Maui upcountry flaunts its purple plumage
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
KULA, Maui — There was a time when Barbara and Tony Long would leave their Spreckelsville home each spring to drive Upcountry to see the dazzling lavender display when the jacarandas bloom.
Timothy Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser
They don't have to do that anymore: Now, they live among the jacarandas in an Upcountry community.
The green slopes of Haleakala display the jacaranda's distinct shade of purple in a particularly breathtaking way.
"It really is a beautiful, beautiful tree,'' said Barbara Long. "There's a line of them on our property, and both my husband and I pause on the driveway to smell them. You know, nobody talks about how wonderful they smell.''
It is that time of year when the jacaranda trees grace Upcountry pastures and homes with their breathtaking, vibrant colors.
Beginning around March and sometimes lasting until early June, these lacy trees transform into large clusters of lavender-blue sprays. The trumpet-shaped flowers eventually fall to the earth, carpeting the ground with a mass of color.
It is said that if you are walking underneath the jacaranda tree and one of the trumpet blossoms falls on your head, you will be favored by fortune.
Jacaranda mimosifolia is a Brazilian tree that grows up to 60 feet high. It is a fast-growing, hardy tree tolerant of salt and drought. Although native to South America, the trees are found on all the major Hawaiian Islands. They particularly have become a signature of Upcountry Maui.
Most of the trees were brought to Upcountry in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Territorial highway engineer Allan C. Burdick announced in 1939 that 1,500 jacaranda seedlings would be planted on Kula's roadways, joining a number of trees that already had been planted there. A news article at the time predicted that "Haleakala's broad waist will sport a belt of solid blue.''
And indeed it does, thanks to the help of those early highway crews who carried water to keep the seedlings alive.
They've been captured on canvas by just about every artist who lives in the region, including Curtis Wilson Cost.
"They call me the jacaranda boy,'' said Cost, whose Upper Kula gallery is in the heart of jacaranda country. "I'm flirting with being typecast, but they are so gorgeous it's hard not to paint them. They're just compelling.''
Getting the pastel colors of the jacaranda blossoms just right can be a challenge, Cost said.
"It's a little tricky," he said, and if not done right, you get "an awful purple jacaranda. It's not a pretty picture."
Cost, a traditionalist known for his sweeping landscapes, said he'll probably always paint the tree.
"Every year the jacaranda season is more spectacular, as more trees appear and young ones mature. They show up in surprising places.''
The jacaranda's beauty is enough for some to overlook the unattractive parts of its nature. Arborist Ernie Rezents said he planted a jacaranda tree in his Makawao yard about 20 years ago and now its roots are breaking up his concrete driveway and its bloom, though lovely, leaves an awful mess.
Still, Rezents said he cannot bring himself to cut it down.
