Lilies In The Night...

Lilies in the night...sounds like a song from long ago...

This cool plant is growing in my yard over by my pineapple patch, I think it a variety of Lily? Anybody know?

It has a upright growth habit with numerous upstanding leaves radiating from a central base and the flower stalks come right up from the center about 18"-24" tall, before blooming out with 6-9 individual blossoms...they last for days-weeks on the plant and maybe two days cut in a vase. No scent at all. It has only started blooming now that we are getting more rain and cooler temperatures...

I almost pulled it out when I first bought the place! Boy am I happy now I didn't...

Kupu Kupu Fern...

This delightful little fern caught my eye the other day, it's just starting to unfurl its leaves and the colors were so striking, especially the silvery green of the newest leaves yet to open...
This is called the Kupu Kupu fern in Hawaii and the Boston fern in other places...

Rainbow Over Komohana!

What a nice surprise to see on a drizzly day! Driving into town yesterday morning it was raining buckets! (We are just heading into our wet season) When my son happened to look out the window and see this beautiful rainbow...it actually looked quite a bit brighter than it does in the photo...

This photo is courtesy of Brandon Williams...

Worlds Smallest Ice Cream Shop!

This is Gammys Ice Cream store in downtown Hilo, this has got to be the smallest, dinkiest, tiniest little shop ever. Its just kinda STUCK on to the side of this building...with a cute little out doors seating area, and really good Dragonfruit sorbet! And awesome latte! Oh, and the chocolate chocolate chip ice cream is totally decadent!

Parrots in Hawaii?

This is called a Parrots Beak Heliconia and it is growing at a friends home in Hilo, I love the way the leaf grows from the beak...it looks like it is sticking its tongue out at us.

Kalani Tropicals has a wonderful site chock full of great information. As far as I know there are no endemic Parrots in Hawaii, though there are rumours of a budgie community in a kipuka on the Kohala coast.

Yummy Bananas...

A while back I posted a photo of a banana flower just starting to open, this one is well into its production period. There must be at least 6 hands on the tree... a hand is one bunch, I guess they are called that because of the resemblance to a persons hand.

I believe these are the Williams variety, one of my favorite varieties is the Apple Banana, they are about a third of the size and very sweet, and the Lady Finger Bananas are even tinier! But they are all tasty!

Yellow Ohias and Happy Honey Bees!

These bees enjoyed this rare Yellow Ohia even more than I did! Usually the Ohia bloom is a bright primary red but Occasionally they come in a few other color variants, yellow is rare but very beautiful...

Ohia trees are used for many things in Hawaii, the new leaves and blooms for Leis and decoration, and the wood itself for fence post, house railings, furniture (similar to twig furniture), and a especially pretty piece of wood (usually the whole tree trunk) about 6-10 inches around, may be used as a corner post or a feature point on a stairway, etc... we also get really tasty Ohia Flower Honey from our friends the Honey bees!

Angels Trumpet and Blue Skies Above...

This is one of my favorite flowers, but it goes by so many names! I have labeled it with my favorite but in addition to Angels Trumpet, I have heard Devils Horn, Devils Trumpet, Cucumber Flower (the bud looks like a cucumber), Angels Horn, Gabrielle Flower, etc... I am not sure where it originally comes from originally, but I saw it for the first time in Hawaii, it also comes in a very soft pink and a creamy color as well as the white.

One of the neatest things about this plant is that the blooms hang upside down, to get this shot I was on the ground looking up, which gave it a nice back lighting affect and some pretty blue sky behind it.

Mahalo to everyone who was concerned over our brush with Flossie, she has weakened and moved further out to sea, I personally don't know of anyone who received any damage from the Hurricane, thank goodness! Sometimes it can be a little spooky to be reminded that we are on a little rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and this week was down right creepy! First we had Flossie the Hurricane, then we receive a 5.4 earthquake from the Volcano, and just today we received a Tsunami warning from that terrible earthquake in Peru! That earthquake in Peru sure does put everything in perspective though, those poor people.

Reminder To Self: Be Thankful!

Roof Top Bougainvilleas In The Flossie Rain...

