A Botanical Garden at the Zoo

I just love our zoo, it has the most amazing botanical garden I've ever been to. The zoo part actually is just okay, enough to attract many families and busloads of school children on fieldtrips to the local zoo.

 


Entering the zoo is quite drammatic with the palm lined entry of foxtail palms leading to the entrance and immediately to the right is a beautiful pond filled with many types of water lillies. You then enter through a walkway filled with tropical rhododendrons with wonderful scents as you head into the various zoo areas.

The tropical gardens are lovingly maintained by volunteers and many specialized growing clubs including the local palm society, the bromeliad club, the water garden club and lets not forget the Vireya Society. Each club takes care of certain areas where their plants shine in mass profusion and it is apparent that there has been alot of care and placement to make each plant compliment and yet stand out dramatically with all the other tropical abundance from these gardens.

 

A whole stand of red sealing wax palms or Cyrtostachys renda line this pathway, its dramatic don't you think? Here's a close up of a nice cluster with their red culms showing.

A whole stand of aromatic vireyas line the entryway with the palms, its a very dramatic and colorful entrance filled with many colors of reds, oranges, pinks and yellows. Did I mention the wonderful scents these flowers give off in the morning heat?

I just love seeing all the unusual plant combinations that are put together and even changed on a regular basis to make the paths interesting and changing with every season. At this visit, I see that alot of new bromeliads have been placed in many strategic areas to add more texture and color to the pathways, while transitioning from zoo pens to another area adding to the surprise at each segment with tropical foliage and flowers.

 A nice shady area with bromeliads and these large leafed Licuala Elegans, one of my favorite palms trees.

A close up of the white tiger called Namaste, he seems a little gun shy this morning to greet the crowds.

I'm just amazed by the amount of volunteerism happening with all the garden clubs and other volunteers to this zoo. Since admission is free, the organization really relies on the generousity of the various club members to maintain and refresh each of the plant areas with their plant collections. It is truly a labor of love and I hope that if you ever visit Hawaii Island come and visit the zoo and you will be amazed by the spectacular botanical garden we have here besides the animals

This beautiful and exotic ginger bloom was just sitting above the grass, the heavy flower heads made the entire stalk drop down to the ground from the heavy weight.

Beautiful Oncidium orchids are almost on every coconut tree, its such a nice touch.

The bromeliad society has taken alot of care of the large beds of bromeliads throughout the zoo, even placing some in the trees.

Hope you enjoyed the tour, its been a nice day to just explore the zoo today especially when everything is in bloom.

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This is my contribution to My world, to visit other worlds go to http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Morning Walks by the Ocean are Always Special

I've started a new walking program with a friend exploring the coastal cliffs and walking trails around our neighborhood and it is so amazing how much the vistas change every morning.




 

All in one day it can be bright and sunny, the next moment its dreary and raining and then it changes again to dramatic and puffy clouds. It makes for a very lively walk and fortunately my walking partner, doesn't mind my taking quick photos to document all the beautiful scenes unfolding.

Arent' these views inspiring, I couldn't even consider our walks exercise when we get to see this much beauty every day.

This is my contribution to my world tuesday, to visit others go to http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

 

The Hot, the Loud and the Proud #6

Show us your tropicals and exotics, your hot mediterranean colors and wild combinations, amazing discoveries and unusual variations. Or how about something exciting you just saw, a crazy garden,  amazing garden art or design, an inspiring visit or hike?

This meme is open to all (you do not have to live in an exotic location to participate)  and will be on the last day of each month…so mark your calendars and lets do something fun on the hot, the loud and the proud meme. I’ll have the link available early, east coast time (USA) to catch you early birds and even earlier for those of you in other countries.

For this month’s theme,  I’m taking you to on a tour of a local ti (Cordyline terminalis) nursery, just down the block from my neighborhood in East Hawaii. Its amazing that in Hawaii, we can have many growers specialize in commercially growing just one species, and create their own niche market. With growing conditions so ideal for these growers, they can offer so many different varieties and hybrids. Also, they create these brilliant color combinations, all for the benefit of eager plant fanatics to add to their collections.  Come and take a look at some of these beauties ….




This grower started his nursery as a hobby to eventually turn this into a full time business when he retires. Meanwhile, he has a stunning show garden and nursery up and running for business. I discovered this nursery after seeing his wonderful ti plants at the local Macuu farmers market in East Hawaii and after seeing all the vivid and colorful varieties, I was inspired to see I could visit and photograph his nursery.

What I didn't expect to find was this exotic and other-worldy show garden in addition to this simple nursery. He grew some of the most exuberant, bold, and variegated accent plants. Every time I turned to a new angle I was confronted with exciting compositions.

What’s interesting about this show garden is the actual lava left intact and used as walkways or decorative statements to the landscaping, it really shows how utilizing what is part of the locality can add some interesting context and texture to a landscape.

Intense colorations and intense shades of red from just this one plant... isn't it striking?

All the curved surfaces and raindrops remind me of the sensual curves of another abstract painter with a very colorful pallet.  This is a very inspiring place, don't you agree?

I love capturing light illuminating these leaves and showing translucent foliage that just sparkle and add so much dimension to this garden.

This miniature ti only gets to a height of three feet and the variegated leaf stripes add so much visual texture to make this beauty stand out and make you pay attention.

 

Here’s one last view showing another, oh-so-amazing view in this garden vignette.

I hope you enjoyed this ti farm tour, its a very special place on this side of the island. 

To visit other Hot, Loud and Proud posts today go and check out the links below.

