Tag: FLOWERING PLANTS

Summer Patio in Boise

Several weeks ago, I showed Inga’s garden, promising a review of her latest project – a roof to provide shade for her patio. I just received the pictures for your enjoyment. As you can see, her father and brother-in-law pitched in to help. Inga and her sister kept everyone supplied in nourishment and beverage.

There’s something wrong with this picture! While we struggle to get through a drought here in Paradise, my daughter’s Boise patio looks more tropical than our own tropics! Of course, a mister system helps.

I am impressed with her ability to make such a small space hold so much and still look spacious. I can’t seem to get that effect on an entire acre.

Even the necessary utilitarian area is beautiful.

So many beautiful things growing!

I keep trying to get a few tomatillos to grow. She has no problem.

Her fruit trees keep her well supplied.

With so many things growing . . .

. . . it’s a wonder she has a chance to sit here and relax!

As always, I get lots of ideas for my own patio and garden.
Mahalo nui loa, Inga!

A hui hou!

Hawai`i Tropical Botanical Garden

Last Saturday, a small group from the Ocean View Garden Club visited the Hawai`i Tropical Botanical Garden just north of Hilo on Onomea Bay. As long as I have lived here, I was not aware this existed. It’s a wonderful place to take visitors and I definitely will go back myself! Admission is $15 per person and there is a discount for a group of 10 or more. We took lunch with us and ate at a picnic table by one of the inlets.

I have taken pictures of the signs that tell the history of the garden. Be sure to read them carefully. I apologize for not being able to give you the sound of the ocean in the background as you amble along the path.

I usually go through and pick the best 10 to 15 best pictures out of a group, but this time, I will not do that. I have put them all into a slide show so you can look through them at your leisure, and pretend that you are walking through the garden.

From the back of the map:

Founded by Dan and Pauline Lutkenhouse in 1978, the Garden was opened to the public in 1984. The Founders purchased seventeen acres on the ocean and spent six years hand-clering the impenetrable tropical jungle to create the winding trails and outstanding beauty you will experience as you walk through the Garden. They later purchased an additional twenty acres and donated the entire thirty-seven acres to Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, establishing a non-profit nature preserve.

I have included a few pictures of the inside of the gift shop, as well as a glance at the map and trail guide we were given when we entered. My neck is sore from looking up so much. Plants that we may have only seen in a much smaller size in our own gardens are monsters here. Even if you would like to, you don’t need to know the names of all the plants in order to enjoy their beauty.

Follow me as I take you down this path into a garden of delights! Click here to view the slide show.

A hui hou!

Kele’s Garden

 

This past Saturday, our Big Island Self-Sustainability group (BISS) met to celebrate the Summer Solstice with a potluckat the home of one of the founding members, Kele, in Hilo. I love living in Ocean View, but I have to admit to more than a little envy when I see what can happen in a yard where there is actual soil and rain to help things grow.

These pictures are in order as I walked around the outside of his home. There were surprises with every step. I won’t try to give you the names of everything I saw, but most of you will recognize banana trees, and the amarylis in the foreground.

 

You might say that his entire garden is a banana grove.

 

 

Even with a house (and more flowering plants) on one side, the banana grove feeling remained.

 

The path curved down away from most of the bananas, guiding me around the corner of the house.

 

For those of you who are familiar with the tobacco plant, you might be surprised at the small size of the leaves on this specimen. Perhaps if it was in the ground instead of a pot, it would look more like the tobacco most of us know.

 

Oops! More bananas, plus some great-looking papayas!

 

These are ornamental bananas, a pretty pink, but not for eating!

 

And yet more bananas about ready for chopping off the tree.

 

Sometimes there are pieces of interest that are not growing.

 

I got a few ideas for how to handle some of my pots from Kele.

 

The bananas don’t seem to stop!

Here’s one of the striking spots of color.

 

A simply stunning display! Too bad I had to get a car in the background.

 

The bright blue ginger provides a colorful background for the salmon cannas.

 

And this takes me back to the driveway entrance to Kele’s home.

 

I had no idea that Betty Crocker offers landscape awards. Some of the community groups sponsor these awards here in Hawai`i and each year, they encourage local residents to nominate someone they believe has an unbelievable garden. There are four categories, and Kele won this year. He’ll be flying to Honolulu soon to accept the award. I think you’ll agree that his yard certainly deserves it.

Congratulations, Kele, and thank you for letting me share this beauty with my readers.

A hui hou!

Springtime in North Carolina

Pilot Mountain, NC
Pilot Mountain, NC

 

A couple weeks ago, I showed the spring flowers at my daughter’s home in Boise. Since then, different friends have sent me pictures of the spring blossoms in various parts of the country. Last week we were in Arizona.

This week we are visiting North Carolina. These photos were taken by my friend, Sonia Martinez, while visiting her family there. Please check out her food blog, and while you’re there, let her know how much you enjoyed her pictures!

I have lived in the South, and I forgot how many plants we had there that I don’t have in my Hawai`ian garden. It seems like eons since I saw something like dandelion puffs!

 

Of course, tulips are beautiful everywhere.

 

Wisteria is one of my favorites. I wonder if it would grow here? It has such a Southern and old-fashioned feel to it.

 

Violas, wild violets and other wild flowers are sweet and romantic.

 

Beautiful fields of phlox, with fairy lilies tucked in out of the way places.

 

Another tree I haven’t seen in years is the dogwood. Such simple yet elegant beauty!

 

And then there are two of the most colorful shrubs that herald the end of winter – azaleas and forsythia.

 

What a treat to be taken back to a glimpse of spring in the South.

Thank you, Sonia!

A hui hou!

Springtime in Arizona!

Regal Saguaro Cacti
Regal Saguaro Cacti

Last weekend, I showed pictures from my daughter’s yard in Boise. Springtime in Boise is a bit different from Springtime in Tucson, but hollyhocks, wild flowers and cacti in bloom are as spectacular and as welcome as tulips in the spring.

I lived in Tucson for almost a decade and remember how the tiniest bloom on a cactus could take my breath away.

The hollyhocks that are starting to bloom belong to Sam and Phyllis Turner, friends in Tucson. A few of their geraniums and pansies got in there, too.

Pima Canyon is a 2-hour hike round trip. The pictures of Pima Canyon were taken by Virginia Mann, another Tucson friend. A hike through the canyon takes about two hours round trip. Enjoy the slideshow of Southern Arizona!

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

For a larger version, click here.

A hui hou!