Guateflora: Coffee Bushes used as Hedge

We continue our Guateflora series with the omnipresent coffee bush or tree, which has manage to leave the coffee plantation to become a hedge. The coffee bush is one the most often seen plants around La Antigua Guatemala, but not often I’ve seen it used as hedge. The above photograph was taken at the Compañía de Jesús building, with the ruins in the background. The coffee bush is not included in the Guateflora book, but I am sure it should be included since it is found often in gardens in La Antigua Guatemala. If you don’t know what the Guateflora book is, please read the paragraph below.

The Guateflora category takes its name on a wonderful compilation book by the name of Guate Flora: Plantas ornamentales más utilizadas en jardínes guatemaltecos (Guate Flora: Ornamental Plants Most Often Used in Guatemalan Gardens). The books compiles more than 400 photos of the plants most often used in Guatemalan gardens along with technical description about the plants’ categories, and how to grow them. Many of the photographs in the book were taken from gardens in private homes, hotels, restaurants, parks, green houses, mini-malls or on the streets around La Antigua Guatemala; this fact is what prompted me to try to take shots of the ornamental plants as I encounter them in my comings-and-goings.

Glenn Standish says:

October 15, 2007 at 4:33 am

Greetings from TORUŃ DAILY PHOTO here in Poland. Do pop in today as we have a special competition…about a donkey!!! There is a prize at stake!

patsy poor says:

October 15, 2007 at 6:09 am

I am glad to to see the flower and flora subject again.

Manolo says:

October 15, 2007 at 8:22 am

Ay! the memories… we used to have a coffee bush in my backyard in the house I grew up in… where my brother lives now, I wonder if it’s still there. We never picked the fruit or toasted the coffee but there it was, besides the cypress and the pomegranate. So I can attest that coffee bushes are part of Guatemalan house gardens.
In University I had a friend who used to be a tourist guide and on a field trip to the Panzós area she made us eat one of the little fruits (I refuse to call them “beans”) which was sweet. She liked to make the point that the fruit of the coffee is sweet, but toasted brewed coffee is bitter, whereas the cocoa fruit (I think it is closer to a proper bean, but no cigar) is bitter, but processed chocolate candy is sweet. Chocolate caliente is another thing altogether. I guess the cold coming down on us is making me long for a hot cup of chocolate, I’ll go back home early and unwrapped the chocolate from La Antigua I bought in La Nueva.