Kauai is nicknamed “The Garden Isle.”   Flowers, flowering shrubs, flowering trees, and luxuriant growth can be found everywhere.   Public places, private homes, and roadways feature tropical landscaping.   Flowering shrubs are used as borders.   Hibiscus hedges grow 9 feet tall and can be hundreds of metres long.   Feature gardens await visitors all over the island.   The top of the island is the wettest spot on earth, but the warm temperatures all year round means that flowers are always in bloom.

Native and adapted plants flank all trails.   Wild orchids in bloom can be found in the most remote spots.   Red ohi’a adapts to many environments, jungles, swamps, deep forests, fern-covered slopes, and lava flows.   Inhospitable rocky hillsides may be covered in vines and spiny shrubs.   The whole island is covered in vegetation, the wilder spots (most of the island) impenetrable forest.   But all areas have surprises for visitors, a few of which are featured here.

Unfurling ferns

ohia in bloom along the trail

Buttercup bush (also called yellow elder)