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.
