venturabananas

Hi all, heading to Hawaii, the Big Island, tomorrow for a family vacation. Looking for suggestions on botanic gardens to visit. Obviously, banana-centric ones would be great, but any kind could be fun.

Also suggestions on places to buy interesting fruit to eat, especially bananas, would be great. I've only been to the farmers' market on Ali'i drive before.

Thanks!

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pitangadiego

Frankie's Nursery is supposedly THE nursery to see.

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Encanto Farms Nursery
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We Be Bananas
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sunfish

momoese

Have fun and keep in mind.....

snopes.com: Pele and Lava Rocks

robguz24

The farmers market on Ali'i is as good as anywhere on the island to find an assortment of tropical fruit. The obvious other one is in Hilo, biggest on Wednesdays and Saturdays. On Sunday, the Maku'u farmers market in Puna, almost to Pahoa has two banana growers who also have several kinds of banana fruit for sale. The last time I was there there were maybe 8 different kinds. The booths are near each other on the north end of the market. The best botanical garden is the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden near Hilo, Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, A Garden in a Valley on the Ocean Hope you enjoy your trip here!

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My micro-farm

Stay on my Big Island banana farm cottage

venturabananas

Thanks all. Rob, I've driven by that Botanical Garden at least twice -- we always seem to get to that part of the island after the place closes. This time I'll make sure get there earlier.

And Mitchel, I'll be sure to avoid taking any sand or rocks to avoid the curse of Pele. Take only pictures...

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Gabe15

Frankie's is an amazing place, but unfortunately for Mark though, Frankie's is on Oahu, not Big Island. And he actually doesn't care too much for bananas funnily enough, he has a few, but the rest of his collection more than makes up for it as he has (what feels like) over 10 varieties of just about everything you could think of.

The Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden has a great collection of Hawaiian bananas and is a nice place to visit to see all kinds of Hawaiian plants. It is in south Kona. Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden - Bishop Museum

Also in South Kona, Ken Love's 12 Trees Project on Napo'opo'o road, right next to the Kona coffee co-op, is a nice place to visit usually with some interesting fruiting bananas.

(for direction to 12 Trees, just find the co-op) Kona Pacific Farmers Cooperative - Pure Kona Coffee

The Hilo farmer's market typically has some interesting bananas (and lots of other great things), there is a lady there that used to regularly sell fe'i too, but she or may not still be there.

Up in Hawi, Tom Baldwin of Uluwehi Farm used to have a very large banana collection, after talking with him recently though, it sounds like he lost much of it to bunchy top virus, but still has some interesting ones left.
You can call him at 808-889-5035.

Too bad we don't have it installed yet, but I'm putting in a small collection of newly introduced cultivars in Kona sometime later this year!

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

venturabananas

Gabe, thanks for the great, detailed info. Definitely will check out the Amy Greenwell garden and the 12 Trees Project. I must have driven right by both of those in the past, before my current fruit tree obsession! If the stars align, maybe I'll get to Uluwehi Farm and the Farmers' Market in Hilo. Sounds like if I'm ever on Oahu, I'll have to check out Frankie's.

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sunfish

Don't forget the passi seed

Dalmatiansoap

Take a few pics with Palms, hey!
And the most important, HAVE FUN

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kentiopsis

The Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, mentioned below is excellent. It has a lot of truly rare and interesting species, and the labeling was very good last time I was there. The East side of the island, the Hilo side is home to many nurseries, and many of them welcome visitors. There's an orchid nursery near the town of Volcano and the national park that is very good.

Be sure to visit the Panaewa Rain Forest Zoo, a few miles south of Hilo. It's plant collection is better than the animal collection. The local plant societies have planted their favorites extensively throughout the zoo. I planted quite a few palms there, myself, along with the rest of the local Palm Society. The rare plants are mostly labeled at the zoo. Admission to the zoo was free when I loved over there. Don't miss this place.

Check the list of sources of tropical plants in Hawaii. It lists nurseries. Note that a some of these are wholesale nurseries that don't want visitors. Just start calling them to ask if you can visit, but make it clear why you want to visit, so they don't get the idea that you're a potential customer if you're not going to be one. http://www.plant-materials.nrcs.usda...ipmstn9017.pdf

There's a big garden in the middle of Hilo that locals call the "Tree Nursery." Mention that it's on Kilauea Avenue when you ask locals where it is. I think it's run by the USDA Forest Service Division of Forestry and Wildlife. The press release at this link about a tree give-away gives the address and phone number where it gives the Hilo location for the give-away: http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/chair/pio/nr/2011/NR10-304.pdf

These aren't banana places, but they're fabulous places for enthusiasts of tropical plants. For banana places, try googling farms on the Big Island.

palmtree

These all sound like great botanical gardens to visit! I never have been on the Big island of Hawaii, but in my opinion you can find unusual plants all over Hawaii. It really is pretty amazing how some streets feel like a garden all by themselves. The hotels almost always have very impressive landscapes as well. I love Hawaii, so many great planting possibilities!

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Location: New York City, zone 7b

kentiopsis

Hotels have large attractive grounds, but you'll start to see the same stuff over and over and get bored with it after you've traveled in the tropics for a while. Landscape architects, in addition to needing things to look nice and provide a certain atmosphere, need plants to be reliably tough where they're planted. I mostly know about palms, and in Hawaii for example, they rely on a "palette" of six or eight species that they know are too tough for maintenance crews to kill and that will survive drought and pollution. Hilo does provide some exceptions in a couple of malls that were landscaped by a guy who grew rare stuff. That said, when I move to Hawaii 35 years ago, it was all mind-blowing, the whole town. Post offices and cheap restaurants have flowers on display that would cost a hundred bucks on the mainland, but you're not going to see rare stuff in many hotel or city landscapes.

