PO‘IPU — What started out as a handful of discards is now a feature at the Outrigger Kiahuna Plantation in Po‘ipu. “Visitors buy orchids all the time, and once their stay is nearing its end, don’t know what to do
PO‘IPU — What started out as a handful of discards is now a feature at the Outrigger Kiahuna Plantation in Po‘ipu.
“Visitors buy orchids all the time, and once their stay is nearing its end, don’t know what to do with them,” said Dale Verkaaik, general manager of the Kiahuna Plantation. “We started using them in our landscaping and now, it’s the orchid garden which visitors love.”
Primarily consisting of dendrobium, a sun-loving variety, the garden is not limited to dendrobium varieties. In the shade of a calabash tree which punctuates the landscaping that melds the former cacti varieties from the former Hector Moir Gardens, phalaenopsis and other exotic shade-loving varieties brighten the shadowed areas with splashes of color.
Verkaaik, helping load food and gifts from the resort’s employees to Nana’s House, said one of the Kiahuna objectives in 2009 was to redo the pools that separate the gardens as well as welcome guests to the front office.
“Some of these pools are 60 to 70 years old,” Verkaaik said. “They needed some work.”
The pools serve to pull everything together in a study of effective recycling and sustainability as one section features lush growth of pumpkin sprawling beneath a stand of banana. At the base of a tiny trickling stream from one of the pools near the front desk, some kalo and a mustard variety luxuriates in the moist shady conditions.
But the predominant draw for visitors is the abundance of orchids which are currently in full bloom, enjoying the warmth of the winter sun, many stopping for close-up photos of blooms as well as more scenic views of the resort using the orchids as frames.
