Promotion protects native flora
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer
Dennis Kim's calling is getting rare native plants into Hawai'i gardens. The former landscape architect and contractor has spent the past three years growing and studying native plants, including some of the rarest known, in hopes that Isle residents and visitors will get to know them, appreciate them and save them.
"I've grown more than 300 different native species, and there should be a core of 75 to 100 of them that landscape architects can use," he said. These are hardy, able to grow in coastal, lowland and drier areas where people live, and fit the characteristics gardeners and landscapers look for.
"I speak the language of landscape architects, with terms like form, color and texture," he said.
Kim said the 50 or 60 professionals in the industry in Hawai'i have perhaps 10 native plants on their "palettes," and he hopes to familiarize them with many more. It may be crucial to tourism to emphasize native Hawaiian plants rather than using the same kinds found throughout the tropics, he said.
"A lot of visitors are very akamai, and we are insulting them. They're seeing what they can see anywhere," he said.
Kim cites horticultural writers Greg Koob and Heidi Bornhorst, and Kaua'i endangered plant grower Keith Robinson, with helping awaken a public awareness of native plants.
He also credits the state for changing its endangered species law three years ago to allow the general public to grow rare plants.
Kim does not feel many native plants have much of a chance of survival in the wild, given attacks by alien insects, diseases, goats and cattle, pigs and competing plants.
"Based on my experimentations, I would expect that in the wild, your chances are 1 in 100 to 1 in 2,500 for a seed to successfully grow," he said.
But if the public knew more about them and appreciated them, there might be more protection of plants in the wild, he said.
"It all comes down to educating the public," he said.
There are a few nurseries that have developed an interest in growing native plants, and more are joining in.
"I don't think it's a fad," Kim said.
His list of favorite native plants for landscaping include the fragrant white hibiscus, the silver-leaved Munroidendron, the ground covers 'akia and pohinahina, the yellow-flowered Hawaiian cotton and the hardy alahe'e.
"The one that I would call my signature plant is the nanu (Hawaiian gardenia). It is resilient, drought tolerant, fast-growing, beautiful, with shiny leaves and flowers that are much more fragrant than the tiare (Tahitian gardenia)," said Kim, whose nursery, Native Plant Source in Waimanalo, does not sell plants to the general public.
Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kauai bureau chief and science writer. You can call him at (808) 245-3074 or e-mail jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.
