How Poet W.S. Merwin Found Paradise by Planting Palm Trees
Our co-editor, John Dransfield, who was involved in the census and naming of the palms in the Merwin Conservancy comments: This is one of the most exciting and beautiful palm gardens I have ever visited. Here are palms growing in conditions very similar to their rain forest homes and for this reason they have taken on a majestic aspect. Planted densely, the palms present a bewildering and wonderful diversity of shape, texture and botanical identity.It is also an astonishingly peaceful garden, with only birdsong and the sound of the Trade Winds in the tree canopy. As palms mature and flower and can thus be named, we can expect the total number of critically named palm species planted by William Merwin to increase dramatically. Already this is one of the richest and most beautiful collections of palms.