Wahiawa Botanical Garden (Educational, Northshore)
This is the garden we visited on our way to the northshore one day. It is located close to the Dole Plantation and opens a half an hour earlier, so we were there right as they opened, 9am to make the most of our day. The day happened to be a rainy one, the most unrelenting of our whole trip. I didn’t pack an umbrella on this vacation like I normally do because my experience on Maui was so dry, which meant we were taking lots of walks in the rain. We parked in the lot (1396 California Avenue, Wahiawa, Hawai‘i 96786) and scurried into the great visitors center equipped with bathrooms. After signing in the book and a little chat, the sweet lady at the desk lent us two umbrellas so we wouldn’t be completely soaked on our walk. This allowed us to spend much more time here than we would have umbrella-less, I was so thankful for this small act of kindness. It was fine walking around the garden in the pouring rain with the umbrellas, we still got to see every plant just the same, and lots of chickens amuck. Grab a map and get exploring, there are two levels of the garden. The top level is paved and relatively small but holds some gorgeous flora. The rainbow eucalyptus and candle tree (which flowers from the trunk!) were particularly riveting. 
There were so many fantastic colors here you almost forgot about the lack of blue sky. 
We headed down some stairs to explore the lower level. There were many different paths down here, and more stairs that led up to little trails and back down again. We just took our time and tried to see every corner of the garden. Lots of colorful flowers and beautiful vistas. 
After a great walk and feast for our eyes we headed back to the visitors center to return our umbrellas and say goodbye. The lady had lots of suggestions for us on what to do next, many of which were already on my list ;).