HAWAI'I GARDENS
It's time for ti at Foster Botanical Garden sale
By Heidi Bornhorst
Ti plants are a versatile and wonderful addition to Hawai'i gardens.ÊThey are colorful, tough and fairly easy to maintain. Flower arrangers love ti leaves, and so do gourmet and old-fashioned Hawaiian cooks. Hawai'i growers, plant hybridizers and nurseries are always coming up with new and wonderful varieties.
One of the best old-time growers, a man with a good eye for new and unusual plants, is Masuo Moriwaki, who is internationally famous for his ti plants.
Masuo and his wife, Rachel, are longtime supporters of the Honolulu Botanical Garden. They have offered to donate many small and large specimen plants to the plant sale at Foster Botanical Garden, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow.
Dr. Mel Wong of the University of Hawai'i-Manoa also is a ti expert, and he will be giving a class. A giveaway of the Moriwaki ti will accompany the class.
All your favorite plants, new and old, native and exotic, edible and unusual, will be at the sale. An ever-popular farmers market also is scheduled. It's sponsored by the O'ahu farm bureau, Foster Botanical Gardens supervisor and master gardener Carlton Luka and his farming friends. Produce anticipated for the sale includes Waialua tomatoes, fresh asparagus, Kahuku corn, Kamiya papaya, Pearl City watercress, Hau'ula hydroponic tomatoes, wetland Chinese and Hawaiian taro, Sora Japanese radishes, dwarf apple banana and more.
Coming to Foster Botanical Garden is always a treat, especially if it's free, as it is on garden fair and plant sale days.
Some special events at the "Green Ti House":
10 a.m.: Famed plants man Angel Ramos will present his amusing and informative program on the love life of Adeniums, or desert "roses." They have a long flowering time, are less thirsty and very colorful shrubs in the garden. Adenium seedlings, courtesy of the cactus and succulent society, will be given away in a raffle. Ramos loves these "weird-looking succulents," and he will show specimen Adeniums "to die for."
10:45 a.m.: Day lily grower Rachel Leyva, all the way from Volcano, will share an educational program showcasing the range of brilliant day lilies we can grow in Hawai'i. Her nursery grows the famed Mauna Kea day lilies, which many readers have inquired about. Her Web site is www.mkdaylilies.com. She will have an array of her 400 varieties for sale, and plants will be given away.
11:30 a.m.: Dr. Mel Wong will share his colorful hybrid ti program. His slide show has been perfected over many years in the UH Cooperative Extension service.ÊWong is well known for his expertise with ti and other tropical ornamentals. Several display-quality hybrid ti plants provided by nurseryman extraordinaire Masuo Moriwaki will be given away at the drawing at the end of Dr. Wong's program. These varieties are: Madam Pele, Orange Julius, Nalo Beauty and Akebono.
Save your receipts. After plant shoppers have paid, those whose purchases total more than $15 may pick up a free plant at the free holding area (first come, first served); 200 hybrid ti plants have been donated by Masuo Moriwaki.
In bloom
Golden trumpet trees at the airport are in bloom with their golden yellow blossoms. This is just one of the Tabebuias brought into Hawai'i from South and Central America.
On Kukui Street is a very nice street-tree planting of the Hong Kong orchid tree, Bauhinia blakeana, in full, glorious bloom. Like our official Honolulu street tree, the rainbow shower (which also is still in bloom all over the Islands) the Hong Kong orchid tree is a sterile hybrid which sets no seeds. Thus its energy goes into a long blooming cycle. The large lavender blossoms are fragrant. Golden shower is in bloom on the same street. This is not the usual period that golden shower (Cassia fistula) from India blooms, and the purple and yellow make a very nice visual show.
