Jen- I'm drooling over here in CA. It's been so long since I've visited and your pictures made me want to pack a bag right this moment!!! I love seeing all the mature trees! They are the reason for my sticks! LOL

Thank you for sharing pictures of your vacation!

Take care!

Nicole

Jen,

How wonderful! Just looking at your photos I can totally smell the sweet fragrance in the air. Oh how I miss HI! Of course the many times we were there I wasn't into plumeria. Looks like I need to go back!

Thank you for posting all those pictures. I hope you find some wonderful treasures. Enjoy yourself!

Take care,
Lynn

ahhhh...the spirit of the Aloha...very happy for you that you were able to be there...it is our favorite isle. Isn't Kauai Beauty red? roxanne

Oh wow! I feel like jumping on a plane right NOW!!! It looks so amazing and peaceful!

I can't wait to see more pics!!

Mark

Hi Jen!!

Lovely pictures!!!

I know you were in heaven during this trip... My neck would be hurting looking at every tree and my eyes would be feeling the strain too!! ;-)

The gardener's and or locals really do need to keep from being so tidy!!

Bud always mentioned that going around on the day trash was collected was the best time for cuttings.. People just pile up mounds of limbs to go to the dump. OOHH. MYYYY!

Sounds like a beautiful vacation. I can't wait to see more pics!!

Thanks for the lovely pictures!

Take care,

Laura

Hi Jen,

Welcome back! It looks like you and your family had a blast! I wanted to visit Kauai now! The unknown red bloom you were holding may be Irma Bryan.

Can't wait until you upload the rest of your pictures

Kenny

Jen,
Amazing looking condo and GORGEOUS bloom pics!!! Hey are you going to Grove Farm to see the Famous Morange Grove and take a tour of the grounds? A must if your in Kaui.
You should also go see the Famous Duvauchelle Red mother tree as it came from Kaui also.

Enjoy your fabulous trip and eat some great local food for me
Cheers
James

Thank you, everyone! It was wonderful to finally be there in person. I can stop turning fifty shades of green when someone else posts their HI pics, LOL!

Nicole, it was really time for me to pay back all the great photos of others who went! Yes, go back soon!

Lynn, I was surprised that Singapore wasn't more fragrant. To me the Celadines, while smaller, had a better scent. But the smell everywhere you go is great, as you know!

Rox, those reds may be Kauai Beauty. Would make sense since they were everywhere! And boy, do they get BIG.

Mark, it was very peaceful! Even my hubby unwound and got into the lazy pace after a day or so. You should go!

Laura, I looked for brush piles and garbage pick up days, but darn it, those folks are so tidy! You do get some whiplash there with so many gorgeous plants, not just plumies. My mom loved all the flowers and we went to a lot of botanical gardens, of course! Your mom would probably be in heaven, too!

Kenny, thank goodness there were no places selling named cuttings! We only got a few from gardeners at the resort or we would've been like you on your visit, needing to ship back in huge boxes! I did find an orchid place selling these tiny things for about $28:

James, I looked everywhere for the Moragne plantings along the highway but didn't even know the Moragne Grove was still there! We didn't make it to Grove Farm at all, and they don't seem to do any advertising of tours there. I'll have to do it next trip. :)

We did eat pretty well, though:

Strangely, we had very little chicken while there:

This is by far the biggest plumie I've ever seen. I call it Library Pink, since I found it behind the library:

Next to a good-sized Celadine:

Here's the tree:

It made the Lei Rainbow nearby look very dainty:

And again, talk about big trees, this is the giant pink at Kilohana plantation:

Immense canopy:

Cerise-like blooms:

Unlike this unknown beauty. I can't put my finger on it, but it's very familiar and had that great buttery jasmine scent:

And here's a great dark pink/red from McBryde Gardens:

Gratuitous shot of giant tree:

If these look familiar, it's because they were used in Jurassic Park, though they're even bigger now:

Okay, more coming later!

Gosh it's just like being there! Gorgeous photos and yummy fruits. I actually bought home boxes of pineapples b/c back then I wasn't into plumeria. LOL.

Again thank you for taking the time to post the pics! I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at them and reading your comments. Have a wonderful time Jen!

jen

Absolutely great photos. Every time someone here goes to Hawaii I kick myself for not looking out for plumeria when I was there in 06. Of course back then I was interested in them.

I laughed at your frustration with the local gardeners being so good at cleaning up branches.LOL

That gigantic flower would be a real keeper for me.
Why do you say Singapore would black tip on you?

Glad you had a great time!

Mike

Mike, really, I expected a more lax attitude about yard trimmings! How are plumeria-addicted tourists supposed to get their cuttings? ;) Even the library had no broken branches of that huge pink lying around, so I'm sorry I can't send you one!

