The Tropical Paradise of Oahu

A glimpse of paradise in one of Honolulu International Airport's gardens

As I write this, exactly one week ago I was strolling through the gardens at Hawaii's Honolulu International Airport. 

I first discovered the airport's Hawaiian, Japanese, and Chinese gardens two and a half years ago during a long layover while awaiting a connecting flight. The gardens are located in an easy-to-overlook courtyard, a tranquil oasis hidden in plain sight. 

Spider lilies (Crinium) in the foreground
with reflections of tall palm trees in the pond

Earlier in the week my family and I had visited Ho'omaluhia, one of five botanical gardens belonging to the Department of Parks and Recreation of Honolulu.  Ho'omaluhia is located up near the clouds in Kane'ohe. We saw tropical trees - some native species, some introduced. The hala tree is indigenous to Hawaii. Its fruit looks much like that of the pineapple plant, which, although grown commercially on Oahu, is not a native.

Hala tree at Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden

The Earpod Tree, a member of the pea family, shown here
 at Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden, is native to Central and South America

Just driving or walking down the street in Kailua, where we stayed, I saw both familiar and unfamiliar plants, as well as unfamiliar varieties of familiar plants. Who knew that bougainvillea comes in such a variety of colors? When I see them in South Carolina, I only ever see the solid pink ones. 

Bougainvillea, native to South America, thrive on Oahu

You might recall that several weeks ago I bought two jungle geraniums (Ixora coccinea) after Abide-A-While moved some of their tropicals to the clearance shelves. This plant was new to me at the time. Not any more. On Oahu I often saw it growing in shrub form.

Plumeria flowers are used in the making of leis. After bands of wind and rain pushed through, I observed plumeria blossoms more frequently on the ground than in trees. 

Plumeria growing alongside a busy road in Kailua

Near the end of our stay, my daughter introduced me to the North Shore of Oahu where we visited the amazing botanical garden of Waimea Valley. This garden is the sort of place that makes you wish you lived next door and had an annual pass so that you could wander the grounds daily. I can visualize myself strolling with notebook and pen in hand, taking notes, yes, but pausing to compose lines of poetry, too. 

While at Waimea Valley I made photograph after photograph until my camera's battery exhausted. Unfortunately I cannot post any of those photos until I receive permission from the owners and thus far, perhaps due to the holidays, they have not responded to my request. 

Of the garden's numerous collections of tropical plants, the extensive hibiscus collections were among my favorites. I would have loved to see the cannas in bloom, but none were flowering during my visit.

At Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden 

Back at home now, I'm trying to harvest all the Meyer lemons before they freeze outside. With a tiny portion of my harvest, I'm attempting to make marmalade for the first time. Before my trip I froze enough juice to make lemonade every day next summer. Based on the number of lemons I have left, it appears I will be freezing more juice - much more.

Blooming at my place in the South Carolina Lowcountry on Christmas day: camellia Japonica (several varieties), narcissus, begonia, gaillardia, hellebore (budding),  jungle geraniums (one plant sheltered under the carport and the other on the unheated sunporch), geraniums (both on the sunporch and outside), the lavender-colored lantana, alyssum (both the white and the purple ones), marigolds, a descendent of my grandmother's red antique rose, quince...what else? That's all I can think of now.

Wishing each of my readers a wonderful 2013! Thank you for taking the time to visit with me.

My family strolls ahead of me as we return to the car
Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden

A Week in Inverewe Gardens

One of the exotics growing in Inverewe Gardens

When you think of plant life in Scotland’s Western Highlands, you might visualize thistle blossoms, heather covered hillsides, or Caledonian pine forests. Unless you’ve spent time in that part of the world, you likely won’t expect to see palm trees, but palms do grow there in locales such as Plockton and Ullapool.

You’ll also find palms trees at Inverewe Gardens, near Poolewe, along with a variety of tropical and other exotic plants Osgood Mackenzie imported from locations around the world for inclusion in the garden he created 150 years ago. In spite of Inverewe’s latitude of 57.8 (for reference, Moscow’s is 55.75), the relatively warm air borne by the North Atlantic Drift makes the survival of such plant life possible. And to help shelter his plant specimens from the wind, Mackenzie established a grove of pines and had a wall erected.

After Mackenzie’s death, his daughter Mairi Sawyer continued work on the garden. In 1952 she gifted Inverewe Estate, which includes the gardens, to the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).

Two years ago I had the opportunity to spend a week living in Inverewe House while serving as a NTS Thistle Camp volunteer. I wrote about that experience in a July guest blog for the National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA. (Scroll down for link.)

Inverewe House

Our major task as volunteers was invasive species eradication. More specifically, we did “rhody bashing,” removal of the non-native Rhododendron ponticum that had spread into the wild. We used mattocks and handsaws to remove rhododendrons that had invaded nearby woodlands and then we burned the resulting debris in bonfires.

During my stay at Inverewe House, I came upon two huge volumes of a limited edition book dated, as I recall, 1917. The volumes were filled with art plates illustrating numerous varieties of rhododendron. While turning the pages, I wondered what Osgood Mackenzie would think of the runaway rhododendrons and our efforts to try to control them. Would he approve of our work? Would he regret his decision to include this plant species in his garden?

In my own garden, I am prone to plant non-natives, as well as natives such as beautyberry. Just today I purchased a Persian Shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus), native to Myanmar, from a local garden center, not stopping to think at the time about whether this plant has the potential to become invasive here in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Already my garden includes nandina heavenly bamboo, which I planted more than twenty years ago soon after I bought this house. According to the University of Florida’s website, the State of Florida has placed nandina on their invasive species list. My garden also includes nandina volunteers, but only three or four. Although I don’t find nandina on my own state’s list, I am reminded that we gardeners need to balance our love for plants with foreign origins with the well-being of our native species.

Not all our time at Inverewe Gardens was spent battling invasive species. In the middle of the week we had a day off from volunteer activities and I spent the morning of that day wandering around the property, photographing flowers and other plants. Eventually the last of my camera batteries fizzled out. Not to be deterred, I switched to my iPhone and continued to take pictures. I’m sorry to report that I did not note the names of the various plants I observed, but I can tell you that among my favorites were the tall spiky red cannas and a gorgeous lace-cap hydrangea.

One can’t help but envy the residents of Poolewe. How fortunate they are to live near Inverewe Gardens. With its more than fifty acres and its numerous plant species, both the familiar and the exotic, this is a place a gardening enthusiast could stroll through every day of the year and never be bored. 

Loch view from the dining room

For more information about Inverewe Gardens visit the National Trust for Scotland website:

http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/Inverewe-Garden-Estate/About/

To learn more about Thistle Camp at Inverewe Gardens read my blog post on the National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA website:
http://www.ntsusa.org/blog/guest-post-inverewe-thistle-camp/

Loch Ewe, a natural beauty