NEW MANAGING DIRECTOR APPOINTED TO LOCAL BOTANICAL GARDEN

Hamakua Coast---The World Botanical Gardens, Inc., is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Lanny Neel, Emeritus Professor of Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls, to the position of Managing Director of the gardens as of July 15, 2004. Dr. Neel retired from teaching horticulture at UW-RF in July, after 22 years of service there. He taught semester-long courses in Plant/Crop Science, Plant Propagation, Plant Interiorscaping, Home Landscaping, Woody Ornamental Plant Materials, Plant Tissue Culture, and Nursery Management and Arboriculture.

Dr. Neel’s home town is Fresno, California, where he attended Fresno State College, receiving a BS Degree in Ornamental Horticulture in 1966. He received a fellowship from the International Society for Arboriculture to do graduate studies at the University of California at Davis, where he received his MS and PhD in Botany in 1968 and 1971, respectively. His research dealt with factors that affect the growth and development of shade tree trunks. He therefore has a strong background in the ornamental plants of California—sub-tropical horticulture. In July, 1971, he was appointed as Assistant Professor of Horticulture to do research on tropical ornamental plants at the Fort Lauderdale Agricultural Research Center of the University of Florida. He worked closely with the local nursery industry on tropical plant production and utilization, and also became familiar with plant tissue culture propagation techniques over the course of his 7 years with the ARC. In 1978, Dr. Neel left the University of Florida and joined a newly formed tropical foliage plant nursery in Boynton Beach, Florida, where he supervised their plant propagation facilities and developed and managed a plant tissue culture laboratory for four years. During those 11 years in south Florida, Dr. Neel acquired significant knowledge of tropical plants and was especially interested in and learned a lot about tropical fruits. His one acre-sized home landscapes in Fort Lauderdale and in West Palm Beach featured many varieties of tropical fruits. Dr. Neel chose to return to academia after four years with private industry, and accepted a full-time teaching position at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls in September, 1982. Dr. Neel was frequently asked “Why did you leave Florida/California to come to such a cold place as western Wisconsin?”, and the reply was that having a job that one enjoyed was way more important than having to deal with cold winters, and besides, that added a new dimension to his life. When he made the decision to join the World Botanical Gardens earlier this year, no one had to ask him “Why are you going to Hawaii?”!! Presently Dr. Neel and his wife Joni are renting a furnished home in the “Reed’s Island” area of Hilo until next July, when the home owners return from a year-long visit to the mainland. He has been attending meetings of the South Hilo Rotary Club and of the Hilo Y’s Men’s Club, and has expressed interest in becoming an active member of these organizations in order to be in a better position to contribute back to the community some of the Aloha he receives from being able to live and work here in Hawaii.

The World Botanical Gardens was begun about 10 years ago on land previously in sugar cane production, and has been open to visitors for about 10 years. The plantings have increased in size and number over that time, and offer visitors the opportunity to see fine examples of literally thousands of species of exotic as well as native Hawaiian plants as they might appear in a semi-wild/natural situation. Dr. Neel believes that an important function of the gardens is to help educate people about plants, and that includes giving people the opportunity to find out the identity of plants they are interested in. Therefore, more labels are now being put on several different examples of the same plant as they occur in different parts of the gardens. Most visitors to the gardens are aware of the tremendous variety of tropical plants, but few can point out a Cinnamon Tree, or an All Spice Tree, or a Mangosteen, etc., and, even if someone might be able to recognize such plants, they wouldn’t know where they were located in the gardens. One of Dr. Neel’s projects in the near future will be to prepare more detailed maps of the gardens and the locations of especially interesting or important plants to be seen in the gardens. Another related project will be to prepare an informative paragraph or two about many of the plants in the gardens and make this information available to visitors in several different brochures or one-page hand-outs.

During several different summers in Wisconsin, Dr. Neel developed and taught some “College for Kids” and “Teen University” courses at the University. These were designed for children from grade 3 through grade 7 and featured topics such as plant propagation, plant tissue culture, and home landscaping. He also did several of the same type of classes for adult learners in the community at various times during the year. He sees the gardens as a perfect outdoor teaching laboratory just waiting for students of all ages to come into and investigate.

A major long-term goal for the gardens has been and continues to be is the development of a visitor center, where people can have the opportunity to receive more education about plants as well as purchase various books, pictures, and other mementos of their visit while perhaps enjoying a snack and/or a fruit-type beverage out of the hot sun or the rain. The Garden Board of Directors is currently working with appropriate governmental agencies and is seeking to obtain the necessary permits to enable this to become a reality. In the meantime, the public is invited (residents get a special kama’aina rate) to visit the gardens any day of the 7 days of the week between the hours of 9 AM and 5 PM, and enjoy the beautiful Umauma Falls, the Tropical Rainforest walk, and the Rainbow Gardens tour. The turn-off to the Gardens is on the mauka (mountain) side of Highway 19 at the 16 mile marker. Aloha!

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