Inside Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
Many regular readers of this blog already know that, for me, heaven has an address. A short drive up from Hilo on the Big Island, Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden (HTBG) is an earthly paradise. In the natural greenhouse of Onomea Valley, HTBG offers meandering trails through a tropical rainforest. The flowers may look unreal, but they’re some of Mother Nature’s best work, like this brilliant lobster-claw Heliconia, large red Torch Ginger, and bizarre black Bat Flower.
Once home to an ancient Hawaiian fishing village, Onomea Valley now hosts over 2000 tropical plant species from around the globe, many rare or endangered. HTBG has over 40 acres (16 hectares) of plants, with plenty of orchids everywhere. Besides the central Orchid Garden, many more are attached to the trees (remember to look up!) We had the good fortune to visit earlier this month, when Dave snapped these great photos.
Of course, paradise includes beautiful waterfalls and tasty bananas. It even has a deliciously fragrant Golden Gardenia tree in the parking lot. Pending your next trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, you have can a bit of paradise delivered. HTBG’s online store offers dazzling tropical bouquets for shipment to the rest of the USA. Other garden gifts can be shipped worldwide. HTBG members enjoy free garden entrance. All proceeds support the non-profit conservation group which takes care of this little piece of heaven.
Explore posts in the same categories: Botanical Gardens, Conservation, Photos, Warm Growers
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February 16th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Beautiful photos! I hope I can visit there some day.
February 19th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
So remarkable! Thanks for your photos.
February 22nd, 2012 at 9:40 pm
[…] A single blog post can only scratch the surface of Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden (HTBG), so here’s a second post with more photos from our recent visit. […]
February 27th, 2012 at 4:29 pm
The bat flower is amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it. How big is it?
Those flower really do look unreal. If I saw them I would probably just think there an art project or something. I’ve never seen the yellow gardenias before but if they smell as good as the white ones, WOW!
February 29th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Heaven indeed! I like your description of the valley as a natural greenhouse. I assume it doesn’t have a roof…
I _love_ all the pics, but especially that phal and the heliconia. the torch ginger looks like its a huge flower. Gotta love the baby bananas too 🙂
April 4th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
[…] To understand why, consider how these orchids grow high in the trees at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. […]
April 20th, 2012 at 8:40 am
[…] That’s certainly true in some parts of the islands, like Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden near Hilo. However, in other parts of Hawaii, orchids aren’t as common. […]
May 12th, 2012 at 3:08 am
Hello!
Cool post and pics
Thanks!