This is a quick glimpse of the roof top outside my office, Scott put these gorgeous Bougainvilleas in pretty pots on the roof top when we moved in a few months ago and we all sat back and waited for them to die... Turns out, they LOVE it! The Hotter the better! Look at them blooming and they are growing like mad as well, you can now easily see them from the street, where as when they were planted you couldn't hardly see them at all.

Hurricane Flossie is giving us plenty of rain and a little wind but that's pretty much it, the weather right now is definitely no worse than some we get during the rainy season, so it is looking like the Big Island is going to miss the Big Hit once again...Thank Goodness!

You may have heard about the 5.4 earthquake we got Monday night? That was just Pele rumbling and stretching a bit, the quake occurred near the Pu'u O'o vent of Kilauea volcano, it is still active and providing us with more land each day, thanks Madam Pele! Over all we had a few crooked pictures and some cracked drywall...not to bad. I would rather the "sleeping giant" lets off steam this way then swelling and swelling to someday go pyroclastic on us! Really, its all good...some cigarettes & rum and everyone is happy! (for the volcano goddess silly! But I'll take any extra rum...)

Yahoo! It's Avocado Season!

I waited through the long winter without these buttery creamy tasty yummies, and then this spring I cheered on the bees buzzing in the blooms (pollinate you buggers, pollinate!), and all summer long I have been watching the little green bumps swell and promise to become the best crop ever! Now we are sooo close...maybe a few more weeks til AVOCADO TIME!


I just can't wait...i really love avocados...maybe as much as my girlfriends dog "Hoa"... He is a Avocado farmer...every season its a race to see who gets to the tree first (him or her), then he steals avocados and goes and buries them where she wont look until its to late, then "hey presto" he has another tree! He really loves them...maybe as much as me!

Do Clown Figs Taste Funny?

Ok...I know that joke was a real groaner, but I could not resist.

This gorgeous plant is called a clown fig and it is growing at a friends home in Hilo, it is probably the most beautiful plant i have ever seen! Truly gorgeous, about 20 feet tall, 10-15 feet side to side and very full & lush...

I have not seen anything rating that the figs are safe for human consumption, but the birds sure seem to enjoy them...

Puakenikeni In The Morning...

This lovely Puakenikeni was just glowing the other morning...this particular plant has the largest blooms of any Puakenikeni I have ever seen! Just the petal spread alone is almost the size of my palm! And the perfume is incredible...

Puakenikeni translates into 10 cent flower, referring when, back in the day, the lei stringers in Honolulu would sell a string of 100 Puakenikeni blooms for 10 cents! Boy, those where the days! At least if you where buying cheap leis, can you imagine trying to make a living of 10 cent leis?

It is one of the few leis that has three separate lives...it always smells wonderful but on the first day it is alabaster white, by the second day it a soft buttery yellow and the third day it is a strong creamy orange. All forms are beautiful, but it is nice to know what the changes are so you can coordinate with your out fit!

You may enjoy a visit to Plant Creations Nursery site, really great resource!

Coral Hibiscus greets the morning...

The other morning one of my Hibiscus was just getting ready to open up and it looked so pretty as it was about to unfold that I had to get a shot... i decided that i liked it so much i was going to post it on the daily blog.

My Broker (thanks John!) was able to answer a question about Photo shop and I was able to select just the Flower, pretty cool huh! But then he showed me how I could play with the background colors...wow, a whole new tool set!

Which one do you like the best? I can't decide...I like the yellow background because it really Pops! But I like the coral background because it seems so smooth & cohesive...so I posted both!

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them!

Purple Bougainvilleas...

These lovely purple Bougainvilleas thrive in Hilo moist climate, but it takes some serious sunshine to make them bloom like this!
Hilo has been going through a serious heat wave recently...we have been hitting at least 87 degrees! (for Hilo that's a heat wave! Humidity at 66%, really its not bad at all), and we have received less rain than usual so all of those sun loving plants are blooming like mad. Of course my moisture and shade lovers are quite depressed..but they had their day in the um...shade? And can wait patiently for the rains to come back... mean while we will enjoy the bright showy blooms...

