Botanical gardens are A Good Thing. If you haven’t been to any, you should rectify that soonest. If you get to Hawaii’s Big Island, you should definitely drive north from Hilo and visit the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. In this entry, the Hawaii-Problem you-gotta-see-these-pix monotony is relieved by sex.
Even if you’re not a botanical-garden sort of person, you might want to take Route 19 north from Hilo anyhow, because it’s beautiful, lush, country. Along the way, it’s worth stopping at Alae cemetery, which has one of the most remarkable trees anywhere. Then you turn off on Old Mamalahoa Highway, and the scenery suddenly gets even more intense.
The botanical garden, a non-profit, isn’t cheap to get into, but I think it’s good value. Take along a picnic and have it at the tables down by the beach.
I’m not sufficiently botanically erudite to know what most of them are, and didn’t bother to record the info off the helpful little signs.
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I promised you some sex. See what I mean?
Yes, they really were these colors. Credit for this one to my son, who said “Dad, you gotta take a picture of that.”
Leaves behind leaves behind leaves, and plenty of sun to light things up even under all of them. That’s the windward side of the Big Island.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: dr2chase (Apr 14 2013, at 10:19)
Lurid? http://www.flickr.com/photos/dr2chase/sets/72157632215106143/with/8261754767/
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From: Daniel Veillard (Apr 14 2013, at 18:10)
the 'sexy' parts are actually heavily
hybrided dendrobium orchids, material
commonly found in flower shops, but IMHO
not proper content for a botanical garden.
But sure they attract the eyes of most
people, and good subjects for pictures !
But you can find botanical species which
are at least as attractive as those, but
more expensive and harder to grow (though
it should not be too hard in Hawaii !)
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From: Guy Middleton (Apr 15 2013, at 07:00)
Excellent series, Tim! I'm using your posts to help plan a trip to Hawaii later this year.
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