Good morning, gardeners. I hope that you are all enjoying the holiday season. Right now, almost nothing is happening in my garden in central NJ. I am beginning to receive seed catalogs in the mail, and I am starting to plan next summer's garden. Blue jersey dad and I are headed back to Turkey in late July and August, so I need to focus on spring crops and plants that will mature early in the summer.
Since blue jersey dad and I came home from our archaeological field work the day before school started in September, we decided that we needed a vacation. We cashed in our frequent flyer miles and spent a few days in Hawai'i on the Big Island before the Christmas holidays. Here are some pictures of the Hawaiian gardens.
The garden honoring Lili'uokalani, the last queen of the Hawaiian kingdom, is located in Hilo Bay. It is a lovely formal garden that was a short walk from our hotel:
The garden at the planetarium on the University of Hawai'i at Hilo campus is planted with examples of the canoe plants. These are the 24 plants that the Native Hawaiians brought with them when they settled Hawai'i over a thousand years ago. This is sugar cane (ko in Hawaiian). It is often planted with dry-land taro. It serves as a windbreak, and it may replenish some of the nutrients that the taro removes from the soil:
This is an example of dry-land taro. it is one of the most important staples of the traditional Hawaiian diet. Taro (kalo in Hawaiian) was initially domesticated in highland New Guinea, and it was carried throughout Micronesia and Polynesia by early farming communities. This picture was taken at the gardens of the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Company:
There is a wonderful botanical garden located just north of Hilo. It specializes in tropical plants from all over the world. Here is a view of the ocean from the botanical gardens:
Here is an example of the many varieties of orchids that are on display:
Here is an example of flowering ginger:
BJD and I drove up to the visitors' center on Mauna Kea (elevation of over 9000 feet). On the nature walk, we saw several examples of silver swords, an endangered Hawaiian plant that lives at high elevations:
Finally, here are a couple of tourist pictures from the Big Island. This is a view from Volcanoes National Park:
And here are the nesting sea turtles at a black sand beach:
Wishing you all peace and joy in the New Year.