Akatsuka Orchid Gardens

11-3051 Volcano Rd, Volcano, HI 96785

Home of the worlds most beautiful orchid

ALL PHOTOS ARE FROM Akatsuka Orchid WEBSITE,
I'm just writing this personal experience blog on them because they were AWESOME!

Akatsuka houses the worlds most beautiful $20,000 orchid!
Wow, what can I say. Akatsuka Orchid Gardens was spectacular!

After 5 years of driving past the place daily, I finally stopped by to check it out. I had the pleasure of meeting Takeshi Akatsuka, the guy whose father started this Orchid Garden in 1974. I had the chance to tour their orchid gardens and I was delightfully surprised at how stunning their gardens were!

During the tour, I was so amazed. I didn’t even know I could be that amazed by flowers, but with an overwhelming amount of flowers, it was inevitable. Flowers ranged from tiny little fingernail sized flowers, up to huge palm sized ones, in just about any color you could think of. There was a whole wall of flowers that the Akatsuka’s had specially hybridized to have scent, and I have never seen a scented orchid before! I spent a good chunk of time walking around and checking it all out. It was truly amazing!

They really focus on teaching you how to care for your orchids, because if you haven’t owned one before, they are a pretty tricky plant to keep alive. I learned all the things I had been doing wrong, and the best tips and tricks to healthy orchids! They even gave me a little instructional book with all the tips and tricks printed out for future convenience.

They even had a “living wall” which gave me huge inspiration to grow plants in a vertical system in small spaces. The setup allowed excess drip water to feed the plants below it, therefore making the most of every drip!

Location

The Orchid Gardens is about 2 miles away from Volcano Inn, heading Hilo bound (east) on Highway 11. (Or, if you're coming up from Hilo, it will be on your left You can’t miss it, there is a large parking lot and big building that is easily visible from the highway. Luckily, they also ship their beautiful flowers around the world. You can check out their website for details. Stop by for a visit while you’re here in Hawai’i!