Tag Archives: Bananas

The Numbers Game #67

A Japanese White-eye on a pink banana flower.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 188. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

The Numbers Game #50

Gullies on the side of Kohala Mountain are illuminated by early morning sun — Early morning light on the Kohala Mountain hillside.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 171. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A switchback on the Kilauea Iki Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park — A Gold Dust Day Gecko on a pink banana.

A Common Waxbill feeds on cane grass seeds.

Hawaiian Stilts in a pond at Kaloko-Honokahau Park — A Common Waxbill feeds on cane grass seeds.

The Numbers Game #29

Not a chocolate bar, but a mud-covered car. How did it get that way? Original post here.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 150. Apart from the top photo, it’s all about plants this week. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A Coqui Frog nestled in a ginger flower.

An orange and white orchid in Hawaii — A Coqui Frog nestled in a ginger flower.

Rainy days and Sundays …

Banana plants thrive in heavy tropical rain. — Rain lashes banana plants in Captain Cook.

… They go together in this week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme of ‘Rainy Days.’ See more responses here.

Kahili ginger in the rain in Kalopa park Hawaii — Kahili Gingers illuminate a wet day in Kalōpā Forest Reserve.

There’s plenty of rain on the Big Island. Most falls on the wet east side, but the dry west side can get its share too. Hilo, on the wet side, averages around 140 inches of rain a year, and just to the west of Hilo is an area that gets more than 200 inches a year. In contrast, Kawaihae, on the Kohala coast, gets around 10 inches of rain annually, though I suspect last year was one of its wetter ones.

Cloud and rain on Mauna Kea — The highway to the Mauna Kea visitor center awash with rain.

Where I live, on the northern end of the island, we get around 50 inches of rain a year, but being on the shoulder of Kohala Mountain, that figure can change quickly going a mile east or west, or a mile up the hill or down toward the ocean.

Rain falls in Hawi, Hawaii — Looking out the window as a passing shower dumps a load of rain.

Abstracts: Reflections at Lily Lake

Reflections in Lily Lake at Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve and Garden

On my last visit to Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden, I was taking photos at Lily Lake, which features an island in the center, planted with palms and ti plants. I like the reflections the plants make in the calm water.

This photo started out as a vertical, with the plants as well as the reflections. But when I looked at it, I liked the reflections better than the plants, so I cut it in half and made it horizontal!

Gecko on a banana flower

This week’s Sunday Stills Color Challenge theme is ‘Pink.’ See more responses here.

Here’s a Gold Dust Day Gecko exploring a banana flower, looking for water or something sweeter. Weather permitting, I hope to have another pink post tomorrow!

Bananas

Nothing says tropical quite like bananas with their huge leaves, upward pointing fruit, and large purple flowers.

My tropical garden

A tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fabulous Florals.’ See more responses here. For this, I’m taking a short jaunt off the island to revisit the first tropical garden I planted. That was in Washington State. Now, I’m aware that Washington State isn’t in the tropics, but I like a challenge.

My goal was to create a garden of hardy tropical-looking plants, with colorful flowers and/or big, bountiful foliage. The first summer, I laid the foundations with three Windmill Palms and a wall of bamboo alongside one fence. Colorful canna lillies and big foliage gave an inkling of what was to come.

A canna lily in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington — Canna Lily-Tropicanna

Solanum laciniatum and Castor Bean-Carmencita Red in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington — Canna Lily-Tropicanna

The second summer was when the garden took off. Ground covers spread. Vines took off. Pots provided focal points.

The leaf of a Musa Basjoo banana in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), Asiatic Lily-Red orange, Phygelius x recturs ‘Cherry Ripe’ - Cape Fuchsia in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Tropical foliage in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Helianthemum ‘Bright Spot’ and Canna - Omega in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Plants in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Sedum lydium in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Sedum spath ‘Cape Blanco’ in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Honeysuckle-Gold Flame in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A cat sits next Eccremocarpus scaber – Chilean glory vine in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

And of course, there were those fabulous florals.

Hardy Lily-Stargazer in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Clianthus puniceus in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Sedum spurium ‘Fuldaglut’, Agastache ‘Apricot Sunrise’ in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A bee on a sunflower in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Phygelius x recturs ‘Cherry Ripe’ - Cape Fuchsia flowers in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Crocosmia masoniorum - Montbretia in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A yellow Asiatic Lily in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Brugmansia ‘Charles Grimaldi’ in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A red flower in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Embothrium coccineum in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

One corner of the garden featured a Dicksonia Antarctica tree fern, which was soon joined by a Dicentra Scandens-Golden tears vine, Eccremocarpus scaber – Chilean glory vine, and a Clematis Armandii. There’s less than a month between the second and third photos in the gallery below, and the following summer the area was rampant with color and growth.

A Dicksonia Antarctica tree fern is planted in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A Dicksonia Antarctica tree fern, Dicentra Scandens-Golden tears vine, Eccremocarpus scaber – Chilean glory vine, Clematis Armandii in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

But it is Washington State and there are winters and in the winter it can snow. The palms and bamboo bent low under the weight of the snow, but they survived. The tiki torch looked distinctly unhappy with the weather, possibly jealous of those lucky plants that were moved indoors for the winter.

Snow on a windmill palm during winter in Port Townsend, Washington

Snow on bamboo during winter in Port Townsend, Washington

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii