The Hot, the Loud and the Proud #12

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.

I was going to a wonderful Yurt Expo down in Opihikao to write a column for our monthly Hawaii publication when the owner invited me to take a walk around her beautiful garden and I was inspired to show you her garden for today's meme.

 The property is actually a balinese type home that the owner leases out as a vacation rental property with a few small pavilions. Above is the entryway to one of the larger pavilions with and exotic garden entryway filled with dracaenas, ti plants, palms, yuccas and crotons, all displaying a welcoming aloha.

Huge bundles of orchids are attached to palm trees like this big cluster of white dendrobiums, this variety has a nice sweet smell when you come up close for a smell.

The eco resort has some fun outside clawfoot tubs that lie beyond the banana trees here and you have spectacular coastal views of the ocean below and the colorful gardens in the background.

I always love how colorful bottles are presented into sculpture pieces like this one. The owner has quite a few interspersed in many areas of her gardens. This section is filled with many different varieties of anthuriums.

Another bottle tree sculpture amid a big collection of bromeliads and many varieties of palm trees.

Agave attenuata amid a rangy begonia plant which seems to be popping up in every wonderful dark corner of this garden area.

Another look at an entrway to another pavilion with colorful foliaged plants like crotons, rubber tree, pygmy dates palms and cardboard palms.

This twelve acre estate has a grand driveway with grassy areas and huge trees like this gorgeous monkeypod tree and many mature palms.

 I love this variegated rubber tree plant - it has so many shades of pinks and greens and is just stunning against the light. This shrub sized plant reaches about eight foot in height at the moment.

I tasted some of these ripe acerola cherries, a tropical sweet and tarty version of a cherry with a large pit. This is the season for these fruits which can last at least two months long here.

The owner has a large tropical orchard that she allows her guests harvest their own fruits any time of the day.

The pommelo to the left is the size of a large orange, the mature one on the right is about 12 inches in diameter...its huge!

This is a soursop fruit, the fruit here dangles low to the ground on this tree which makes it very easy for harvesting. The fruit has a creamy white texture and is a combination of pineapple, peach and quite tarty if not ripe.

To see other scenic sundays go and visit http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

I hope you enjoyed the tour of this wonderful place in Opihikao in East Hawaii. To visit some other lovely gardens today for the Hot meme click on the links below.

Sunset Views Overlooking the Red Road

A beautiful sunset was starting to unfold when I was driving down the red road rushing to get to a party. Once I rounded the bend the striking colors of the sky instinctively told me to stop and capture this moment.

I'm glad I did, it was magical....

For other watery Wednesday views today go and visit http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

A Bloom Day Walk

The weather has been incredible in East Hawaii the past few weeks, with beautiful blue skies and only light rains at night. Considering this is typically our rainy season, I'm hopeful that we will be receiving more rain on-going so we don't have a drought again by the summer time.

In any event, waking up in the mornings to walk around the garden is a wonderful experience, especially when I have new blooms to greet me and something new to show for the monthly bloom day tours.

All around the wilder sections of my back yard, the large shrubs of clerodendron-quadriloculare display huge clusters of pink and white blooms which will last a month or more on each shrub/tree. Why I don't create more plants with cuttings is something I'm always wondering about at this time of year,it always gets put off for another time frame. I'm still happy with the surprises I get without any care to these plants.

On the left side garden, I have a few clusters of this peach vireya blooming now in the wild jungle corner and they are completely surrounded by wild ferns that just keep coming back everytime I weed this entire section. fortunately the vireyas are striking enough for me to notice them this morning.

Also in the side yard are many wild orchids including this variety of bamboo orchid that is quite prolific in the entire neighborhood. The stalks of each flower can reach over six foot in length with just a few flowers coming out at the tips.

In the front of my garden, this is our native hibiscus flower Hibiscus arnottianus which is a large shrub or tree and mine is over eight foot tall at the moment.

Another cluster of sweetly scented vireya called Aravir in the front yard is putting on a nice show and the scents are heavenly this morning.

I have all my anthuriums in the shady side yard and these miniatures are always coming up from underneath all the vines and weeds and create a nice juxtaposition next to this Quan Yin Statue.

A favorite hibiscus flower I planted on the front area to match the home's exterior yellow color...its always putting out a nice show no matter what season.

