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This
alula plant growing in the Limahuli Garden and
Preserve in Kauai, Hawaii, is a rare species
native to the island.
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At home in soggy
Seattle I'm a lackadaisical gardener, yet visiting Kauai
has turned me into a garden-loving tourist.
Kauai, like its
sister Hawaiian islands, is a botanical bonanza. Bathed in
the island's natural steroids of endless sunshine and
warm-rain cloudbursts, plants flourish. Wandering through
one botanical garden I gaped at a croton, a broad-leaved
tropical plant, that towered over my head; my houseplant
version had shriveled and died when it was barely six
inches tall.
Almost anything
can, and does, grow in Kauai in the wild and in its
botanical and home gardens. The island's lusher north and
east sides are a kaleidoscope of luxuriant ferns;
rope-thick vines; lacy orchids and shimmering flowers;
mango and guava trees; and stately Cook pines, almost 200
feet tall.
Kauai lives up to
its Garden Isle nickname in offering some of Hawaii's best
and most atmospheric botanical gardens. Some go for the
splashy, colorful tropical plants; others are dedicated to
showcasing and preserving native Hawaiian plants, many of
which are disappearing in the wild.
That's the dark
side of Hawaii's verdant beauty. Most of the showy flowers
and trees — plumeria, bougainvillea, many palm trees,
even orchids — that are considered typically Hawaiian
have been brought by people to the islands from elsewhere.
Some of these introduced plants (such as guava and African
tulip trees) grow like weeds, choking out the native
plants. And habitat loss through grazing (by feral goats),
hurricanes and other ills has decimated native plants.
So take a break
from the beach and go down the garden path in Kauai, for
enjoyment and easygoing education. Here are my favorite
botanical gardens on the island:
—Limahuli
Tucked away on
Kauai's North Shore, Limahuli Garden and Preserve is the
island's don't-miss garden for anyone interested in native
plants, Hawaiian history — and tropical scenery.
The garden's
setting is the stuff of fantasies, nestled into a narrow
valley beneath greenery-draped rock spires that served as
the Bali Hai backdrop in the movie "South
Pacific."
Limahuli, a unit
of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, covers almost
1,000 acres, much of it restricted for research and
preservation. But visitors can walk a 3/4-mile hillside
trail that winds through a demonstration garden on
self-guided or guided tours.
This is a
tucked-away, peaceful place with a little metal-roofed
visitor center and, on the afternoon I explored the
garden, just two other visitors. Soak up the serenity: sit
on a bench, listen to the wind, look out to sea, and read
the excellent guidebook that describes the numbered plants
along the path, giving background on Hawaiian plants and
culture. Just don't expect a lush flower garden; many of
the traditional Hawaiian plants are much plainer.
Start at the
ancient rock terraces, built at Limahuli about 700 years
ago by early Hawaiians to cultivate taro, their most
important crop. Walk onward among plants that originally
were brought to the islands by Polynesian migrants (the
first of such canoe voyagers are believed to have arrived
in the Hawaiian islands around 200 A.D.). They brought
with them the plants that sustained their lives: ti
plants, whose waxy leaves were used for everything from
wrapping food to thatching houses; banana trees; coconut
palms and more.
Keep walking into
what's called the plantation-era garden, showing plants
that people brought to Hawaii over the last 200 years ago
— from pineapple and papaya to gardenias, orchids and
heliconia. Usually considered typically Hawaiian, they're
actually classified as "modern introductions"
and are among the more than 10,000 species of plants
estimated to have been brought to Hawaii since Captain
Cook arrived in 1778. Introduced trees — including
guava, mango, swamp mahogany and umbrella trees — have
flourished in Kauai and the other islands, choking out
native Hawaiian forests.
Limahuli is
working hard to restore native habitat and preserve rare
Hawaiian plants, including a patch of forest where
invasive, alien trees were removed and native plants
restored. Watch for mamaki, a nettle used for tea and
medicine, and loulu, a fan-shaped palm native to Hawaii.
One of Limahuli's
conservation success stories is the alula, an ungainly
plant that looks like a cabbage on a big stick. It's
endemic to Kauai and believed to be extinct (or with only
one plant left) in the wild; National Tropical Botanical
Garden staff rappelled down cliffs on the rugged Napali
coast years ago to rescue some seeds. The alula, used
medicinally by ancient Hawaiians to treat infections, now
is grown in Limahuli (and its sister McBryde Garden) and
even sold through some nurseries, a botanical testament to
Hawaii's past.
—Na 'Aina Kai
For something
completely different, head to the sprawling and colorful
Na 'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens, also on Kauai's North
Shore.
While Limahuli
has a natural feel, Na 'Aina Kai is manicured and more
commercial, bursting with plants from palms, nutmeg and
cinnamon trees to blazing red hibiscus flowers, gingers
and heliconia. There's also hardwood plantation, growing
thousands of teak and other trees for sustainable
forestry.
About 100 bronze
statues are scattered through Na 'Aina Kai's 240 acres;
many are life-size, Norman Rockwell-mood sculptures of
people. There's a meandering lagoon and woodland trails, a
Japanese teahouse and waterfall; and a sprawling
garden-hedge maze. For children, there's a special play
garden, with a water-spray area, climbing frames, mock
caves and more.
Na 'Aina Kai once
was the private estate of Joyce and Ed Doty, an avid
gardener and contractor/rancher who retired to Kauai from
California in the early 1980s. The garden they created
over the years, from what was once sugarcane and pasture
lands, was a labor of their love. It was turned into a
foundation and opened to the public in 2000 (and what was
their home, perched above a pristine white-sand beach, is
open for special events).
On an afternoon
tour — the garden can be visited only on guided tours
— an ebullient guide ferried a half-dozen of us around
in one of the open-sided, golf-cart-style vehicles used to
take visitors around the sprawling garden. We hopped off
to wander paths; listen to the guide describe the wealth
of plants; and admire the garden statues.
—Allerton and
McBryde gardens
On the southern
end of Kauai, two side-by-side gardens, run by the
National Tropical Botanical Garden, can easily absorb a
full day.
The 80-acre
Allerton Garden is tucked into a valley opening to the
sea. Bought in the 1930s by Robert Allerton, heir of a
wealthy Chicago industrial family, and developed into a
series of garden rooms, it's a romantic and tranquil
enclave. Ferns cloak ravines and bougainvillea spills down
cliffs; palms stretch overhead; bamboo and fruit trees
flourish. The above-ground roots of Moreton Bay fig trees
undulate along a stream; the almost waist-high,
otherworldly fins of wood were in scenes in the film
"Jurassic Park." Walk onward to a reflecting
pool and mini-pavilion, a European-garden-style oasis
shaded by tropical trees.
The Allerton
Garden can be visited only by reservation on guided tours;
a sunset tour gives a peek at the house near the pristine
beach where Allerton once lived.
The McBryde
Garden, up the valley and along a meandering stream from
Allerton, once was 171 acres of sugar cane and cliffs.
Since the 1970s it's been turned into a garden of tropical
delights, now with one of the world's largest collections
of native Hawaiian plants.
Wander its paths
under palms from Hawaii and around the Pacific. Revel in
the colorful floral feast of heliconia, gingers and vivid
red-orange blooms of coral trees. Learn about the
"canoe plants" that Polynesian voyagers brought
with them on their epic journeys, plants that provided
them with food, fiber and medicine.
The McBryde
Garden can be visited at your own pace; take the tram
(first-come, first-serve) from the visitor center. Walk
the mile of mostly unpaved paths. Take your time, and stop
to smell the tropical flowers.
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IF YOU GO: