 A.D.
Under Danish rule around 1750, sugarcane was first planted on this site. For the next 200 years, sugarcane dominated all the activity on Estate St. George. A series of Danish owners controlled the working farm, the sugarcane “factory,” and the land’s enslaved and freed workers. During the early part of the 20th century, as the profits from sugar production declined, cattle replaced sugarcane on Estate St. George. By the early 1970s much of the land
fell into disuse, and dense tropical vegetation began to reclaim much of the property and buildings. In 1972, a parcel of land was donated to the St Croix Garden Club to establish what is today the St. George Village Botanical Garden.
The original factory ruins on the property date from about 1760 and consist of a boiling house, curing house, and a still house. It was there that sugarcane stalks were brought from the surrounding fields by the enslaved, and later contract workers, to be processed into sugar, molasses, and rum. A steam mill, which was more efficient in extracting juice from the stalks, was built in 1846.
St. George Village Botanical Garden on St. Croix in the Caribbean spans 16-acres among buildings and ruins of an 18th and 19th century sugar cane plantation. Its botanical collection features over 1,000 varieties of plants which demonstrate the horticultural potential for the U.S. Virgin Islands. They emphasize the cultural and historical importance plants have been as a source of food, medicine, fiber, color dyes, and building material in the Caribbean. The SGVBG property also overlaps what was once an Amerindian settlement dating back to c.100 A.D.
Under Danish rule around 1750, sugarcane was first planted on this site. For the next 200 years, sugarcane dominated all the activity on Estate St. George. A series of Danish owners controlled the working farm, the sugarcane “factory,” and the land’s enslaved and freed workers. During the early part of the 20th century, as the profits from sugar production declined, cattle replaced sugarcane on Estate St. George. By the early 1970s much of the land
fell into disuse, and dense tropical vegetation began to reclaim much of the property and buildings. In 1972, a parcel of land was donated to the St Croix Garden Club to establish what is today the St. George Village Botanical Garden.
The original factory ruins on the property date from about 1760 and consist of a boiling house, curing house, and a still house. It was there that sugarcane stalks were brought from the surrounding fields by the enslaved, and later contract workers, to be processed into sugar, molasses, and rum. A steam mill, which was more efficient in extracting juice from the stalks, was built in 1846.
