A Morning Garden Walk

I love walking through the garden in the morning to enjoy some coffee, pick off some pesky weeds and see whats blooming in the garden.

Here are a few surprises that greeted me on my morning stroll.

Christmas is Here

Okay, I"m ready....where's the paaaarty???

Peek Into a Beautiful Garden

     

  Tell me…..



                   Where do you lead to?

                You draw me in completely

           with your colorful bouquets and exotic displays

I want

                                                                                  to

                                                                                    see

                                                                                     more

                                                                                         please…..

don’t keep me in suspense – I know there’s more exciting things to see beyond

this magical entry

                                         am I right?

                                                                                Aaaaah yes…..

- it is beautiful here……

Everything seems to be in bloom.

And the colors are all so vivid and glorious!

Jewels in a sea of green.



        It is a beautiful world here – thanks for letting me visit and take a



                peek – I hope my friends visiting also enjoyed the tour.

A Black Sand Beach at Punaluu and Turtle Refuge

 

I love going to this beautiful black sand beach at Punaluu on the southern part of Hawaii island. It is a turtle refuge and sanctuary for endangered Green and Hawksbill turtles. Punaluu means fresh water with underground fresh water flowing into the bay. Ancient tribes living here utilized the underground streams for survival in this mostly arid and dry region of the island.

The area is also a sacred area filled with ancient temples or heaui complexes used for rituals by the ancient peoples living in this area. It is a very special place and an amazing area to visit on the south side of the island.

Hawaiian Tropical Gardens, A New Gallery Collection

Hawaiian Tropical Gardens - Images by Noel Morata

 

Aloha,

 

Finally I have my gallery photography site up and running. Here’s a quick preview of the gallery of Hawaiian Tropical gardens. If you have time, please drop by and visit my photowebsite, there’s a lot of garden, plants and landscape oriented photography.

 

Enjoy the visit.

 

For other Sunday scenes go visit http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

Hilo in Full Bloom with the Rainbow Shower Trees.

 

 

(click on image for full view and the slideshow)

Hilo is in full bloom again with the rainbow shower trees or Cassia x nealiea lining most of the major roads coming in and out of town. These beautiful trees are showy with their long cascades of red, yellow and orange flowers in large clumps dripping down their many branches.

Beautiful blooms next to huge monkey pod trees and the large bandstand.

 

It’s a beautiful time to see this in town and even just to enjoy a brief moment to really see them in their full glory, wouldn’t you agree?

Three Miles of Ocean Front Property for Sale.

Guess what, for just a mere forty million dollars you can be the owner of three miles of ocean front property with a very rare green sand beach and well over 2,100 acres of raw tropical land. This area is untouched by any development and has been largely intact for many decades.

This area really feels like Jurassic Park with old trees, jungles, coconut fringed beaches and ocean inslets that are rarely seen by the public.

The estate is privately owned by an Oahu family that rarely visits and originally had plans to build a mega resort here on the East side of Hawaii until family plans made them change course.





 

There are no structures but a small picnic overhang with stellar views of a beautiful inslet with green sand, one of only two places in Hawaii Island to have a green sand beach.

So now you can be the owners of this beautiful and pristine land a real piece of paradise....any takers?


For other great views of other worlds today go see http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Photo Hunt Challenge = Colorful

My colorful photohunt challenge this week was very easy, I recently went to visit this ti nursery close to where I live in Hawaiian Paradise Park in the Puna District and took an exciting photo tour of this colorful property.

This grower started his nursery as a hobby to eventually turn this into a full time business when he retires. Meanwhile, he has a stunning show garden and nursery up and running for business. I discovered this nursery after seeing his wonderful ti plants at the local Macuu farmers market in East Hawaii and after seeing all the vivid and colorful varieties, I was inspired to see I could visiit and photograph his nursery.

What I didn't expect to find was this exotic and other-worldy show garden in addition to this simple nursery. He grew some of the most exhuberant, bold, and variegated accent plants. Every time I turned to a new angle I was confronted with exciting compositions.

Intense colorations and intense shades of red from just this one plant... isn't it striking? 

All the curved surfaces and raindrops remind me of the sensual curves of another abstract painter with a very colorful palete.  This is a very inspiring place, don't you agree?

I hope you enjoyed this ti farm tour, its a very special place on this side of the island. 

To visit other unique interpretations of this colorful theme go visit http://tnchick.com/

Oh so Pretty

This weekend, I went to an art collaboration with five artists at the Wailoa Center in downtown Hilo.  At the entrance you are drawn immediately to this free floating cascade of 1001 cranes and want to be immersed in all the colors, forms and patterns presented.


The light and colors pull you in to reach out and admire these paper objects up close and personal.

