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As 2026’s Mother’s Day approaches, the Style Observer is pausing to honor a remarkable group of women who have turned their lifelong devotion to gardening into a source of ongoing inspiration for readers of the outlet’s popular gardening section. For years, these women have shared their love for cultivating green spaces, weaving warmth, hard-won wisdom, and natural beauty into every page they’ve touched. What started as a quiet personal hobby has blossomed into a way of life that nurtures not only their own well-being, but everyone who steps into their vibrant outdoor sanctuaries. For Janice Grant Taffe, a recently retired former general counsel and corporate secretary of Sagicor Group Jamaica, gardening is both a creative outlet and a path to mindfulness. Her sprawling, lush garden sits perched above the Kingston & St Andrew metropolis, a quiet green escape that offers respite to friends and family weary of the chaotic pace of city life. Born and raised in Manchester, Taffe has carried a love for plants since childhood, but her curated outdoor retreat truly began to take shape eight years ago, when she moved into her current home with her husband Joe and daughter Jada-Rae. During a 2022 visit from the Style Observer team, Taffe described her garden as a living, energetic gathering space where loved ones can come together to mark life’s special moments. Today, the space boasts a stunning array of tropical blooms including dozens of orchid varieties, anthuriums, pink and red gingers, and bromeliads, alongside a dedicated herb section filled with edible staples like mint, thyme, and peppers. Karleen Smith, another lifelong gardening enthusiast, says tending to her plants has been a source of great comfort through every season of her life. When the Style Observer toured her immaculately designed property in 2021, she walked the team through a lush, abundant landscape overflowing with color, fragrance, and life. Her garden is home to an impressive collection of ornamental plants, fruit trees, edible vegetables, and a carefully curated collection of prized orchids. Vibrant swathes of roses, periwinkles, ferns, bougainvillea, 10 o’clocks, and crotons create a rich, textured tapestry across the property, while tropical fruit trees including sweetsop, mango, orange, and June plum infuse the space with distinctly Caribbean warmth. For Smith, the garden is more than just a collection of plants — it is a reflection of the values that define her life: patience, intentional care, and a deep appreciation for the quiet luxury of living surrounded by nature. Jacinth Byles has shared her passion for gardening with her husband for decades. The pair built their first home in Stony Hill, a region whose cool, mild climate proved ideal for growing a wide range of tropical plants. For years, they would spend every Sunday from dawn to dusk tending to their beds, and the satisfying results of their labor turned gardening into a lifelong shared hobby. Though Byles has since relocated from Stony Hill’s salubrious slopes, a 2021 visit to her new property confirmed her passion for cultivating plants remains as strong as ever. While she acknowledges she cannot replicate the perfect growing conditions of her former Stony Hill garden, she has still built a striking, eye-catching outdoor space, focused now primarily on bromeliads and orchids. Hardy, low-maintenance favorites including bougainvillea, periwinkle, areca palms, cascade palms, and multiple other palm varieties round out the lush landscape. For Angie Ammar, a deep love of orchids — particularly the bold, elegant vanda orchids that first caught her eye decades ago — has grown into a decades-long obsession. When the Style Observer caught up with Ammar in 2022, she reflected on the early days of her hobby, when orchid blooms were famously large and vivid, and cross-breeding was far less common than it is today. “They didn’t seem to need much care, as they had their wiry roots just hanging out, so I tried my hand at those,” she recalled of her first foray into orchid growing. Like any passionate hobbyist, Ammar learned through trial and error, and candidly admits she lost several early plants to underwatering. Rather than discouraging her, however, those early setbacks only deepened her fascination with the delicate blooms. Determined to master the art of orchid care, she joined the Jamaica Orchid Society (JOS), attending regular meetings and seeking guidance from experienced veteran growers. She also received invaluable support from family: her uncle, Dr Eddie Valentine, was a founding member of JOS, and his expertise helped nurture her growing passion. “From then, my obsession grew — or rather my addiction,” she laughed. Retired teacher Laurel Green has cultivated her dynamic upper St Andrew garden for more than 50 years, a living tribute to the diverse native flora she fell in love with while growing up in St Mary. When Green invited the Style Observer team to tour her garden in July 2025 for a two-part featured profile, the outlet was greeted with a breathtaking tropical escape brimming with quiet charm and natural beauty. Anchored by a towering, magnificent ficus tree, the garden unfolds in layered, visually stunning displays of orchids, anthuriums, crotons, and vibrant red gingers. Heliconias, monsteras, and blackberry lilies add extra depth and pops of color across the space, while edible produce including breadfruit, pineapples, and strawberries brings a welcoming farm-to-garden appeal that makes the space as functional as it is beautiful. Among the dozens of standout species in Green’s collection, the Floribunda rose and a range of rare orchid hybrids including Vanda Princess Mikasa and Papilionanda have emerged as fan favorites among gardening enthusiasts who have toured the space. Taken together, the gardens of these five extraordinary women are far more than collections of plants. They are spaces of renewal, connection, and joy — a fitting tribute to the nurturing spirit that Mother’s Day celebrates.