Yesterday the monastery received a gift of rare hybrid plants. These specimens are from David Fell, owner of Fantastic Gardens located in Waimanalu on the island of Oahu. We have traded plants with David for about 20 years, and he has visited the monastery with his wife, Sandy.

David made his offer of free plants, and invited the monks to "come and get it." But that proved not feasible, so we turned to Adi Srikantha who is living for a few months on the Big Island. Adi agreed to jump in and make the gift possible, which was a complicated affair. Adi worked out all of the details of the 20-foot refrigerated container that was needed. Then he flew to Oahu for several days, arranged the agricultural inspections, loaded the container and arranged for delivery of the container to the monastery from the port.

The plants are all mature, colorful, special hybrids that David created over the last 25 years. Thank you, David. Siva's Sacred Garden welcomes these new arrivals.