The Best Flower Guide Money Can Buy

On any given day lately you may catch me peering down at bushes and up into trees, pausing suddenly to flip through a book while a triumphant grin spreads across my face, fluttering from one end of Waikiki to the other like an intoxicated bumblebee.

I've always loved flowers, but after last month's confusing trip to Lyon Arboretum I made it a personal goal to actually learn the names of the tropical beauties that scent the air and brighten the bushes everywhere we turn here in Hawaii.

I tried the library, the internet, even Barnes and Noble- all without luck.

But lately I'm identifying the flowering bushes and trees around town with much greater success, thanks to a wonderful plant guide from our local ABC store: "Hawaii's Floral Splendor," by ecologist Angela Kay Kepler.

Dr. Kepler worked and lived in Hawaii for many years, and is especially talented at sharing her knowledge with us amateurs. Her book finally turned these lush tropical mysteries into striking individuals, with stories all their own.

Yellow-vein, commonly used for hedges:


The photos she uses are perfect- not as great art, but for scientific clarification, with crucial close-up shots that include leaves as well as flowers. The text adds helpful information not always found in even the best field guides: where the plants are originally from, and in which microclimates they may be found (ie mid-elevations).

Occasionally the book even names specific locations where you can see certain plants around town (ie "found along Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki"). No more looking for moisture-loving plants on the dry slopes of Mauna Kea!

Here's a lovely example of heavenly bamboo, in a neighbor's front yard:


The chapters are organized by color- brilliant! Perfect for visual-learners like me, who snap photos first, ask questions later- and end up with photo albums full of beautiful but anonymous flowers.

And because some flowers come in several different shades, they may show up in several different places throughout the book (ie bougainvillea is listed in the orange, purple, red and white chapters), making it easy to find the version that YOU saw.

Speak of the devil, here's a gorgeous purple version:


Now on my walks around town, I recognize almost eighty percent of the plants that I see. The very same ones I used to pass blindly over now practically shout out their names to me: Trumpet tree! Coral tree! Shower tree- that's me! Tulip tree!....

....spider lily:


Spider lily fruits:


Royal poinciana:


Beautifully scented plumeria, one of my favorites:


Shower tree (rainbow variety):


Silver trumpet tree:


Bright kou-haole flowers:


These monkey pod trees line many streets:


African tulip tree:


Thank you, Dr. Kepler!