Elvrine Chow gives workshops at NTBG using cut flowers from the ten-acre garden…sit, talk story and wind your way to haku happiness!
Hawaiian Culture, Kauai’s South Shore
As a tourist, garden volunteer and longtime repeat visitor at the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) on Kauai’s South Shore, Hawaii, I’m excited about the NTBG golden anniversary year, 2014. Renewal is brewing in the gardens.
Andy Jasper, NTBG South Shore Director of Gardens, wears enough hats to make that renewal a top hat reality. Jasper left the Eden Project in Cornwall, England where he was Head of Research and the Eden Project Encourager of relationships between people and plants. His skill sets in heritage preservation, culture, tourism and counselling intersect at the McBryde and Allerton Gardens on Kauai’s South Shore, Hawaii.
Jasper, in a recent brown-bag luncheon meeting at NTBG, outlined how Cornwall and Kauai both share a substantial percentage of GDP in the tourism industry: Cornwall at 25% and Kauai at 65%. The Eden Project, in its twelve-year tenure, has seen over fifteen million visitors. It places eighth in British tourist attractions, trailing giants like The Tower of London, Stonehenge and Edinburgh Castle.
Queen Emma’s Cottage is framed in rosy Bougainvillea and delicate palms at the National Tropical Botanical Garden.
Jurassic Park dinosaur eggs and countless tourist photos hatch Hawaiian Culture here in the McBryde and Allerton Gardens
Volunteers meet here at the axis-point between the McBryde and Allerton Gardens.
One of many ornamental fountains in the National Tropical Botanical Garden, South Shore, Kauai
Just as the McBryde and Allerton Gardens are Eden-esque examples of post-industrial economic decline (sugar) in Hawaii, so too the Eden Project built the world’s largest conservatories over the spoils of china clay mining . The ceramics industry originally used china clay to make porcelain. Now it is found in many product whiteners including toothpaste. The 20-20 vision for National Tropical Botanical Garden’s South Shore is as an internationally acclaimed must- see, an educational resource and environmental showcase.
Gems from the McBryde and Allerton Gardens, part of both the National Tropical Botanical Garden and Hawaiian Culture.
Jasper foresees protecting safety over asset gains as was done at the Eden Project, while preserving and celebrating Hawaiian culture in the state of Hawaii. The key to success is in building strong relationships between staff, volunteers and the community according to Jasper. And as for impending change, he quotes American futurist, Marilyn Ferguson,
“It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear . . . . It’s like being between trapezes. It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold on to”.
And French essayist, Andre Gide,
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Expect to see the logo for NTBG South Shore’s 50th renewal for at least a year or two, and well into a sustainable future. For a longtime visitor, that’s part of Hawaii’s Aloha Spirit.
Taken from a letter to the editor, ‘The Garden Isle’, Dec. 30, 2013.