In East Hawaii (the Hilo side of the Big Island) cruising residential neighborhoods is going to provide a lot of interesting horticultural views. It has to be one of the most plant-aware places in the country, and people have all kinds of orchids, bananas, and other cool stuff planted where you can see it. Another thing I like to do is visit garden stores where I travel. You won't believe what's for sale in Hilo, and you won't believe the prices. The problem is you can't take it out of the state unless it's from a certified nursery, and stuff in garden stores isn't certified for export because it's not supposed to be going anywhere. Check out Garden Exchange, in Hilo. There's also another garden store whose name I've forgotten. Just ask. Hilo people are for the most part friendly and welcoming. Have fun!

venturabananas

Tried 15 different fruits yesterday. Only 4 were bananas. If you are a bananaphile who doesn't live somewhere tropical, all the bananas growing along the sides of the road are a bit hazardous if you are driving!

The Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden was very nice. Unfortunately, they've lost most of their bananas to BBTV.

Today is a water day. Less time for plants.

Mahalo!

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BigBananaBoy

Put some Up! Mark sounds great though....

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Adventure is my name

Go Ahead Take My Banana!

venturabananas

Well, we had a great trip. Out of the hundreds of pictures I took, here are a few.

After having eaten a lot of dwarf Brazilian fruit in California, which have all been much smaller than a supermarket Cavendish banana, I was blown away by the size of the Brazilian ("Hawaiian apple") fruit in Hawaii. Every bit as big as the biggest Cavendish I've seen, and even bigger. Here are some sold as "Hawaiian Candy Apple" bananas, with a Cavendish for reference:


At the local farmers' markets, you can find several varieties of bananas. Ones that I saw included Cavendish, dwarf Brazilian/Brazilian, Manzano, Sucrier, Red, Saba, Bluggoe, Hua Moa, what I think is Silver Bluggoe, and what I think was Popo' ulu. Here's a sampling of a few of them:


Of course, there's lot of other interesting fruit and veggies at the farmers markets. There was some very unusual ones at the 12 Trees Project. They chose several species I'd never heard of before, with an emphasis of really sour fruits that you would not eat out of hand. They are meant to be used for culinary purposes (e.g., sauces, jams, baked goods, etc.). "Tropical apricot" and bilimbi were real mouth puckerers! Here are some of the fruit:


For those of us who don't live in the tropics and get excited about any banana mat in the neighborhood, driving around Hawaii is cause for sensory overload and potentially running off the road. Here are a few of the bananas we saw:
Ele Ele, I presume:


Ae Ae:


Mai'a hapai:


And boy are there some big ones! I'm pretty sure these are Brazilian. My 5' 3" mom is in the picture for scale.


Unknowingly, the house we rented had all kinds of banana themed art and decorations. Here's one of my favorites:


The Hawaiian Tropical Botanic Garden was great. It is huge and lush. (But don't go expecting to see lots of bananas.) The Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden was also worth seeing. The 12 Trees Project is small, but worth a stop if you are in that neighborhood. We stumbled across the Pua Mau Botanical Gardens. It's worth a stop if you are near it, mainly for the view (saw humpback whales breaching from the viewpoint), but also for the sculptures, peacocks, and plants.

Dived with 18 manta rays, saw dolphins, whales, and lots of beautiful plants and scenery. All in all, a great trip. And boy did I eat a lot of bananas!

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BigBananaBoy

Awesome Pics Mark. Love the Ae Ae, Hope mine gets that nice next year. Thanks for sharing.


How different was the banana's grown in Hawaii you tasted compared to So-Cal ones you have tasted.

Big Tony

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Adventure is my name

Go Ahead Take My Banana!

venturabananas

Tony, of the ones I've tried in both places, they really weren't any different, except the ones in Hawaii were less variable. For example, every "Hawaiian apple" banana (=dwarf Brazilian / Brazilian) I had there was very good, whereas those I've had here have varied from fantastic to just OK. The Sucrier (=Baby banana in our supermarkets here) and reds there tasted no different from good ones I've bought here in the supermarket. Same for Bluggoe (= Burro / Orinoco) and Manzano. But sometimes you get really bad ones of all of those in our markets. The best tasting ones, to my tastes, were "Hawaiian apple". The most interesting to me was one that I think is Popo' ulu. It was about the same size, shape, and peel thickness as Cavendish (and the guy who sold it to me thought it was Cavendish), but had a rounded nose, slightly salmon colored flesh, and a slightly more fluffy texture (between Cavendish and Bluggoe). The flavor was good, with slight apple overtones, but I didn't love the texture. Unfortunately, I only sampled a small fraction of the bananas grown in Hawaii, but those were all I could find. Most of the ones I saw growing were dwarf Brazilian, Brazilian, or Cavendish -- probably 90% or more were those three.

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momoese

I guess the secret to growing an Ae Ae that looks nice is to grow one in a place where the growth outpaces the burning!

Sounds like a great trip. You get any diving pics?

venturabananas

Yep, here are a few.

Nice underwater scenery, lots of coral in places:


Goatfish school:


Moray eel:


Manta rays. Bear in mind that the smallest of these rays had about an 8 foot "wingspan" and the largest ones in the 14' range. The photo give some idea of the mayhem that goes on when 18 of these things are in your face, in the dark, at night.

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