August is here and we are really into summer now. Fortunately, I found a great way to escape the Florida heat . . .fly to Hawaii. It was a visit to see my newest niece and her brothers and sister (okay, I went to see my brother and his wife too, but a cute-as-can-be two-month-old pretty much outshines everyone else…) I had plans of hitting the beach, maybe an early morning surf with my brother . . . and then Tropical Storm Darby hit the island. Nothing major, just lots of rain, but it caused ‘brown-water’ advisories on the beaches, so plans changed a bit and I ended up touring a number of botanical gardens.

First we went to Waimea Valley and besides amazing plants, we got to take a refreshing dip under a waterfall (see picture above). Then there was a driving tour through Ho`omaluhia Botanical Garden, a walk through the plumeria forest at Koko Crater and finally the beautiful Foster Botanical Gardens. See below for a look at some of the amazing trees and flowers. Now I’m on a mission to find some of these cool plants and see if they will thrive in our area.  It just goes to show that no matter how long you’ve been around plants, there is always something new to discover in the garden.