World Gardens in a Flash

One of the best ways to learn about gardening is to visit some of the best in the world. The Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden is a somewhat expensive outing at $15 per person for entry, it does provide many hours of delightful experiences and many, many colorful tropical shrubs, plants, ground covers and trees.

This picture taken at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden shows some of the amazing combinations of tropical flower, tropical leaves, tropical ground cover, tropical upper story trees, and tropical shrubs that are placed dramatically throughout the gardens. Note how the varigation on the shrub leaves matches the nearby tropical flowers. Note how the blooming tropical flowers at the top of the plant look airy and light pink while the tropical ground cover is in muted purples.

The use of space in the Hawaii Tropical Botanical garden is also amazing. When the gardeners planted the tropical shrubs they left spacing that entices the eye to the background tropical bushes and draws the eye up to the upper story tropical trees. Note how the play of sun on the tropical shrubs show that space above was allowed and maybe even pruned to help the understory shrubs grow to their best color and size.

Besides providing a shady escape from the Tropical Hawaiian sun, Hawaiian Tropical Botanical gardens provides an uphill and downhill walk, interludes to sit and relax beside lily pad filled ponds, trickling streams, glimpses of seashore, and many glorious plants.

The Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden is open from 9am to 5pm everyday, except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, with Garden admissions ending at 4pm. This self-guided tour takes an average of about an hour and a half. The walking distance is just over a mile, round trip.

Admission for a day is $15 for adults, children ages 6 - 16 are $5. Children under 6 are free

If you visit the website, expect to find many more pictures and the chance to buy tropical plants online. See Care Tips for the Winter Gardener of Tropical Plants if you’d like to create a tropical have in your home using a greenhouse.

[1] Big Island of Hawai’i by Robert Nilson, Moon Handbooks

Red Twig Dogwood and Yellow Twig Dogwood are two of the most colorful water loving native plants used in Northwest Gardens.

This picture shows the rich color that turns a garden or waterfront aflame in late autumn. Taken in late November, the red and yellow color in the native plant shrubs contrasts nicely with the blue of a sunny day and the water along the beach.

Red twig and yellow twig dogwood tend to be inexpensive to buy at local Garden Nurseries. Red and yellow twig dogwood share the same habitat, the marshy areas that are native to the Black River, Duwamish River flood plain through the Renton, Kent, Auburn, Sumner, Puyallup valley. The plants will flower if local deer don’t eat the blossoms off. The red and yellow color is more intense if the branches are pruned down as if eaten. The branches of red twig dogwood and yellow twig dogwood green up in spring with the first leaves. Flowers mostly show up in small clusters on the ends of branches. The red twig dogwood and yellow twig dogwood grow about 6-8′ high if left unpruned and about 3-6 feet wide with arching branches. Red twig dogwood and yellow twig dogwood don’t mind wet roots and can tolerate drought and poor soils, needing very little fertilizer.

Thanksgiving morning, I joined friends for a walk from Stanley Sayres Memorial Park in Seattle, WA to Seward Park, a lovely hilly park on Lake Washington. I grew up downtown Seattle so my parents often took us to Seward Park to play and to watch the Blue Angels fly overhead during the Hydrofoil Races during Seafair every year. The walk from Stanley Sayres Memorial Park to Seward park is about 4 miles round trip along the shore of Lake Washington. The trail passes several marinas, some marsh land and then follows along the edge of Seward Park. Seward Park is a hilly park filled with grassy areas and lined with trees. Views of Mt. Rainer over the lake are terrific. Walkers may spy various ducks and an otter or beaver. This is a very natural park and the gardening is minimal except for examples of lovely trees that you might want for your garden.

Note the many plants that line the shore. This is a terrific way to find out what plants grow naturally and use them in planting a pond garden.