Gardens in Eden

Pink bananas, hibiscus the size of satellite dishes, toothy cannonball flowers, Jurassic ferns--these are some of the oddities I’ve encountered in the Hawaiian garden alongside the orchids, plumeria and anthurium, imports that people have come to think of as Hawaiian. What most visitors, even the regulars, overlook is the island’s true botanical treasure, the native flora, which outshine the most lavish transplants.

There’s no need to mount a major hiking expedition to see these rare beauties; they can be discovered at the state’s numerous botanical gardens. Here are a few of my favorites, chosen not only for their collections but also for their spaces, their tranquillity, their paths that invite wandering.

First, a little background is necessary to help the explorer appreciate why our native plants are unique.

The volcanic Hawaiian Islands emerged barren from the depths of the ocean. The seeds of life arrived slowly, borne in the jet streams and trade winds, carried in ocean currents and as gifts of migratory birds. Every 40,000 years or so, one new species took hold. In utter isolation, farther from any landmass than anyplace else on Earth, they evolved into a unique biota. The common California tarweed became the unusual silversword, growing gloriously in the harsh alpine desert of Haleakala, the dormant volcano on Maui. The flowering ohia lehua was one of the first plants to take root in a hardened lava flow.

O ululoa ka’aina O Mohala. (The virgin land sprang into bloom.) This line is one of 2,077 in Hawaii’s Kumulipo, the creation chant that sings of the evolution of the universe and all life within it.

Today, more than 30% of the species present in 1778, when British explorer Captain James Cook arrived, are listed as threatened or endangered; more than 10% are known or presumed to be extinct. Civilization has forced the remaining native biota into retreat, with most of the uncultivated survivors inhabiting upper elevations of the mountains.

One of the most significant early collectors of native flora was Dr. William Hillebrand, private physician to King Kamehameha V in the 1850s and ‘60s. Hillebrand found relaxation from his official duties by exploring Hawaii’s remotest natural areas and collecting plant specimens for his garden in Honolulu.

After Hillebrand returned to his native Germany, his home was bought by Capt. and Mrs. Thomas Foster in 1867. They expanded on Hillebrand’s collection, then bequeathed the garden to the city.

Foster Botanical Garden can boast of 10,000 species of plants, including noteworthy collections of orchids, bromeliads, ginger and heliconia. My children would patiently endure my recitation of the plant labels, biding their energies for the big banyan tree in the middle of the garden. There they played among the fantastic aerial roots. They also enjoyed the Prehistoric Glen, which contains some of the oldest plant forms on Earth; they imagined T. rex romping in the shadows of Honolulu’s skyscrapers.

Foster is operated by the Honolulu Botanical Garden, which has four other gardens on Oahu: Koko Crater, Wahiawa, Hoomaluhia and Liliuokalani.

Koko Crater Botanical Garden lies within the basin of an extinct volcano on the eastern shore of Oahu, just inland from Sandy Beach. The garden is a testing ground for xeriscape gardening concepts to conserve island water resources. The crater floor harbors a thick growth of dry-land plants, including a large grove of native wiliwili. Indigenous shrubs, herbs and grasses cloak the steep inner crater walls, while the outside walls are adorned by cultivated riots of bougainvillea and fragrant plumeria.

Among the garden’s important collections are climbing cactuses, aloes, sansevierias, euphorbias and palms.

Wahiawa Botanic Garden, another in the Honolulu system, is a wooded gulch with a fern collection, aroid garden and 60 notable trees. It is the venerable trees that give this garden its character.

Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden is 400 acres of serenity on the lush windward side of Oahu, lying beneath the sheer green palisades of the Koolau Mountains. Built by the Army Corps of Engineers to provide flood protection, it contains a 32-acre lake. Its plants are grouped generally by geographic area of origin.

The smallest spot in the Honolulu system, Liliuokalani Botanical Garden, is sandwiched into a dense residential district near the Lunalilo Freeway. Native Hawaiian plants live happily beside Nuuanu Stream and its waterfalls.

The University of Hawaii operates its own garden and botanical research center, Lyon Arboretum, just 15 minutes from Waikiki in Manoa Valley. The garden covers 124 acres within Oahu’s grand and wild rain forest. Visitors can borrow umbrellas to trek through Fern Valley and beneath towering trees. There are lily ponds, benches and pavilions for contemplation. I like to just sit there and watch sheets of rain dance by, followed by rainbows.

One of the more intriguing areas is the Beatrice H. Krauss Ethnobotanical Garden. Named for the woman who pioneered Hawaiian ethnobotany, the collection is grouped according to the plants’ use: food, construction, clothing, musical instruments.

The arboretum’s gift shop carries jams and jellies made by volunteers from the fruits of the garden’s trees.

On Oahu’s North Shore surf coast is Waimea Arboretum. Its 36 collections of plants are sheltered within 150 acres of Waimea Valley Adventure Park. Although the arboretum is operated as part of a tourist attraction--the waterfall divers are a huge draw--this garden is quite serious in purpose and attracts international contingents of horticulturists.

Congress gave a green thumbs-up to Hawaii’s fragile biota in 1964, chartering the National Tropical Botanical Gardens, four of which are in Hawaii; the fifth is in Florida. (Despite the name, the gardens are not owned or operated by the government but run as a nonprofit organization.)

