Celebrating 50 years of NTBG

POIPU — Joseph Browne of Twain Harte, Calif., heard about Saturday’s “Hawaiian Legends in the Garden” event just days beforehand. He and his wife booked last-minute flights to Kauai and managed to score two of the last VIP seats.

It was all about showing support for the National Tropical Botanical Garden.

“We love it,” he said of NTBG. “These people are so dedicated, all these volunteers.”

Browne wasn’t alone in his feelings.

More than 1,000 people, including Gov. Neil Abercrombie, and 100 volunteers braved Saturday’s hot, sunny weather to partake in the garden’s 50th anniversary celebration, which featured a star-studded lineup of Hawaii’s favorite musicians as well as 13-time Grammy Award-winning dobro player, Jerry Douglas.

Douglas said it was a pleasure being invited to such a special occasion and that he couldn’t remember the last time he got to perform while looking out over the ocean.

“I don’t know if I’m leaving or not,” he joked.

Before delivering a special message to NTBG Director Chipper Wichman, Abercrombie called NTBG — specifically its Kauai gardens — a “treasure of the entire nation.”

“You have been perpetuating magic here at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens on Kauai for 50 years,” he said. “So congratulations on the 50th anniversary, for enriching all the people of Hawaii and the world through the dedication of the garden to ensuring the survival or our indigenous plants and the survival of us as a people sensitive to what paradise is all about.”

Wichman said it is community support that allows NTBG to carry out its mission.

“The garden does so many things, from preserving some of the most special places on our island, to preserving some of the rarest plants,” he said. “Kauai being 5 million years old, we have more single-island endemics — more plants that exist in one spot in the world, and that’s it — than anywhere else. And that’s here in our backyard, and we’re working very, very hard to save them.”

However, NTBG is not only committed to research and conservation, but also education. One example is the new Voyage of Discovery Art Exhibition at its headquarters building in Kalaheo, which features 30 never-before-seen prints of plants collected during Capt. James Cook’s voyage around the world.

Andy Jasper, who was hired as director of NTBG’s South Shore Gardens six months ago, said he was “blown away” by the large turnout.

While one-of-a-kind, the concert fundraiser is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of celebrating 50 years of NTBG, according to Jasper. The actual anniversary date isn’t until Aug. 19, and NTBG has plans from now until then, and after.

“We’ve got until the 19th of August 2015, to just experiment, party and celebrate what’s been going on,” Jasper said.

Saturday’s lineup also featured performances by The Hanalei Bay Trio, Nathan Aweau, Jeff Peterson and Benny Chong, and “The Hawaiian Legends” Ledward Kaapana and Mike Kaawa.

Grammy-winning slack-key guitarist Dennis Kamakahi was supposed to perform with the Legends but was recently diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer.

Several people gave shout-outs of support to Kamakahi during the afternoon festivities. At one point, concert promoter Ken Levine even got Kamakahi on the phone so he could listen to a load roar of encouragement from the crowd.

Leslie and Bill Knudsen, of Bellingham, Wash., said they saw The Hawaiian Legends at Kauai Community Center while visiting the island a year ago .

“We got here a week or so ago and found out they were playing today!” Leslie said. “We came back because they were so great.”