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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