In the cloud forests of Costa Rica, you may see some truly exotic wildlife: quetzals with their extravagant tails, agoutis foraging for nuts, perhaps even the endangered and curious tapir. However, the most exotic species are not the kind you’ll see moving through the forest; they are more likely to be found growing on the trunk of a tree or attached to a rock. 

In the cloud forest both nature lovers and those perhaps more adverse to the outdoors can get excited about the world of plants that surrounds them in unmatched abundance. This is a realm of rare beauty, where year-round humidity of 100% keeps the mosses and epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants) thriving on every branch and tree trunk. They make up a significant part of the 2,500 plant species (including 420 kinds of orchids) found in Monteverde’s cloud forests. 

Costa Rican horticulturalist Arturo Jarquin, a graduate of Longwood Gardens Horticultural Training Program in Pennsylvania and a year at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, has created two cloud forest gardens with an eye to making the forest’s natural beauty more accessible to visitors. 

In 1991, Jarquin was hired to transform Monteverde Lodge’s gardens into a more dramatic version of the natural forest, where birds and other animals could find their favorite seeds or nesting materials growing at arm’s length from the lodge. It wasn’t until five years later that Jarquin’s vision really took root. Today, visitors at the lodge feel as if they’ve entered another world, a place in which the separation between hotel and forest isn’t marked by usual architectural constraints. Here, inside is out and outside is in. 

Thanks to Jarquin’s vision for the gardens surrounding the Lodge, colorful butterflies and hummingbirds compete for nectar in blossoming flowers outside guests’ windows. Native tree species from the cloud forest flank the lodge, creating resting places for white-faced and mantled howler monkeys. 

“I wanted to camouflage the buildings using native plants, even in the decorative garden,” says Jarquin. “To do this, I had to recreate the atmosphere of the cloud forest because this area is slightly drier than the cloud forest three miles away.” 

Creating this environment meant bringing in plants such as bromeliads, which not only make for a beautiful garden but also provide food for animals. The experiment was not guaranteed to work, Jarquin explains, “I wasn’t sure the delicate plants would thrive in the lower-altitude environment.” 

The results, however, can be appreciated all around the lodge, where plants like verbina and the hamelia bush (related to the coffee plant), which attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, grow in abundance. These along with other plant species bring in a variety of insects, birds and mammals, giving visitors the opportunity for spectacular close range viewing of cloud forest wildlife. 

After completing Monteverde Lodge’s garden, Jarquin began dreaming of creating a reserve and cloud forest garden on a grander scale. His opportunity to realize this dream arose in 1996 when, working as a guide for Costa Rica Expeditions, he led a tour for the Nature Conservancy. Two of the guests, Evelyne and David Lennette from San Francisco. were also horticulturalists and passionate about protecting Costa Rica’s cloud forests. 

“They asked me if I wanted to continue guiding for the rest of my life,” explained Jarquin. “and though I enjoy guiding and continue to work as a guide today, I admitted to them that I had another dream.” That dream was to create a cloud forest garden and reserve for tourism, research and education. 

The Lennettes soon offered to help with the project and in 1999 Jarquin and a friend found 105 hectares of land ideal for their cloud forest garden located about 90 minutes by car from San Jose, near the small town of La Balsa, north of San Ramon. They dubbed the project Nectandra and began planning the landscaping of two deforested hectares along the road. Today an area of 10 hectares of landscaped and forested land with trails and botanical markers are allocated for visitor use. The remainder of the land is wild cloud forest. 

The Lennettes are perhaps most interested in the “wild” part of the project. Evelyne lives in Costa Rica for part of the year and dedicates herself to creating a DNA database of cloud forest species. 

Jarquin hasn’t stopped dreaming. He is now building a bed and breakfast to be opened late next year so that visitors can spend a night in the forest after walking Nectandra’s trails during the day. 

“But,” he says, “my ultimate goal is to create a horticultural school in Costa Rica to train gardeners and landscapers.” Good news for those of us who enjoy the tropical gardens of Costa Rica. We can hope Jarquin’s talent and vision will continue to shape Costa Rica’s finest gardens through his and his students’ future work.