Hana-no-Yakata and Exhibition Greenhouses, Iwate Prefectural Flower Center (岩手県立花きセンター 花の館温室・展示温室)

The Hana-no-Yakata greenhouse ('house of flowers') opened in 1997, the ninth year of the Heisei era, at the Iwate Prefectural Flower Center in Kanegasaki. Its opening is tied to a story of mutual help between two prefectures. During the great cold-weather damage of 1993, Okinawa had helped Iwate by urgently multiplying rice seed. Since then the two prefectures have moved their exchanges from a 'bridge of rice' (米のかけはし) to a 'bridge of flowers' (花のかけはし), and at the opening of the greenhouse Okinawa donated rare plants, such as the bottle palm. The official site lists fourteen species from this gift, warm-climate trees and palms that the subtropical house displays.

The official pages name as contact the training section (研修科) of the Iwate prefectural agricultural college, in charge of the centre. Alongside its page of current blooms, the centre's official site has pages on training courses, events and demonstration cultivation trials. The hall of the Hana-no-Yakata permanently hosts a gallery of reproductions of wildflower paintings by the artist Fukazawa Beniko, shown with the seasons; according to the town, the outdoor flower beds show the wildflowers they depict.

As the official photograph shows, the Hana-no-Yakata is an entrance hall with a tall triangular gable, to which a greenhouse with glass sides is attached, divided into small panes by white glazing bars; the sign at the entrance gives the name of the place and its opening hours. The aerial view from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan shows a hexagonal-plan glass roof made of several faces converging on a central pyramidal lantern, south of the hall. The building traced on OpenStreetMap as 'Hana-no-Yakata greenhouse' covers about 1,170 m².

The greenhouse is divided into three climate zones, called 'subtropical', '40° south' and '40° north'; the official site notes that Iwate lies at about the same latitude as the regions of Europe and North America from which the plants of the last zone come. The exhibition greenhouse, according to the official photograph, is a barrel-vaulted greenhouse with a white frame and a translucent roof, surrounded by flower beds, with another greenhouse behind it.

The subtropical house gathers the plants from Okinawa: banyan (ガジュマル), screw pine (アダン), bottle palm (トックリヤシ), betel palm (ビンロウジュ), Yaeyama palm (ヤエヤマヤシ) and golden shower, among others, along with hibiscus, bougainvillea, bird of paradise, monstera and staghorn ferns (ビカクシダ). The '40° south' zone shows cacti, succulents (all year) and air plants (Tillandsia), with cacti flowering in May and June; the '40° north' zone holds about forty species from Europe and North America, species cyclamens (from September), herbs, snowdrops (from December) and hellebores, as well as the 'three great fragrant trees': gardenia, osmanthus and daphne.

The exhibition greenhouse presents tropical and subtropical fruit trees (guava, jackfruit, cherimoya, white sapote, lychee, apple mango, passion fruit, pitanga, miracle fruit, coffee), carnivorous plants (pitcher plants, sarracenias, sundews, Venus flytrap), orchids (miltonia, cattleya, paphiopedilum, dendrobium, cymbidium), bromeliads and four types of begonias, which flower from May to November depending on the type.

Individual visitors need not book: they sign a register at the entrance of the Hana-no-Yakata or of the exhibition greenhouse, where a plan is displayed, then walk freely. Only these two greenhouses are open to the public; the other greenhouses near the Hana-no-Yakata open only in the flowering season. Fruit shows from June (apple mango, passion fruit, lemon) then from August (dragon fruit, coffee), orchids from September, begonias from May to November.

The centre is about ten minutes by car from JR Kanegasaki station, according to the town, which lists among nearby facilities the Gunba no Sato museum at Rokuhara (軍馬の郷六原資料館) and the Senganishi forest park. The official site warns that the centre may close temporarily when bears are sighted in the area: check before coming.