A Garden in Kapoho, Hawaii

 

I love to sing and the chorus I sing with, the Puna Men’s chorus, held a fun wrap up party after our Aloha  Broadway performances featuring 100 years of Broadway hits. Let me just say that singing here is a lot of fun and also challenging, but the parties and places we go to are also amazing!

 

One of our board members has a beautiful home and garden in Kapoho on the eastern-most part of Hawaii island. Since I came early to help with the preparations, I got to explore the garden by myself on a beautiful sunny, cloudy and stormy day all happening in a single morning!

 

Walking around the grounds and the swimming pool area, a large Bismarkia B. nobilis palm on the left side, it is a beautiful silver grey color and adds nice texture along with the other palms in the background.

 

 

There were many colorful hibiscus plants in many intense color hues, here’s one of my favorites below.

 

 

A picture of the side garden leading down to the volleyball court hidden beyond the bougainvillea.

 

 

The plumeria in the top photo is from this grouping of deciduous plumeria trees that are just starting to bloom before the leaves start to come out. A beautiful traveler palm in the background adds a nice fan shape to this vignette.

 

 

In a shady dell is a grouping of different bromeliads and a nice spray of blooms in the foreground. Ferns and aloe in the foreground add a nice green base.

 

Orchids in trees are very common here since little care is taken to maintain them here, its survival of the fittest and hand watering down here is never done.

 

 

 

 

I love these powderpuff calliandra shrubs or trees, the intense red colors commands instant attention to their wispy puffs. They always add nice accents in a forest of green trees.

 

Sunny and cloudy skies are beautiful and yet can turn stormy at a moments notice so outdoor activities have to be done in covered patios or lanais.

 

More plumerias that are starting to bloom and develop leaves, below are red ti’s which add a nice color to the naked trees in wintertime.

 

A beautiful solitary jasmine bloom, from this almost tree sized shrub. Not sure which type this is, but I’ll guess it might be a night blooming indian jasmine.

 

 

 

Wasn’t this a beautiful garden to visit, add some singers, food and hanging out by the pool and it’s a perfect place to spend a wonderful lunch and afternoon. I’m so glad to come back and visit this sweet place.

 

This is my contribution for February’s Garden bloom day, please go to http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/ to see some other amazing gardens in bloom.

Its so Embarrassing…..

Yes, we gardeners have dirty secrets hidden and not always willing to admit, but I’ll let you in on my secret if it will prompt me to really make changes and soon!





I must confess, I would have never mentioned this if not for the fact that I had a big Christmas party and it was obvious to all my guest that came early before night fall -  what a sorry view and state things had become. What is it you may ask? Well if you take a look beyond the Christmas decorations - the view directly into the side yard is completely horrendous and looking directly into my neighbors driveway.

Fortunately, most of the event was in the evening so it was hard to see beyond the dark windows, but take a look. Here is the view during the daytime from the dining room.





Ah, I’ve lived with this view for quite awhile and never done anything about it….shameful isn’t it? It just keeps getting worse with junk trees, huge piles of sleeping grass, intertwined weeds and tall cane grass and who knows what else in this pile of green.




Always making excuses and too busy to acknowledge this real eyesore, I just chalked it up as a storage area and staging place for my potted plants.

The problem is I had to walk this route almost every time I wanted to go to the back yard, making it a depressing experience.




But let me say, in the back of my mind, I’ve always wanted to make this side garden and the view from my dining room more lush, tropical and screened for privacy. I’m almost embarrassed to say I’ve never done anything to this eyesore until I finally decided to take out the Satellite dishes and opt for ones on the roof, leaving me an open area and exposing my neighbors dull front yard as my viewing area.

So now I’m ready to take in this challenge and start making changes and my potted plants below are ready to be planted into their new space.

Here are some of the choices below that will fill this huge 15 x 75 foot space.


I have some lovely potted palms including this red sealing wax palm -

Cyrtostachys renda

I’m really fond of Acalyphas, this one is called inferno firestorm. They are like japanese maples, but the tropical version that can be grown in humid environments. Don't these look like a maple to you?




I have some potted white bauhinias on this yard, hopefully I can yank them out from their pot bound roots at this junction.





Of course I do have a variety of variegated ti plants, this one has a beautiful flowered spike blooming at the moment.




Another favorite ginger plant, this alpinia called Vittata is used ornamentally for its foliage, the flowers are small and insignificant.




I have propagated a few more of these pink medinellas and I think they can make a nice tall screen from the neighbors driveway.





This very large yellow hibiscus is against the front door and is already hitting the eaves. I think its time to move this large guy if it isn’t too late already. Fortunately, I’m not afraid of making big moves like this.




I love this variegated green and white gardenia shrub, it has small but sweetly scented flowers.
Here is a close up of the leaves below,  pretty isn't it?





Another favorite plant is this red smoke bush tree - cotinus coggygria. They grow so well in this area and are very easy to propagate. This one is propagated into a one gallon container is ready to be planted in full sun!