In a quiet corner in the front beds is this fuschia colored bromeliad, and croton with a hawaiian gaurdian tiki greeting you at the entryway.

By the front stone gate, this newly planted peach colored bouganvillea is starting to send out its salmon colored leaves and make a nice contrast to this spiky agave, I've planted right in the front row as a deterrent to anyone just walking straight into the front yard.

behind the stone wall in the front, I planted a few palms, red ti and dracaenas

The front yard with a collection of crotons, dracaenas and impatiens along with the huge blooms of this bromeliad.

My white orchid tree a bauhinia is putting out a nice flush of blooms all over the tree for me.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of the garden this morning to see other beautiful gardens in bloom today go visit http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/2010/01/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-january-2010.html

The Hot, the Loud and the Proud #11

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.


As I walk around my garden today, the morning clouds are still here and a light drizzle is coming down. That's okay with me so I do not have to water today and the mosquitos don't attack me when its wet outside for some reason. Taking a look at whats blooming today and I see alot of favorites that are greeting me this morning in the garden.



My leucospermum is putting out a beautiful bloom today, its still a very young plant so these blooms are very rare.

This is also a relatively young leucadendron plant that gives me a few blooms, and do last a few weeks.

I've made quite a few cuttings of these impatiens and they are also doing very well and giving me beautiful blooms.

One of my favorite anthuriums, this one is over 10 inches long, these obake hybrids are a showy bunch and can last for over a month.

Another favorite impatiens, I love the variegated foliage just as much as the flower which is always blooming on these wonderful plants.

I only have one shrub of these cats whiskers and it is huge, its such a carefree and easy plant to have in the garden - no fussing necessary for these beautiful blooms.

A beautiful scented vireya is coming out in the side yard and giving out a spectacular display, the scent is litely perfumed like a ginger.

One of the wild orchids in the back jungle area of the garden is putting on quite a show for me also. Isn't it a treat to see wild orchids like this blooming!

Hope you enjoyed the walk around the garden with me this morning, come and visit again anytime.

To view other gardens today go and visit

A Beautiful Art Garden

Everytime I travel to a new location, I always make it a habit to visit a local art center or coop. It really gives me a great impression of what local artists feel about their area and their interpretations of what makes their town or city unique.

Sometimes its a treat when you find a special place that combines art, sculpture and a beautiful garden to encompass all of the wonderful elements in discovering a new area.

This is how I feel when I find something worthwhile or accidentally walk into a place like the Mendocino Art Center - an amazing place that combines art, music, theather and other creative endeavors into a beautiful center. While I was viewing the wonderful artwork in the galleries, I saw their calendar of amazing performances and classes being offered in the spring, and I was really tempted to come back and spend more time in this area and take a ceramics or watercolor class. (Wished we had something like this in East Hawaii) I can just be a spunge and feel all the creative juices flowing while I'm in an inspiring place like Mendocino which really is a special place for art.

Big picture windows with views to the gardens were luring me out after tiring from all the visual stimuli. I couldn't wait to see some fantastic interplay of art with flora.

I just had to rush out and take a picture of these giant sunflowers, I would love to tuck these into my suitcase to take back home to Hawaii.... I'm sure they would look amazing when the blue echiums in this section start to bloom.

I've always dreamed about doing a driftwood sculpture, this piece just takes it to another level - isn't it just the most creative piece - made with found objects!

Mosaics like this are perfect in this environment and can weather this cool and moist area - I love the colorful display even when the garden is asleep in winter.

Strangely, the giant aeoniums, match this little head so well in the garden and the spent blooms of the lavendar add more texture to this assemblage.

 This sleeping bust, fits in so well to this rose shrub, some thoughful care has been spent to sighting the sculptures well to the garden.

Another mosaic piece with some robust succulents that do very well in this area. I love this vignette.

Garden critters are abundant in this garden also, and you can take them all home for a souvenir.

 This amazing bench really make a statement, it just commands this area, don't you just love it?

  - another critter lurking in the shady areas of this garden, I think its a little shy of visitors.

Isn't this a sweet place, I could hang out in this garden for a bit and think about making some beautiful art in my garden also. Hope you enjoyed the tours of Mendocino -its time to head back into the city.

This is my contribution to fertilizer friday to view more gardens go to http://www.tootsietime.com/