By Heidi Bornhorst
It’s always a good day to plant, and nurture a tree or two or three, here in Hawaii Nei.
We celebrate Arbor Day in November because, traditionally, that’s when the good, deep, soil soaking, root drenching rains come.
In other places they do Arbor Day in spring, but we like to plant in November.
Trees give us much to be thankful for.
This year we invite you to join us in Kapi’olani Park on Thursday November 19, 2026, at 9:00 a.m.
We will be planting KUKUI TREES.
There will be many arbor day trees planted this year with school, community groups, Urban forestry, and others who want to Grow our Urban Forests in a positive way.
Kapi’olani Park Preservation Society will partner with Scenic Hawaii, Inc, and the City’s Division of Urban Forestry to gather and get these trees planted.
We will have a Hawaiian blessing for the trees as we get them into the ground.
Over the years numerous trees have been planted in the park for Arbor Day and for other occasions.
The tree planting plan calls for a diverse range of tree species, and trees of all ages.
We need to plant your trees to replace those that have blown over in storms or been lost to insects and disease.
Previously on Arbor Days we planted:
• Rainbow shower trees, our Official street tree of Honolulu.
• Brachychiton trees from Australia.
• Kou trees, which are native to Hawaii, and also a “canoe” plant.
• A grove of Royal Poinciana trees, along Paki Avenue.
Come find us in the park on Thursday morning, November 19 , 2026 at 9:00 a.m. and celebrate the simple joy of being in “YOUR” park, Kapi`olani.
The planting site is just a little mauka of the bandstand, walk mauka, from Kalakaua Avenue and look towards diamond head to find us.
You will see some orange fencing around a koa tree. (Honoring Brother Iz, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole.) and you will see some kukui trees planted in the past few years.
Look for our tent (for shade) and join us for the tree planting, followed by a brief ceremony, and some refreshments.
Advance mahalo goes out to our City and County of Honolulu Urban and Community Foresters Lindsey Watanabe and Navin Tagore, who are coordinating this year’s tree planting .
