This has been a most unusual year for the Friends of Honolulu BotanicalGardens. Early in the year Foster Garden closed for ADA work that had been requested and granted by the garden director. It was slow going as concrete was in short supply in the islands. And then an essential piece of the railing an along one of the handicap ramps was unavailable for a very long time. As a result of this work, the Garden was closed to the public and the Friends were asked to close our Gift Shop as well as there was no public permitted in the garden or the parking lot.The Garden finally reopened on August 14th and the Friends were permitted to reopen the Shop as well as invite people to the Garden for activities. The Friends had been able to host a summer concert at Ho’omaluhia and also at Wahiawa. These were very well attended and we were delighted to highlight two of our lesser known gardens.Since Foster Garden reopened we have been able to sponsor an eveningconcert there in partnership with the Hopa Hongwagi which was very popular on a gorgeous Friday evening and have just completed our first plant sale since before the gardens shut down with COVID. We started with a small sale just recently in September and everyone was so excited to have a plant sale and to be back at Foster Garden. Looking forward, the Friends are presenting
“The Beginning of the Garden”,  a reenactment representing the 3 people most responsible for the opening of Foster Garden in November and an interactive Aina Momona exhibit at Ho’omaluhia over the holidays. Then a bigger and better plant sale in the spring and on we go.