Singapore was my "Troublemaker", the first plumie I ever got, back in 2005. It grew leaves fine, but every spring no matter how carefully I kept it out of chilly air, it black-tipped. I've heard of Texans who can grow them and get them to flower with ease, but not me. After trying with two plants for several years, I've given up. After smelling Celadine and Singapore side-by-side I've decided Celadine smells better to me anyway, so I'm sticking with it as my "Classic"!

Jen

Great pics.

Lonnie

Oh my! I have to come back tomorrow and look over those pics again when I have more time to clean up my drool!

Glad you had such a great trip Jen!

Found the pics of the giant Edi Moragne trees:

And a random light pink plumeria:

And a popular pink, at the expected size, Dwarf Singapore Pink:

Not-so-normal size:

I'm having to shoot upward to get this "Dwarf" Singapore shot:

Random white plumeria tree:

Shooting up for this Lei Rainbow, too:

Again, the big Singapores were all over:

It wasn't all plumies, though! There are some stunning sights:

And OMG! This is one of the natural wonders of the world. You MUST go see it!:

And here's a noodle-scratcher. This plant looks very like a plumeria in structure, but with oddball seed pods like immature mangoes:

The flowers are pure white like a primitive plumeria, but with a pink bud and the most heavenly strong fragrance!

Whew, still more pics to share but I'm done for the night. Hope y'all like them!

This post was edited by jandey on Tue, Sep 10, 13 at 9:06

wow! one of these days I will have to make it over there. It def makes you look at those sticks in a different way! lol thank you for all the pics they are awesome!

wow! one of these days I will have to make it over there. It def makes you look at those sticks in a different way! lol thank you for all the pics they are awesome!

Okay, this is the last round of pics. There was an incredible assortment of orchids there, as well as helliconia, ginger, etc. There were also some strange plants whose names escape me.

Like this guy. The yellow flower is actually not a flower, but a bract maybe. The real flower is the pink one that follows after the yellow drops off:

For all you epi lovers:

I don't know what this tree is, other than beautiful:

Close-up of the flowers:

And again, the orchids were breathtaking:

And thanks to the tireless efforts of some very dedicated botanists, flowers like these were saved from extinction. This one is completely unique to Kauai, and there were only 5 known plants remaining, clinging to a cliff, when a botanist rock-climbed to them to hand-pollinate the tiny colony:

Best miniature golf course EVER:

"Wonderful", Jen! Thanks so much for sharing your pics. Looks like you had a great time. Hoping to get there some day.
Peg

Thanks for sharing Jen. Great trip report and fabulous pictures.

George

Thank you, Peg and George! We're already planning another trip!

Very pretty! I love seeing the plants in the wild. Thanks for sharing!

Mark

WOW! Jen, I've come back to look at your pictures several times, they are so fun to look at! It sounds like an amazing vacation & your pictures are gorgeous!

Jen,

I just realized I did not comment on your pictures. They are awesome and I keep coming back to look at them over and over. That is one beautiful place and I am glad you got to witness it. It is on my "bucket list" :)

Thank you for sharing this beauty with us.

Joan

Great to see that you had a good time. its a wonderful place.

Wow this really inspires me to get back to Kauai and do a tour of a different kind. Some of this info is better than the travel books! Maybe I could do one and post it that way. Anyone have an opinion on which time of year is best in Kauai for plumie blooming?

Mark and Emily, I'm glad you enjoyed the photos! I keep coming back to look, too. :)

Joan, this was on the top of my bucket list for a long time and I'm so glad to have crossed it off. Well, until the next trip, heehee. You will love it! The condos were surprisingly affordable, too, so definitely look into those if you go as most are walking distance to beaches. Even in August there were no big crowds anywhere, which was an unexpected bonus.

K, we had a fabulous time--thank you again for all the great tips!

Palm, I think we missed the peak of plumeria blooms by a few weeks, so maybe around mid-July?

Forgot to mention those trees in your last group are known as Rainbow Shower trees. Really neat to see them loosing petals in the trade winds.

Had to revisit these pics as winter is finally(!) winding down.

Hope you all are spotting lots of inflos and that you'll post pics when they bloom! None at our house yet, and everyone is waking very slowly.

Happy spring, everyone!

Spring is finally here!! We have some overnight temps this weekend and through Wednesday next week in the high 40's. After that they all come out of storage!! Mine are I a plant room, and I'm seeing inflo's on several. This should be a great plumie year in North Texas!!
Lonnie

The tree you do not know above is called a shower tree. I used to stay on a street that was lined with them and it was like snowing flowers all the time. Very messy but beautiful.