Andrea Cabico, 77, is out in her garden, rain or shine, seven days a week.

With patience, persistence and a passion for gardening, Cabico has transformed three acres of rain forest just outside Volcano Village on the Big Island into an oasis of colorful flowers and greenery.

"It’s my dream and imagination to make this place into my lifetime garden masterpiece — to make it beautiful," Cabico said.

She is making her garden beautiful for her 22-year-old granddaughter, Rochelle Chang, a ballet dancer who just graduated from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. The young woman is pursuing a career as a dancer on the mainland, but one day, Cabico said, she will return home to Hawaii to teach ballet to students in the neighborhood.

When she does, Cabico wants the garden to be ready. There is a small cottage and a dedicated dance studio waiting for her on the property.

Chang visits from time to time, and when she does, she dances in the garden. In her honor, Cabico put up an archway with a sign that says, "La Rue de Rochelle," which is French for "Rochelle’s Street."

"I want them (the ballet students) to be happy while they are dancing, to look around and see all the beautiful, blooming flowers," Cabico said.

When she first saw the property, Cabico admitted it was a bit intimidating.

"It was a forest and jungle," she said. "There were wild pigs coming in."

She has to do daily battle with invasive strawberry guava and wild ginger, as well as uluhe ferns, which tend to take over quickly if not brought under control. But she’s used the strawberry guava to her advantage, re-purposing branches into perimeter fencing to keep out feral pigs.

Cabico’s days start at 4:30 a.m., when she makes a fire in the fireplace to warm up, drinks some coffee and does warm-up exercises with her husband, Pio. At 6:30 a.m. she heads out to the garden where she works until the sun goes down, with a few breaks in between.

It rains often in Volcano, so she dons a rain jacket while working outside, despite arthritis and knee trouble. She irrigates with rainwater collected in a catchment system.

While there was already a grove of fern trees and native ohia lehua and koa trees on the property, Cabico — through trial and error — discovered which flowers and plants would thrive at the high elevation.

The list is extensive. She has a taro patch, several varieties of bamboo, a small banana tree, mulberry and cypress trees, Boston fern, bougainvillea, bromeliads, blue hydrangeas, gardenias, orchids and anthuriums.

She has draped Pele’s hair, or Spanish moss, over some of the tree branches and lined flower beds with lava rocks, giving the place an organic look.

Also growing are sweet potatoes, tricolor dracaena, impatiens, scented geraniums, crotons, a tropical rhododendron, variegated pandanus, lilyturf and several kinds of ti plants.

Gardening has always been Cabico’s passion wherever she goes, starting with her birthplace in the Philippines. There she created a beautiful garden on a farm in Ilocos Sur province. After moving to Hawaii, she created a flower garden at the family’s home in Wai­pahu before moving to Las Vegas. She retired to the Big Island in 2012.

"I enjoy gardening," she said. "It makes me happy, especially when the flowers are blooming. It’s peaceful and quiet."

Up in Volcano, Cabico is able to hear the songs of many forest birds. The garden has become not only a spiritual retreat, but an artistic inspiration and evolving tableau for her vision of her masterpiece.

"Garden Party" spotlights unique and exceptional gardens. Contact us via email at features@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4808.