Travels outside the Pacific Northwest: Visiting Hawaii’s National Tropical Botanical Garden

This unique nonprofit institution does incredible work “discovering, saving, and studying the world’s tropical plants and sharing what is learned.”

By Katie Lutz WSU Master Gardener • January 13, 2018 1:30 am
Photo by Katie Lutz These tree roots at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens site in Hawaii provided a film location for the original “Jurassic Park.”
Photo by Katie Lutz These tree roots at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens site in Hawaii provided a film location for the original “Jurassic Park.”

By Katie Lutz

WSU Master Gardener

I recently had the opportunity to travel to the “garden isle” of Kauai, Hawaii, and while there I had a chance to visit two gardens that are a part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden. This unique nonprofit institution does incredible work “discovering, saving, and studying the world’s tropical plants and sharing what is learned.”

In 1964, the NTBG was created by a congressional charter, which is only granted in extremely special circumstances to nonprofits that will serve important needs of the government and the people. Over time, five gardens in Hawaii and Florida were added to the care and keeping of the NTBG, and this nonprofit has now come to supervise gardens, preserves and facilities that cover over 2,000 acres.

One of its bigger projects is the preservation of native species in Hawaii. Roughly 90 percent of the plant species on the Hawaiian islands exist nowhere else on Earth. Additionally, the NTBG does a lot of work trying to save endangered species around the world and reintroducing them into their native habitats.

The two gardens I visited were on the south side of Kauai: the Allerton and McBryde gardens. The only way to view them is to take a tour, so I visited both on the same day in a combo tour.

The McBryde Garden was a large parcel in the upper Lawa’i Valley belonging to the McBryde family. They purchased it in the late 1870s from Hawaiian Queen Emma and used it for growing sugar. The family sold it to the NTBG in 1971; it is the flagship garden of the organization, particularly noted for the large number of native Hawaiian plants.

The Allerton Garden belonged to a Chicago bachelor, Robert Allerton, who had a lot of money and an interest in landscape design. Again, this smaller parcel of land in the lower Lawa’i Valley belonged to Queen Emma and then to the McBryde family. Allerton purchased it in the 1930s when small-scale rice and taro farming was decreasing, and the McBrydes had decided to sell the land. Allerton created many outdoor “rooms” where he would have lavish garden parties with the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. As he grew older, he became heavily involved with the development of the NTBG; and, when he died, he gave his property to the organization. This garden is also noted for the number of plants personally planted by Queen Emma.

In addition to wandering around these two amazing gardens, our guided tour featured a stop at their massive nursery. Our guide told us about some of the incredible work happening there, such as the botanist who found a native fern thought extinct in Hawaii for over 100 years. The botanist was able to build a larger population that could be reintroduced back into the wild.

We also saw plants that were completely new awaiting their official scientific names and, sadly, some that had disappeared from the wild because their pollinators were also extinct. As of my visit, they were still trying to decide what to do with the last of these species.

To end on a lighter note, these gardens have also hosted many film projects, such as the first “Jurassic Park” film (Steven Spielberg is a really nice guy, according to our guide). We made stops at several filming locations for blockbuster movies while on the tour.

If you get a chance to visit either of these gardens, be sure to do it. Your visit will also support the crucial work that happens at the National Tropical Botanical Garden.

For more info, visit ntbg.org.

Katie Lutz, from Hoquiam, joined the WSU Master Gardener Program in 2016.

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CORRECTION: In the Dec. 23 Master Gardener article on winter gardening, tip No. 2 should have read: “The proportion of one larger plant to every five or so smaller ones creates balance.”

Photo by Katie Lutz A botanist at this NTGB nursery in Hawaii rediscovered a native fern thought to be extinct for over 100 years.

Photo by Katie Lutz A botanist at this NTGB nursery in Hawaii rediscovered a native fern thought to be extinct for over 100 years.

(Photo by Katie Lutz) The NTGB nursery in Hawaii also is home to several new plants, including this one, that are awaiting scientific classification.

(Photo by Katie Lutz) The NTGB nursery in Hawaii also is home to several new plants, including this one, that are awaiting scientific classification.

Photo by Katie Lutz The Allerton and McBryde gardens, located on the south side of Kauai, Hawaii, are part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden system.

Photo by Katie Lutz The Allerton and McBryde gardens, located on the south side of Kauai, Hawaii, are part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden system.