For more views of other worlds on Tuesday come visit http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Exotics Galore

 

 

We are continuing our garden tour of this exciting tropical garden in Orchidland, Hawaii.  There  are so many wonderful vistas and colorful vignettes in this beautiful garden, I was really in plant and photo heaven. Even though the morning sky was overcast, I still found some interesting light to take pictures  including this cropped composition of this stately Bismarkia nobilis palm. One of my favorite palms, I love this younger tree since they are more difficult to capture in photograph when they get older and taller, and the blue fans are striking to see in this light.

 

 

 

 

So many walkways leading to amazing discoveries and wonderful colors at every turn. At this spot I see these exquisite fan palm being illuminated through this dense ohia jungle with large and wild bamboo orchid fronds reaching up to six feet in height in the foreground. I really wish I had the note of what this amazing palm is, I’ll have to post about again in the future.

 

 

 

There’s nothing more intoxicating like coming up to one of these blooms of the Michelia Champaca, its  sweet, vanilla and lightly scented. I keep wanting to take more whiffs so I can always visualize the scent every time I see this picture.

 

 

There are always exotic orchids blooming in the trees here in the garden including this purple vanda which is lit up from behind.  There’s nothing like seeing real blooming orchids up in the trees, it seems so natural here, as it should be in real life.

 

I love seeing this colorful vignette of  black tis, ferns and this stand of white crinums, its is one of many beautiful arrangements in this garden and keeps the eyes moving everywhere from front to back, and then from lower to higher.

 

 

Even the crotons are amazing, they are illuminated here against the sunlight and these are almost the size of small trees here in Orchidland, really morning light adds so much dimension to this typically shady part of the garden.

 

 

This heliconia Etlingera Elatior is in this quiet and shady dell with the sunlight just peaking through on the background…the moment is captured so wonderfully this morning, its so neat to be able to capture these at just the right moment with some beautiful light. Usually in the shade they turn out flat and static.

 

A beautiful stand of Royal palms (Roystonea elata) line the driveway leading to this property

I really love this palm allee, its so majestic and oozes exotic, don’t you think?

 

I hope you enjoyed this exotic garden tour, wasn’t that just amazing? If you didn’t see the start of the tour, this is the link http://aplantfanatic.blogspot.com/2010/07/hot-loud-and-proud-5.html to see the rest of the garden in Orchidland.

To visit other corners of the world for My World Tuesday, follow this link http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

A Photowalk Competition

 

 

I can't believe I'm waking up at 5am Saturday morning to take some morning pictures with a photo club I've just joined recently here in Hawaii. And now my first photo tour with them is to do a photowalk around Hilo Bay with an early sunrise start.  But this will not be any morning excursion, its a world wide photo walk and competition with over 30,000 registered participants that will compete in one single day of shooting to submit only one photo for consideration as their best work.

It was tough making a decision on the one, but I have boiled it down to two shots below done in the early morning light, more diffused but with a lot of detail and a hint of a tropical environment. Maybe you can help me choose the best of the two?

 

 

 

 

So which of the two looks more like a winning photo to you, they are a little similar except for the foreground with different rock studies.

 

Along the way, I did stop at the Japanese garden close by to take some practice shots, unfortunately, there wasn’t enough good light to make these make my top considerations, but I’m showing them to you anyway so you get to see photos of this beautiful park in Hilo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a quiet corner is this beautiful shady grove with thousands of colorful impatiens in hot colors, it just lit up this little corner.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the tour, please help me select the final cut.  To enjoy more views of the world on Tuesday go visit http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Garden Treasures

 

 

 

One of my favorite art/design/garden meccas is called Artefact Design and Salvage located in Cornerstone at Sonoma, California. Its an exciting gallery of found art, salvaged finds, garden objects and statuary, plants, books and awe inspiring displays…the entire gallery is a huge expanse of imagination and playful vignettes gone wild!

 

This designed inspired gallery is visual delight filled with many assemblages and well crafted displays. I am always impressed with the combinations of old, found and new things that make a well crafted vignette…you just can’t stop spending your whole time just seeing all these amazing collections. This hand carved eagle is over ten feet in width alone (you’ll need a very large consol to hold this up)

 

 

I can’t stop reaching and trying to touch every display filled with many tactile objects and such beautiful collections that make you ooh and aaaah at every display

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Its seems like the owners here have mastered the technique of display and creative vignettes that tell a story and draw you into this space and want you to take all these treasures home with you…here’s a well honed display of succulents in carved out stone containers, I love the organic touch.

 

Outside the shop is a huge area of amazing salvaged finds from around the globe, varying from limestone statuary of goddesses to bronzed buddhas and wooden carved emperors, kings along with the ubiquitous lion head fountains.

 

 

 

 

 

Back inside I discover this strange collection of headless cupie like dolls, very strange and yet appealing in the right element….I’m not sure if you can plant anything in the containers above the body…what do you think about a succulent?

 

I find this collection of soup bowls, tea pots and a bulldog so whimsical, it just makes me smile.

 

I’m very attracted to this buddha and the large petrified wood behind it….fortunately none of this will fit my suitcase or my pocket book for my trip back home!

 

This place is a real find and design inspiration, I truly hope it makes it during these tough economic times even in fashionable Sonoma, where these unique galleries are disappearing very quickly.  I hope to keep visiting this area and still seeing this gallery operating.

 

If your visiting Sonoma, come visit cornerstone and the Artefact Design and Salvage, I’m sure you will be inspired by this gallery, its a very special place.

 

To see other world views on tuesday go visit http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/