Newly retired parks superintendent for the Corporation of Hamilton, George Ogden, has just completed a survey for palms in Bermuda that is invaluable to local gardeners.

Although horticulturalist Mr. Ogden is fascinated by most plants, including orchids, he has had a lifelong passion for palms.

When The Royal Gazette spoke with Mr. Ogden at his home in Devonshire, he wanted to first make clear that palms are not trees, they are palms. He gets very upset if you use the phrase "palm tree".

"Everyone says palm trees, but they are not trees," he said. "They are palms. With a tree, only the outer few layers of cells are alive under the bark. With palms they are alive all the way through. If you damage a palm it will never heal. If you damage a tree it gradually calluses over and will heal. Trees branch, where palms in the main have a solitary trunk. One or two palms branch, but not many."

Mr. Ogden said during his 40 years working with the Corporation of Hamilton he always enjoyed working with palms. He helped to plant over a thousand plants, many of them palms, around the City of Hamilton during his time. In 1975, he and a fellow palm enthusiast started a casual look at palms around the Island.

"It was nothing too serious, but we did identify quite a few," said Mr. Ogden. "Since then there are a lot more. In the last two years, I have gone into it in more detail and compiled a survey throughout Bermuda. I wouldn't say I have seen every palm on the Island, but I have seen most of them."

He identified 64 different types of palms in Bermuda, although he thinks one or two species might have since disappeared.

"In some instances there was only one specimen in Bermuda," he said. "With hurricanes and people, they can get damaged. Like other plants palms are subject to disease and insect infestations. Aphids and scale can be a real problem."

He said the Bermuda palmetto is one of the hardier palms on the Island, and can withstand fairly severe weather conditions, whereas other palms can not, and are very delicate.

"The Bermuda palmetto is an endemic palm which has its origin here. We find the fossil remains in the limestone rock of Bermuda. The older Bermuda palmettos are very slow growing. If you find any with any height, they could be hundreds of years old."

He said he burned up a lot of gasoline travelling Bermuda's roads in search of palm species. Unfortunately, he became ill halfway through the survey and his doctor stopped him from driving. His wife, Sandra, and good friend Neville Richardson, curator of the Botanical Gardens, took over the driving for him.

Although palms like the Chinese fan palm, and Bermuda palmetto are common in the wild, most of the more exotic species were found in local parks, at the Botanical Gardens, Government House or household gardens. He said Government House has a good collection because over the years various dignitaries have presented them as gifts.

He said his favourite palm is probably the Gaussia maya palm. It produces bright red fruits, sometimes more than one group at a time from the palm stem.

"I find that the royal palms are really stately," he said. "I enjoy the Bermuda palmetto because it is very stately and native to Bermuda. There are others that are quite graceful. The bamboo palm is very attractive. It is used a lot for interior decorative work. Palms in general fascinate me."

His survey includes the different varieties of palms, their scientific names, and where they are located in Bermuda. It was made available to The Garden Club, The Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo (BAMZ), The Department of Agriculture, and the Bermuda National Trust (BNT).

"It is purely meant to be a reference," said Mr. Ogden. "The BNT said it was very useful, and Lisa Greene from BAMZ said it was useful. The Botanical Gardens have a collection of palms and it has helped them to identify what they have."

When Mr. Ogden isn't admiring palms, he is usually painting. He is a member of Bermuda Society of Arts, and enjoys painting flowers and landscapes. However, his paintings are just for his own enjoyment, and are not for sale.

He was born in Merseyside, Lancashire across the river from Liverpool.

"I was born before the war so I had to endure all the bombing that went on there and around," he said. "It wasn't a very happy time for me growing up. My father had an allotment and so did my grandfather. During the war people had to grow their own food. I use to help my grandfather as a wee boy. Eventually, I had my own allotment as a teen and I use to win first prize for the best kept allotment."

It was here that his interest in horticulture began. He studied horticulture at the Royal Horticulture Society's gardens at Wisley in Woking, Surrey. He came to Bermuda as a young man to work for the Corporation of Hamilton. One of his early projects was to restore Fort Hamilton, which had fallen into a terrible state of disrepair in the 1960s.

"It took me about three years to do that," said Mr. Ogden. "It was in dreadful condition. It was used as a local dump. The moat was blocked with vegetation and trash. Inside the corporation used it as a storage area for building materials. There was an old fire truck up there. It was quite a job. Dr. Edward Harris, director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum, helped me tremendously with what we should do and not do.

"We moved the guns from what was Fort Langton on what was the bus depot on the North Shore. We had to locate the canons in the moat. They were partially buried and overgrown. It was a tremendous job getting them out. They weighed many tons. We had to get a big crane. The driver as he approached Fort Hamilton saw this wooden deck bridge he had to go over and he was a bit wary. But we succeeded. I was very proud of the moat when we were finished in 1967."

Over the years, Mr. Ogden was the editor of the Garden Club of Bermuda's publication 'A Gardener's Guide'. In 1992 his contributions were recognised when he received a Queens Certificate and Badge of Honour. He also received the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society in 2003, and the Bermuda Silver Palmetto Award in 2001 from the BNT.

Although he is now retired, Mr. Ogden still keeps his hand in horticulture and recently helped the Bermuda Cathedral design a remembrance garden on the grounds.