At a closer view you see that there is a story - and it says that the cranes are made with love and are dedicated to the local Hilo Hospice with any donations. You can take home a whole strand of these lovely pieces home and then leave a nice string/donation card to claim your art piece that you would like to take with you.

It was a very nice gesture ...very simple, yet profound.



It is amazing how the curator, blended so many complementary forms of arts to include a silk/textile artists, a landscape painter, a wood sculpture/wood worker, a cement/sculpture and a glass artist. The Wailoa Center is a beautiful art center with a huge volcano like fountain jutting out into the middle of the open courtyard, really unique and powerful.

If your in Hilo town, come and visit the show at the Wailoa Center, its open for the month.


Thats my world on Tuesday, come and see these other stories at http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Photo Hunt Challenge - Fresh

This weeks photo hunt challenge is Fresh.

Cattleya Orchids when they open like these beauties,  put out an amazing bloom.  Their frilly shapes, vivid colors, and large flowers give such dramatic appeal and demand instant recognition. What you may not know is that some of these also have an intoxicating smell that in the morning can really make an impact right when you walk into the room.

Just to see one like this in its glory is breathtaking!


To visit other posts with this weeks them - fresh - please visit http://tnchick.com/

Lets Visit A Tropical Rhododendron Grower Today

The Big Island of Hawaii has an amazing plethora of growers that export food commodities to the world, and also amazing floral businesses that are a huge part of our agro-economy. I’m going to take you on a visit to one of our local growers of specialty Vireyas or Tropical Rhododendrons.

We are visiting the White Cloud nursery in the Ka’eohe Homesteads on the east side of Hawaii Island. This area really feels and looks like we are in the cloud forests where vireyas tend to flourish in higher altitude conditions.

Pete and Jane Adams are the owners of the nursery and they have been growing and selling  vireyas at White Cloud exclusively.   This nursery specializes in subtropical vireyas and comprises of five acres with over 300 species of hybrid Vireya and Madenni Rhododendrons. There is also a wonderful show garden and green house that is open to the public on Saturdays from 9 to 2 pm.





Shall we start our tour with Pete and Jane, they promised to spare us a few minutes from their busy schedule to show us some amazing plants today!  The show gardens are very well laid out and bordered with logs from paper bark tree’s that were cut down to open up the growing display areas. The walkways are cinder rock so that makes it very easy to walk around the display areas. I didn’t ask about wheel chair accessibility but it looks doable if your willing to push someone through the cindered pathways.







Here’s one of the first beauties that caught my eye while we were walking. Its called Will Silent, I should have asked why this was called that name, but I was just to stunned by the color and wanted to capture the amazing flower clusters and the burst of sunlight.







Let me introduce you to Christo Rey which has vivid orange and a yellow throat base, its dazzling and the flowers look just soo perfect.







If you like pink and frilly then you will love Queensland which has dark maroon leaves, showy flowers and is fragrant with spicy scents.







This showy bi-colored Vireya is called Haloed Gold and it is a frequent bloomer and is very sun tolerant. A nice upright shrub with glossy foliage.







I love peach colored flowers like this one called lulu, its got a zany name that makes me smile.







Now this flower is all yellow and its name is a mouthful, its called Laetum X Arigeranum. The leaves were so green and glossy, it made the yellow really pop!





I think I caught the light really well on this flower called Aravir, its just stunning and the scent is just amazing, light floral and jasmine scent.  I would love to get a few of these please.





For those that want a smaller gem, this one is still dramatic. Its called R. Commonae and the small bells are almost pure red, what a drama queen!





This one is my favorite on the tour, its called Candy Halo and it really has it all. Showy pink framing a white star and deep yellow throat and a large flower. ..humm you had me at hello!





I think I could go on and on through their beautiful display garden, but it was getting really hot outside so we decided to check out the green house for some well deserved shade. This is the interior shot of the green house. It is over 3000 square feet and used primarily for propagating their export certified plants.



We toured the inside briefly and I saw alot of the propagated plants, minatures and new varieties that are currently being tested. I also saw a few beauties that were actually more interesting for their foliage like this one called R. Polyanthemum, it has rusty and furry leaves and would add alot of texture and color to an all green garden.





Well I’m feeling a little sun stroke and I thank Jane and Pete for spending some time with us. If you would like to check out their website for more information about growing these amazing plants and adding some to your collection, here’s their website below. http://www.whitecloudnursery.com/

If your ever on the Big Island of Hawaii, please stop and visit the White Cloud nursery outside of Pahoa Village, Pete and Jane are such wonderful garden friends, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy meeting them.  Also, If you enjoyed our tour, please feel free to make a comment below, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks for joining me on our vireya tour and I’ll look forward to visiting another favorite plant  grower from Hawaii soon.

Aloha,



Noel

Wordless Wednesdays, Tropical Treasures