McBride and Allerton Gardens

We have become fans of botanical gardens and visit them when we travel. We belong to the Minnesota Arboretum supposedly one of the best in the country. I have yet to find a place that matches the Minnesota Arboretum, but each location has features.

I like gardens that combine a research function, education, and beautiful plants. The association of the Minnesota Arboretum with the University of Minnesota meets these expectations. You can see plants you never see in the wild and learn what is wrong with a tree of yours that has yellow spots on the leaves.

The McBride and Allerton Gardens in Kauai have similar functions. Started by sugar barons (they don’t grow sugar cane here anymore) the gardens do research and maintain endangered indigenous plants and show off all of the tropical flowers so common here.




Here is an image from the research facility. Some of these plants can no longer be found in the wild.


Of course, there were also the beautiful plants and other you find in such places.