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Orchids and thunder

written by Nicola Shipway

A good prelude to the plants, the birds are as vivid and out of the ordinary as what's to come

It was the orchids that lured us. The only orchid farm in Oman, according to Al Nahda Resort and Spa’s website, must be worth a visit. Orchids, which in Muscat are relatively rare and always expensive, are potent plants, prized and exotic and as beguiling today as they were to the ancient Greeks and those 19th-century Europeans gripped by orchid mania.

“I went to Bangkok and saw orchids growing beautifully in farms, and it came to my mind, why not try it? Just for pleasure. I always like a challenge,�says J S Dedwal. The result in Barka �mesmerising even to those without an interest in flowers �is a polytunnel extending over 300 square metres in which he grows orchids just for pleasure, not commercially. The exercise is a labour of love, for the sun-ravaged countries of the Gulf are not a natural habitat for these plants, many of which are epiphytes (non-parasitic plants that grow on tree trunks in tropical rain forests). The Orchidaceae family has thousands of genera and species �Dedwal currently has plants with flowers in around 35 different colours, some of which grow better than others �but almost none of these flourish in desert. Cultivating orchids has always posed a challenge for collectors: Joseph Dalton Hooker, a friend of Charles Darwin and director of Kew Gardens from 1865 until 1885, declared that England was the ‘graveyard of tropical orchids�because so few people knew how to look after their specimens.

birds among the business
Polish, perfume and peacocks

Dedwal is senior general manager of works at the Barka Division of Al Bahja Group of Companies. The Barka estate is 300 acres �20 acres given over to industries that range from tinning beans to making furniture polish, Jumbo ketchup and Teeb perfumes, and the rest agricultural land. In one corner of the estate is Al Nahda Resort and Spa, surrounded by sprawling gardens that Dedwal planted entirely by himself. When he arrived in Oman from India 20 years ago, the land that today is leafy and productive was desert; he credits Al Bahja Group’s CMD, Ajit Kumar Hamlai, for his vision. Dedwal himself says he is an industrialist, not a horticulturalist �flowers are just a hobby.

He is a knowledgeable hobbyist, nonetheless. His many polytunnels of plants �filled with showy house plants or cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and peas �are arranged round a grassy area across which strut beautifully marked turkeys and a flock of peacocks. “We bought a house in Salalah and it so happened that the owner left behind a single peahen. Luckily she was pregnant. We brought her here and she produced three eggs, which yielded two babies, a male and a female. Now we have around 40.�A good prelude to the plants, the birds are as vivid and out of the ordinary as what’s to come.

dead things and flowers
Orchids crouched on coconut fibre

The orchid house is cooler than the dazzle outside, and has a faint, mossy smell suggestive of woodlands, due no doubt to the proliferation of ferns on the ground. Rows of orchids fill the tunnel, some crouched on lumps of coconut fibre, others flourishing in charcoal in hanging baskets. “Orchids grow only on dead things,�says Dedwal, calling to mind the antics of an orchid hunter named Wilhelm Micholitz (1854�932), who believed that orchids grew best in graveyards and who once actually sold one attached to a human skull. The Barka hothouse favours timber or coconuts over bones: at the entrance is a massive, living sculpture of deadwood and flowers, the base formed from the twisted roots of an upended tree.

An inspection of the rows reveals flowers of astonishing variety and delicacy. One is almost iris like, its white, frilly petals brushed with lilac; another is reminiscent of crocosmia, being small and flame coloured and without the prominent ‘lip�that characterises many orchid flowers. There are blooms in white, violet, pink, yellow and crimson, and petals marked with stripes or splodged with a contrasting colour. Beneath these treasures are ferns and flesh-eating plants: Nepenthes, the pitcher plant, is carnivorous, and lures insects into its pitcher-shaped trap with the promise of what Dedwal calls an ‘intoxicating sap�

Jungle gardening
Thunder under glass

Nothing about this place is ordinary. Outside the orchid house are two yellow lovebirds, and a crowd of snowy ducks bathing in a pool overlooking another thick with water lilies. In a run nearby hop the magician’s staple �white rabbits. From here Dedwal leads us into ‘the jungle� which is a little like a glasshouse at a botanical garden minus the labels. We walk through lush greenery and arrive at a covered pavilion where birdsong twitters out through a hidden speaker, thus supplying the forest soundtrack. And then, suddenly, an event that combines engineering with sheer whimsy: rain (or irrigation, if you are not fanciful) begins to fall, thunderous booms ring out, and light flashes white against a tall, dark tree. “It’s even better at night,�says Dedwal over the noise of thunderclaps and water strumming on foliage. “Then you can really see the ‘lightning��br>
The Barka Division of Al Bahja Group of Companies is evidently productive �the blood-red roses alone, which are grown in polytunnels, are sold throughout the sultanate and will soon go all over the Gulf. But it is also inspiring and extraordinary, a place in which bean bottling and crates of air freshener coexist happily with peacocks and artificial storms, and where some flowers are grown commercially but others are just for pleasure