Allerton Garden

Allerton Garden (80 acres), also known as Lāwaokinai-kai, is a botanical garden located on the south shore of Kauai, Hawaii. The garden is situated beside the Lāwaokinai Bay, in a valley transected by the Lāwaokinai Stream. It is one of the five gardens of the non-profit National Tropical Botanical Garden.

Queen Emma of Hawaii resided above this valley for a short interval, and a modest house that was perhaps her residence has subsequently been moved to the valley floor and renovated. The entire valley, including what is now the adjacent McBryde Garden, was purchased by the McBryde family in the late 1800s for a sugar cane plantation. In 1938 Robert Allerton, who had a passion for landscape architecture and garden designing, and his adopted son John Gregg Allerton, who studied architecture at the University of Illinois, purchased a relatively small portion of this plantation for development as a home and garden. They quickly began designing the garden, incorporating new plants they had acquired from Asia and the Pacific Islands, as well as classic statuary. Allerton would later join a group of individuals and organizations who were pushing for the establishment of a tropical botanical garden on U.S. soil. In his final year before he died, Allerton was able to witness the charter being granted and the creation of the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden (now National Tropical Botanical Garden). John Gregg Allerton maintained the garden until his death in 1986, and left it in Trust. A few years later, management was assumed by the National Tropical Botanical Garden and the garden was named after its founding fathers.

Today, this beautiful landscape maintains much of its natural roots from its original creators. The garden accentuates the merger of natural beauty and art in a breathtaking display of garden rooms, pools, miniature waterfalls, fountains, and statues.

Allerton Garden is open to visitors. An admission fee is charged.

Movies and TV

This picturesque settings has been used in number of movies and TV shows, including "South Pacific", Donovan's Reef, Jurassic Park, Starsky and Hutch and Magnum PI.

References

* "National Tropical Botanical Garden: Allerton Garden" (brochure), May 2006.
* "The Robert Allerton Story", by Kathryn Hulme, National Tropical Botanical Garden.

See also

* Limahuli Garden and Preserve
* Kahanu Garden
* The Kampong
* List of botanical gardens in the United States

External links

* [http://ntbg.org/gardens/allerton.php Allerton Garden]