The flagship and most extensive is at Lawai, on the south shore of Kauai. Among its 186 acres is an herbarium that contains 26,000 tropical specimens.

Adjoining Lawai Garden is the oceanfront Allerton Garden, a 100-acre estate that had been a property of Queen Emma in the 1870s. Still grieving the loss of her husband, King Kamehameha IV, and their only child, Prince Albert, a few years before, she began the garden at her summer house here.

The garden was expanded during the 30-year proprietorship of Robert and John Allerton. Today it is an enchantment of sculpture, pools, fountains and flowers set amid pathways beside a stream and along the sea.

Queen Emma’s cottage, ravaged by years of storms, was rebuilt last year, but it is not accessible to visitors.

A third national garden is on the north shore of Kauai: Limahuli Garden and Preserve. This magnificent 17-acre site is notched into towering mountains near the end of the road at Haena. Its extreme beauty is almost a distraction to the garden’s vital importance. Within Limahuli are two important ecosystems: the lowland rain forest and the lower mixed mesophytic forest. Together, these two systems are the natural habitat of 70% of Kauai’s and 59% of Hawaii’s endangered plant species.

The national garden’s fourth facility in Hawaii is Kahanu Gardens on Maui. Strung out along a rugged lava shoreline, it contains the largest remaining ancient Hawaiian temple, Piilanihale Heiau, a national historic landmark.

Many important Hawaiian cultural events are preceded by ceremonies at the lava rock temple. I was there one morning before dawn and watched as hula dancers, who would be performing in the Haku Mele festival later in the day, stood and faced the east and chanted the sun up, clapping their hands. A vivid curtain of color appeared behind them and lasted as long as they chanted. I never will forget it.

The botanical emphasis at Kahanu is on plants of the Pacific Islands. Among the collections are a native pandanus forest, the world’s largest breadfruit collection and an outstanding group of coconuts. In September, a Canoe Garden will be planted, showcasing the plants brought to Hawaii by the first Polynesian settlers.

Enchanting Floral Garden of Kula, Maui, is not part of any official system, but for me, that’s its charm. Kazuo Taketa and his wife Kazuko have crammed 1,500 species of flora into eight acres of garden. Winding paths pass beneath bowers of jade vine and among 30 varieties of monster protea, a flower that looks more like a bloom of the moon than anything Earth produces. Taketa, retired president of a seed company in Japan, claims the only white pineapple in the world, a purple-leafed hibiscus and fields of annuals that blaze away in Kula’s cool climate on the mid-slopes of Haleakala volcano. Before leaving, visitors are treated to fruit from the garden, whatever is in season--perhaps white guava, apple-banana, star fruit or papaya.

The entire Kula region is a quilt of flower farms and ranches.

The Bishop Museum maintains a small, narrowly focused but important garden on the Big Island of Hawaii. The 15-acre Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden is set amid the lava rock remnants of an ancient Hawaiian agricultural operation. Plantings are arranged to reflect the biogeographical zones of the Kona district, where the steep slopes of two volcanoes, Hualalai and Mauna Loa, provide a range of climate zones, from the subtropical coast to the alpine heights. The collection includes 45 varieties of Hawaiian taro and 23 kinds of Hawaiian banana.

Most people agree that all of Hawaii is a garden. These are just a few official gardens where the virgin land has indeed burst into bloom and the Kumulipo still whispers the old names in the breezes among the ancient trees.

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GUIDEBOOK

Not-So-Secret Gardens of Hawaii

OAHU: Foster Botanical Garden, 50 N. Vineyard Blvd., Honolulu. Telephone (808) 522-7065. Open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Admission $5.

The following public gardens are free and open daily, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Koko Crater, Kealahou St., Hawaii Kai. Tel. (808) 522-7060.

Wahiawa, California Ave., Wahiawa. Tel. (808) 621-7321.

Liliuokalani, N. Kuakini St., Honolulu. Tel. (808) 522-7060.

Hoomaluhia, Luluku Road, Kaneohe. Tel. (808) 233-7323.

Lyon Arboretum, Manoa Road, Honolulu. Tel. (808) 988-7378. Open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. $1 donation requested.

Waimea Arboretum, Waimea Valley Adventure Park, Waimea. Tel. (808) 638-8655. Open daily 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Park admission $24 adult, $12 children 4 to 12.

KAUAI: National Tropical Botanical Garden Headquarters, Lawai Garden and Allerton Garden, Route 530, Lawai. Tel. (808) 332-7324. Four tours daily, Tuesday through Saturday. Admission $25. Reservations necessary: tel. (808) 742-2623.

Information about all four NTBG sites is on the Internet: https://www.ntbg.org.

Limahuli Garden and Preserve, Hanalei. Tel. (808) 826-1053. Open Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Self-guided tour, $10; guided tour, $15.

MAUI: Enchanting Floral Garden, Highway 37 at the 10-mile marker, Kula. Tel. (808) 878-2531. Open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission $5.

Kahanu Gardens, Ulaino Road, Hana. Tel. (808) 248-8912. Guided tours by reservation, Monday through Friday, 1 p.m.; $10.

BIG ISLAND: Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, Captain Cook. Tel. (808) 323-3318. Open dawn to dusk daily. Free.