Hawaii News Now has featured a story about a new initiative by the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG), which is encouraging Hawaii residents to grow native plants in their home gardens. The initiative, called Grow Aloha, aims to get Hawaiian native plants and kupuna crops (canoe plants) into the hands of the community, so they can plant these amazing plants in their own yards. This will help to protect and grow Hawaii’s fragile ecosystems and biodiversity.
“There’s really almost no better way to malama aina, to support our ecosystems, to nourish our communities, and to help perpetuate Hawaiian cultural heritage. That can all be done by caring for and cultivating these really precious plants,” said David Bryant, NTBG’s communications director.
“There’s no difference in aina between the places we call home and those places that are farther afield. So when we grow those plants in the places that we live, we’re really helping restore part of Hawaii,” Bryant said.
Native plant species are available for adoption every third Saturday at Molokai Land Trust and NTBG locations on Kauai and Maui.
Watch full Hawaii News Story HERE and visit our Grow Aloha page for more information about native Hawaiian plant adoptions.