So you can see, I do have some favorites that can cover the area, now how to start and what to tackle first.


Well that’s where I’m open to any and all suggestions on what would work in this large space. I’m open to hearing any suggestions from all my gardening friends and gardening wanna be’s…please help. How can I make this side garden shine – I do have some ideas but want to get more ideas from all my gardening friends

...come on now don’t be shy!

Train Time and Playland at the Conservatory

I just love trains….

 

I always come back to the conservatory of flowers during the holiday’s so I could visit the holiday train exhibit – its one of the pleasures of visiting San Francisco during the holidays. Isn’t is a great combination to have play trains and plants all under one roof?

I love that they used a lot of natural materials, mosses and live plants, even the structures are repurposed materials used to create the famous landmarks around the park and at the long gone Playland at Ocean Beach.

 

 

This years exhibit was geared towards the old Playland which originally was along the ocean front of San Francisco and had its heyday during the forties and fifties and ran all the way to the early 1970’s. The exhibit was a lot of fun seeing recreated parts of the ocean front and the huge cliff house along the edge of the cliffs.

 

A close up detail of the many trollies from the city going to Playland.

 

 

The ornate Cliff house, hugging the cliffs of the city and facing the expansive ocean beach into Playland. I love the miniature plants chosen to fit the sizing with the buildings and landscapes, here a variety of herbs, miniature evergreens, california natives and large tropical plants in the background used just for texture. Even the wonderful moss covering the fake earthen hillsides add realistic touches to this scene.

 

 

I never saw the large victorian Cliff House here, I think it burned down in 1907, just one year after the great earthquake of 1906. It must have been the place to visit while in San Francisco back then. The adjoining Sutro Baths were a popular destination point for locals and tourists alike.

 

 

As usual the place is packed with children coming to see the train exhibits and jostling to have fun at the toys and props that they can play and climb on.

 

 

How do you make this go, I’m sure this kid is wondering?

 

 

I love these special exhibits and am fortunate to see this when I visit during the holiday’s. Hope you enjoyed the visit also!

The Conservatory of Flowers

During the holiday, when I’m visiting family in San Francisco, I always make it a habit to drop by the Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate park to see the seasonal displays and some of my favorite sections of the complex like the grand entry pavilion with its amazing glass entry (and it’s a nice toasty 80 degrees indoors)






I love seeing the new plantings that they change regularly. I couldn’t find a name plate for this gorgeous specimen – I’m guessing it might be some type of calathea or player plants native to the tropical Americas. Isn't the flower just dazzling, the scent is lightly flowered like a ginger.







Above, I spot the huge inflorescence from the bromeliad below is quite spectacular. I’m not familiar with this bromeliad, but it was quite a show-stopper.







Another exotic bloom, I could not locate the name plate for. I’m assuming it’s the spadix of an anthurium plant which I couldn’t even see in the thick jungle above






I love this fountain and the plants surrounding this huge stone pot. The vignettes of beautiful ferns, moss, little pink tillandsias (another guess), orchids and other miniature tropicals.







Its cymbidium season and the conservatory was filled with all different colors of my favorite orchids. Here, huge sprays of giant yellow spikes create a beautiful vignette in a quiet corner.












I enjoyed visiting and staying warm inside instead of being outdoors where it’s a brisk 39 degrees and cold grey skies. Its always nice to get a slice of paradise then the weather outside is the opposite.  What do you think, wasn’t this a great visit to the conservatory on such a cold day in the park?

A Walk Through the Jungle

 

Deep into the wild and thick forests at Waa Waa, an unruly and almost untamed part of East Hawaii.  Even the roadway to this wilderness is pock-marked with deep potholes, water filled ponds collect everywhere and make it almost impossible to move along the muddy dirt road especially after a heavy rain.

It feels very magical here, like time has stood still for a very long time and you can almost imagine dinosaurs from a very long time ago actually living in this Jurassic Park like zone, even though that only happens in movies.

 

 

Amazing plants abound and grow way up in the tree canopy including this wild birds nest fern (Asplenium nidus), the leaves growing over five to six feet in length alone. I wish some were closer to the ground for me to bring back a plant for my garden, but these plants live way up in the trees hard for the plant collectors to reach.

 

Here is a longer shot of the fern high above the forest canopy and magically

it up by the shaft of light illuminating its beautiful leaves.

 

Large limbs or aerial roots drape from these large trees and are very solid as you can see

from a friend swinging here to test the strong roots.

 

 

 

Eventually we make it to the clearing at the end were deafening sounds of the ocean crashing

can be heard…we see the huge waves battering the coastline and throwing huge boulders onto the rough shoreline.  I took a shot of this imaginary piece symbol with the two rocks lit up the waves in the background.

 

 

This huge arch at the end of the rocky beach is the highlight of the hike, the waves are fierce and hurling huge sprays along the shoreline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a wonderful and short hike, I’m glad this area is rarely traveled except for those who live in this area.