Dotys win the Betty Crocker Landscape Award

Joyce and Ed Doty have been named winners in the inaugural year of the Betty Crocker Landscape Award program for the development of a 240-acre botanical garden and hardwood plantation on the North Shore.

The Dotys was among 13 island groups and individuals that were named winners in the program. An award of excellence was given to the couple for their work.

The Dotys and the other program winners will be honored during a reception and ceremony at the Outrigger Canoe Club on Oahu from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on June 23.

The awards were named for Betty Crocker, the founder of Scenic Hawaii, an Oahu-based organization that advocates the protection of Hawaii’s natural beauty and cultural and historic resources.

For 30 years, Crocker has strived to preserve scenic views in Hawaii.

The sponsors of the program noted that the Dotys transformed an abandoned area of cane scrub, reeds, and pasture into a “spectacular” botanical garden.

The Dotys started the project as a private garden, and over time expanded it into 12 diverse areas that now includes a hedge maze, a tropical lagoon, a desert garden, a bog house, a wilderness forest and a beach meadow.