HAWAI'I GARDENS
Lignum vitae tree ideal for small yard
By Heidi Bornhorst
Q. I am looking for a smallish tree for my yard. I think I saw the perfect one, planted by the city landscape crews in Foster Village, near the community center on Kukila Street. It's a really pretty small rounded tree. What is it?
A. This is lignum vitae. Lignum vitae is an ideal street, park and home garden tree for smaller spaces. It is native to tropical America. It has pretty orange fruits, in season, but they do not sprout and become weedy like some other common street trees. The wood is useful, so if, in many years' time, you have too much of it, you can use the wood for projects. Lignum vitae, Guaiacum officinale, has a rounded shape and grows fairly slowly, so not a lot of pruning is involved. It is a less-thirsty tree and seems to have few pests. The flowers are blueish purple and are a nice contrast to the bright fruits.
From lilies to poinsettias
I saw some gorgeous curbside plantings of the old-fashioned golden yellow zephranthes lilies all along Palolo Avenue near Rainbow Market. These always remind me of my flower arranging and gardening mentor, the late May Moir. She was a great proponent of this tough, less-thirsty golden-flowering ground cover.
The golden yellow lilies are bright and cheerful, and this is a ground cover that you never need to mow and hardly need to water after you get it established in the ground. After flowering, the pollinated flowers will develop into seed capsules with many flat seeds packed inside. You can grow the lilies from these seeds, or ask for the plants at your favorite garden shop.
Poinsettia, the Christmas flower, also is already in bloom way ahead of season in some locales. I noticed the bright red bracts peeking from behind a flowering alula recently. This one is in a garden that I help maintain in one of our wet, V-shaped valleys. It is one of the old-fashioned, hedge-type poinsettias, also collected for me by May Moir several years ago from a hedge in Nu'uanu. I told her I was looking for the tall, wild, old-fashioned, hedge-type poinsettias — so tough and gorgeous. You see these in old kama'aina gardens, flowering gloriously in far-flung spots such as Kona, Kalaupapa and Kapahulu.
The hybrid flowering potted types are now being meticulously grown and watched over by local nurseries as they nurture this lovely Christmas crop. This is a time when growers lose sleep, worry about windy weather and do their growing best to produce awesome flowering poinsettias in many colors.