Computer Crashed! No Photos Available! EEEK!

Sorry! My home/home office computer went into recovery mode and now I am trying to discover and recover all my files...including all of my Photo files! Argh! I know they are still in there I just have to figure out how to get them out...hope to be back soon...wish me luck!

Yeah! I am Green and a Gecko...ya wanna make something of it?!

This little guy apparently thinks he's "all that", and is quite ready to take "Goliath" out.

Actually, he is a green Gecko that we find mainly on the west side of the island (Madagascar Day Gecko?), my son watched him hatch out of the egg while he was holding it in his hand and then the little guy headed for high ground! Which just so happened to be my sons nose!

The Gecko rather quickly realized he was heading the wrong direction and headed back down...using the hair on my sons arm like a sloth would use tree branches! He safely made it into the wilderness of a pot of impatiens. Very cute!

Our alternate Title would have been "So who is YOUR car insurance with?"

Painted Hibiscus!

Isn't this the most beautiful Hibiscus you have ever seen?! A couple of girlfriends and myself went to a fantastic nursery the other day for a friends birthday (ya really gotta know how to pick your friends & I have some winners!), and there was this gorgeous Hibiscus...to me it looked like some one had taken a paint brush and ever so delicately washed the edges with water paints. All I did was basically crop the photo and pull off some glare, it really does look like this. And if that's not enough...

Look at this beauty! Its called Purple Dragon and yes it came home with me...I mean, who could resist? It is a little more purple out of the cameras eye...we had way to much fun and came home with way to many plants...I am sure everyone will get to see most of them over time, but I am going to try to focus more on people than plants in the future.

Water Lilies...& Herons?

These pretty little water lilies can be found in King Kalakaua Park in downtown Hilo, they must spread pretty rapidly as the grounds keepers clean them out regularly and within a few months the pond is full again...it is incredible to see the whole pond surface covered with these purple blooms...and if you look closely you can see Koi darting under the lily pads to hide!


What are they hiding from? Well, a friend of mine found out! She had quite a few Koi in a cute little pond right near her front door...one morning she went to take the dogs for a walk and as they are going down the drive she notices a Heron sitting up in a tree, she really doesn't think much of it until she gets back home and notices a large pile of Bird poo on the garden seat next to her pond, when she went to hose it off she realizes that dirty bugger ATE her fish! 8 Koi he ate! She called that Heron everything but a bird! She has now created a special overhang for the remaining fish to hide under...they seem to be very nervous! ;}

RED Anthuriums Galore!

My Final RED post! Oh well, all good things must come to an end (but only for something even funner!).

I took my girlfriend to this wonderful nursery for her Birthday (she had a choice of this or a swanky dinner out...she chose the plants! That's my Girl!). Actually another girlfriend introduced us to this nursery specifically for my friends birthday...they have the most gorgeous Hibiscus I have ever seen!

This is just part of the Anthurium section (Maybe a 10th?), you can see some of the twisty stamen ones in the lower right corner. Every color possible and some I didn't think were possible can be found here.

Anthuriums are epiphytes, meaning they get most of their nutrients and moisture from the air (similar to orchids), they also tend to grow ON other plants, some people think they are hurting the "host" plant but they are not a parasite plant in any way (other than hanging around on the other plant). In Hawaii Anthuriums are a ever blooming plant, so they are a special delight to plant.

Please do enlarge this photo, you can see the details of all of the different plants/flowers so much better when you do!

Red Banana Keikis!

This is a Banana flower...& its RED (but the keikis are yellow) they are not like usual flowers...they are huge for one and the fruit is layered in the flower... you can see all the little keikis lined up like ducklings under their mothers wing...there will be another row just like that underneath most of the "petals", and there are so many varieties! Apple banana, Ice Cream banana, Lady Slipper, Williams (the most common variety), Cuban, Cavendish, Pitang, etc...all different and tasty! (Except the Pink Cubans which are just beautiful but are not good to eat.)

