For Giles Smith, working outside amongst the plants has been a lifetime interest.
“I have always loved landscaping, designing, being outside, farming,” he says. “This was a big part of my childhood in Cayman.”
As a teenager, he worked at Vigoro after school, at weekends and during summer holidays, before moving on to a full-time career in the landscaping division of a large development company. In 2018, he started his own company – Paradise Landscaping.
One concentrated interest borne from his love of plants is palm trees, specifically those which are less common, and even extremely rare.
For the past 10 years he has been slowly building up his selection of palms, and the collection became an official project upon finding a rare an exotic palm dealer in the Florida area in 2020.
VARIETIES OF PALMS
“That is when the idea of starting a rare palm collection came into play, and we started investing more time, energy and money,” he explains.
Giles’ rare palm garden now has more than 70 different varieties of palms.
“Most are from Florida with some having been collected locally from seeds and divisions,” says Giles.
“Some of the more rare species we had to source as tiny 3- and 4-inch seedlings and have been guarding them closely over the last five years to see them at their current size.”
Garden favourites include the Licuala, Areca and Crytostachys species, mainly due to their rarity, leaf shape and colours.
IDENTIFICATION
Giles has meticulously labelled the palms in his garden.
“Well, what is a rare palm collection without signage to let you know (even help me to remember) the species and the origins?” he asks.
At the top left of each sign is the year the specimen was acquired and brought to the collection. Top right is its assigned number, which helps Giles keep track of how many palms comprise the collection. In the middle of each sign are the scientific and common names.
At bottom left is the specimen’s place of origin or natural habitat range, and at bottom right is their conservation status in the wild. CR indicates critically endangered, EN is endangered, and VU is vulnerable.
“If the bottom right corner is blank, that means that at the time of having the signs made there was no threat to the species or I was unable to find any information,” says Giles.
PALM CARE
Out of the thousands of palm species in the world, some are native to Cuba, Haiti and the wider Caribbean region, and therefore do well in Cayman, including what Giles refers to as the ‘old faithful’ landscape palms.
Others need extra care and protection due to being from mountainous or rainforest regions.
Caring for so many different palms takes a specific skillset.
“Palms in general can be heavy feeders of fertiliser compared to other trees and shrubs found in the landscape and will do better if supplied with a dedicated ‘palm special’ type of fertiliser,” says Giles, who explains that after that the care can become very species-specific.
“Full sun, filtered light, or heavy shade? Wind tolerance?” says Giles. “Our ‘old faithful’ landscape palms can take the scorching heat and high winds. The smaller-growing, and more rare, palms are native to rain and cloud forests and need to be sheltered and protected.
“Do they like their roots to stay on the drier side, or are they species that naturally grow along riverbanks, or in the cloud forest and which should never be left to dry out to their demise? I have to admit that we have lost some of ours due to irrigation or fungal issues.”
BEYOND THE PALMS
Nestled towards the back of Giles’ garden, a nursery houses a growing orchid collection, with specimens sourced locally as well as from Jamaica and Florida.
“While the majority are currently in our shade house, many are being mounted to the mature trees in the garden and are intended to accent the palm collection,” says Giles, who also has different aglaonemas, philodendrons and bromeliads dotted around.
Not far from the nursery, elevated bee hives peek out from above foliage. These hives joined the garden in early 2025 after a year of investigation by Giles on how to use bees to increase pollination and fruit-set of various fruit trees.
“Previous flowerings had lots of blooms, but I noticed the absence of bees to pollinate – and the honey is a plus in the house.”
As well as being able to provide honey for his family, Giles keeps pigs, goats and chickens within his property lines.
“The livestock is a plus for us…our freezer is always full of pork, broiler chickens and goat meat,” he says. “When we were all unexpectedly thrown into COVID lockdown, we were stocked with plenty of protein and fresh eggs.”
Koi also swim in an elevated garden pond.
FUTURE PLANS
Despite his already high number of rare palms, Giles may continue to expand in the future.
His Floridian rare palm dealer has gone into retirement, so he is on the hunt for a new source, which may now be further afield in Hawaii.
“I always keep an eye out for what’s available,” he says. “But don’t tell my wife.”
RARE PALM EXAMPLES
Licuala mattanensis
Licuala cordata
Licuala orbicularis
Sabrina magnifeca
Copernecia bailyana
Areca vesteria ‘red’
Caryota gigas
Cyrtostachys renda var ‘teddy buhler’
Cyrtostachys renda var ‘varigata’
