New botanical director aims to increase visibility of sites

Joshlyn Sand came to Hawaii 30 years ago for a summer internship on Kauai and never left.

“You smell that air?” she said. “It’s like no other place. You walk off that plane and it’s like, ‘Wow, where am I? I’m in paradise.’ All these years later and I’m still here.”

Sand, 53, then a recent graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s degree in ornamental horticulture, was headed to the National Tropical Botanical Garden for a 12-week internship.

She eventually set down roots in Honolulu, first as a plant propagator and then a horticulturist for the city’s botanical gardens, along the way earning a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

As the new director of Honolulu’s botanical gardens starting last month, she replaced retired director Winnie Singeo.

She oversees five public gardens on Oahu with an operating budget of $2.6 million and a full-time staff of 38. Sand knows the plants and trees at every location, and wants to remind the public that these treasures are available.

“Each one is unique and offers something different,” she said. “So people of all different abilities and ages can come and connect with nature in some way. There’s something for everyone.”

Foster Botanical Garden, just a few blocks from the heart of downtown Honolulu, offers an extensive collection of cycads — a palmlike plant of prehistoric origin — including one species that’s extinct in the wild. There’s also an open-air butterfly garden, and a conservatory with hybrid orchids and an Amorphophallus titanum specimen, known as the corpse flower for the rotting-flesh smell it emits when it blooms once every three to five years.

A bodhi, or Bo tree, planted by Mary Foster in 1913, is by the main entrance. Foster had received a cutting of the original sacred fig tree said to have enlightened Buddha in India via a monastery in Sri Lanka.

Sand, a certified arborist, is keeping an eye on the centenarian.

“She’s healthy,” she said. “She’s sound but we are watching every year and doing analyses.”

The Bo tree’s keiki, grown from a cutting, stands tall next to it.

One of Sand’s goals is to increase visibility and attendance at the five botanical gardens through creative programming, which already includes classes, art exhibits and guided tours.

Foster, the only city garden that charges an entrance fee, received about 48,000 visitors last fiscal year. Sand wants to eventually increase Foster’s visibility with a visitor center along busy Vineyard Boulevard.

Ho‘omaluhia Botanical Garden in Kaneohe reached record attendance of about 218,000 last fiscal year and remains popular because of its art, fishing and camping programs. Koko Crater and Lili‘uokalani gardens each received about 30,000 to 35,000 visitors.

Wahiawa Botanical Garden, one of the hidden treasures of Oahu, had no official visitor numbers because the entrance desk is manned by volunteers. Sand sees much potential for Wahiawa as a major visitor stop to the North Shore.

Maintaining the gardens for the public, she said, is not just a job, but part of a legacy to be passed along to future generations.

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HONOLULU’S BOTANICAL GARDENS

>> Foster Botanical Garden, 50 N. Vineyard Blvd., 522-7066, open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Admission: $5 nonresidents, $3 residents, $1 children 6-12, under 5 free. The 14 acres is home to more than 20 “exceptional trees,” a cycad collection, orchid conservatory and open-air butterfly garden.

>> Lili‘uokalani Botanical Garden, 123 N. Kuakini St., open 7 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Free. This 7.5-acre garden is devoted to Native Hawaiian plants in honor of Queen Lili‘uokalani, whose favorite picnic grounds were on portions of the property. Highlights include a waterfall.

>> Wahiawa Botanical Garden, 1396 California Ave., 621-7321, open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Free. A 27-acre forested ravine on a 1,000-foot plateau with palms, heliconias and gingers, native tree ferns and epiphytes.

>> Ho‘omaluhia Botanical Garden, 45-680 Luluku Road, 233-7323, open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Free. This 400-acre garden houses rainforest trees and plant collections from the Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Hawaii, Polynesia and Africa. It offers guided nature walks, camping, picnicking and catch-and-release fishing grounds.

>> Koko Crater Botanical Garden, 7491 Kokonani St., open sunrise to sunset daily. Free. The 60-acre garden located inside a volcanic crater is known for its variety of colorful plumeria trees and dryland plants including cycads, boababs and succulents.