Foster Botanical Garden - Honolulu, Hawaii

Address:50 North Vineyard Boulevard
Honolulu, Hawaii
Tel: (808) 522-7060

Take a break from the beaches and spend an afternoon marveling at Hawaiian plant life at the Forster Botanical Garden in Honolulu, the oldest botanical garden in Hawaii! Here you'll find orchids, palms, herbs, and more that will stimulate all your senses, making you eager to learn and experience more!

Highly recommended is the tour around the garden. Knowledgeable and friendly staff takes visitors around the garden highlighting all the important and interesting features of the garden. They'll point out ancient herbs and their medicinal (or poisonous) properties, plants used for dyes, trees from around the world, and unique native plants of the Hawaiian Islands.

Guests are of course also welcome to walk around the 13.5 acre grounds on their own, taking pictures, breathing in the clean air, and simply enjoying some of the most beautiful scenery in Hawaii. Of particular note are the Exceptional Trees, a collection of rare and beautiful trees of historical and cultural significance. Among these trees resides the Sacred Fig, a descendant of the inspiring Bodhi tree that Buddha sat under. It is for these trees and the rest of the Foster Botanical Garden that Joni Mitchell sang "Took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum / Then charge people a dollar and a half just to see 'em." in her 1970 folk song "Big Yellow Taxi." (Admission has gone up slightly to about $5—what would Joni Mitchell say about that?)

Maybe Joni Mitchell hasn't visited the Foster Botanical Gardens lately, for were she to drop by, she'd see that the admission fee is negligible compared to the beauty and nature that you get in exchange. The Foster Botanical Gardens is a true haven for enjoying the horticultural wonders that Hawaii has to offer. Enjoy!