The banana plant is another one of those multi purpose plants, the huge leaves can be used for shelter from sun or shower, the dried "stem" burns very quick & hot, the fruit is very nutritious and tasty, and even the flower itself gets eaten (similar preparation as a vegetable).

Bananas have a incredible history and one of my favorite web sites is the Banana Museum.


Tomorrow will be my last day for the RED theme... I have really enjoyed it and mahalo to everyone for their patience while I worked this red fixation out of my system!

Ruby Red Ti...

This vibrant plant is a member of the Ti family (nothing at all like the drink), Ti is used in many ways in Hawaii;
We wrap offerings in it, we wrap presents in it, we shred the top 12 inches and use it as a fly wisk (similar to a horses tail in theory) at luaus or just in the yard, We wrap pork roast in it to make Kalua pig (yummy!), wrap coffee cans with it to create a beautiful utilitarian flower vase, tie my hair up when I am working in the yard and can't take time to find a elastic, use it instead of flowers in a vase, lay the leaves over a dirty lawn chair (like a towel), wrap sticky rice in them and then steam it, use as a plate at a picnic, so many different things...and of course we use them to make leis.

Properly prepared the Ti leaf can be woven or braided into almost anything...and it is a beautiful contrast when a lei is fashioned from a green Ti leaf and then a Ti rose is created from a variegated or colored Ti leaf and attached to the green Ti, it make a gorgeous lei.

It is considered lucky to plant Ti plants down the boundaries of your home and quite often you will see rows of Ti being planted before the house pad has even been poured! Now that's having your priorities in the right place!

Indian Chief Ginger...

This gorgeous RED ginger plant is called Indian Chief Ginger, for the obvious reasons, the proud blooms emerge from the end of a long stalk (6-9 feet)...There are a incredible variety of gingers, each more beautiful than the last...but most people only think of Ginger in the form of Ginger Bread or Ginger Snaps (my favorite!), to learn more about ginger please click here...and for a very cute web site featuring some tasty ginger treats please go here.

And yes I am still on RED, for a few more days at least...just this morning I drove past a beautiful set of red bleachers, I'll try to share them with you soon! (I am starting to see red everywhere! Its kinda cool...), mahalo~

Liko Lehua Ohia...

This is a close up of the central new leaves of one of my Ohia trees, you can see the larger photo below...Liko Lehua means the "new red leaves" in this context...only the newest leaves have this rich plumy color and they soon loose it to be replaced with a nice bright green...

A favorite practice is to pluck these new leaves (must be similar to picking tea), and weave beautiful Leis from them, quite often these leis will be worn during parades by horse and rider alike, or for special Hulas...not all of the new leaves are the same shade, its always in the red family but it can range from red crayon to a dusty mauve and everything in between.
This same tree gives us wonderful smelling firewood, fence post (its fairly straight growing), lovely feature post for supporting Lanai roofs, and gorgeous flowers for more Lei making! What a great all purpose tree!

Mystery Red Photo!

• Deep in the murky depths...um, no that's not right.
• Secluded in the frigid heights...nope, still wrong.
• Underfoot in the dank...Still not right!

You tell me...animal, mineral or vegetable? What is this? Respond in the comments and I will answer tomorrow...One hint, yes I used photo shop & no I did not change the subject matter appreciably.

A Red Anthurium Peeking Coyly From The ferns...

This fire engine red Anthurium is living in my side yard...I chose it for my "Week In Red" theme because of the intensity and contrast...it is peeking out at us from its shady little nook in the ferns.

Anthuriums have a incredible variety of sizes, colors and variegation's; white with hints of pink, purple, peach or green...thru all of the reds and oranges (including peaches, etc...) to a purple so dark it almost looks black. From solid colors like this one to speckled, splashed and striped, and some have different colored portions at the top of each heart lobe...they look like Mickey Mouse ears...and then the stamens can be wild! (long nose looking thingy (thingy is a technical term, lol;), Some stamens are the same color as the flower petals, some are all white, some are partially yellow and white, often they will be part red and white, and a select variety has Corkscrew stamens! They twist like a pigs tail! Very cool plants! Check out a sampling here.

Dancing Cossacks Orchid...

These little guys remind me of the dancing Cossacks in Disney's Fantasia (the 1st one), I owned this orchid for 4 years and it never bloomed...then I moved to the Puna District...(Puna means fresh or new and the district is famous for its growing conditions) one month later it began putting out a bloom stalk! I waited anxiously (I had never seen a bloom from it before so I had no idea what it would be like), and finally it bloomed! Lucky me! It is probably the flashiest orchid I own, and it was absolutely loaded full of these little dancing soldiers.


Happy Red Theme day! In honor of this great theme I will be posting something red each day for the whole week! And one is a surprise...come see it this week and make a guess...


Please check out all the photo blogs on www.citydailyphoto.com

Fragrant Frangipani...

These lovely flowers have at least two different names; in Hawaii the are called Plumeria and in other parts of the world the are referred to as Frangipani. I believe the first time I ran across the name Frangipani was while I was reading the "Arabian Nights" and I had to look it up...in those days we had to use a Encyclopedia for reference info, lol! And then just the other day a fellow photo blogger referenced it again for me...is anyone aware of any other names they go by?

I wish I could share their perfume with you, absolutely intoxicating...it is worth ordering a lei to be shipped to you just to smell these flowers! And oddly enough the trees happens to be the ugliest most barren looking collection of sticks you could ever find...they usually don't even have many leaves, you would think the tree was dead and then the entire canopy erupts with blossoms!

When I first moved to Hawaii we used to drive by a huge Plumeria tree and I could have cried to see all of the blossoms littering the ground and road, now I understand better and can appreciate the pretty picture a carpet of flowers makes.

Happy Fathers Day!

Hey there! Happy Fathers Day...hope you were able to spend it with someone special making wonderful memories!

What did you do today? It was a gorgeous day in Hawaii so we went to the beach...this is a couple of our boys snorkeling...they all had great fun, and as always, learned a lot!

Here are some of the critters they "discovered", black brittle stars...the way they move is so cool, and you have to be incredibly careful with them because if they feel threatened or are mistreated they start dropping arms (defense mechanism). We came home with a couple of mysterious animal sightings so the kids will have some research to do this week...Hope your day was Great! & mahalo nui loa to all you dads out there! Any Man can be a Father, it takes some one special to be a Dad!

Onekahakaha Beach Park...the Keiki Pool...

Onekahakaha Beach Park is located perhaps 10-15 minutes from the heart of Hilo town...it really is a great park and this photo is of the entrance steps to the Keiki (child) pool section.


As you can see there is a sea wall made from lava boulders to quiet down the wave action...the resulting pool is very still and tends to have very little surge...even within this large pool there are smaller and shallower pools separated by natural lava formations...in a couple places concrete steps have been poured to make the trip to the water simpler and easier for the little ones...


On this day we had two "schools" visiting and there was probably 30-40 keikis sitting out eating their lunches before taking the trip back to school, remember how hungry and tired you would be after swimming for the afternoon...I bet that lunch was really good! And I bet 99% of them where asleep before the hit the first turn! I know my kids would be and they are teenagers now...

Gecko Earings All The Rage in Hilo!

A short while back I posted a picture of a very angry anole (type of lizzard, often mistaken for a gecko) above our "Beware of Attack Gecko" sign on my front porch...well, one of the kittens (also posted about earlier) came out on the loosing end of this anole! The anole literally has a hold of the kittens ear! Apparently the kitten went after the anole and he fought back, latching onto her ear and refusing to let go!

I didn't know which one to feel sorrier for! The anole was of course just terrified and the kitten was so confused when it could not get "that thing" off its head! You can tell how torgued she is. I had to snap a picture to share (I have never seen anything like this before!), then I pried the little guys jaws apart to remove the kittens ear...he sure had a death grip, it didn't break the skin but definitely left a imprint and a impression, the kitten has yet to go after another one (that I know of). And of course we relocated the "Killer Anole" (who appeared to be in perfect health) to a farther portion of the yard, hopefully they will not meet again...though I could see a vendetta coming on...kinda like Captain Ahab and the White Whale!