HAWAI'I GARDENS
Plant a chayote squash and a vine will sprout
By Heidi Bornhorst
Q.I wonder if you can help me? I had a vegetable growing in my (former) yard called coyote squash. I want to grow this, but no one knows how. Some say turn it upside down, with the vine growing upward. One thing for sure: Once it starts growing it grows everywhere.
A. We call it chayote or pipinella squash. Plant it, fat part down, and a little bit covered with rich organic soil. A seedling will pop up and become a rambunctious vine. Give it lots of crawling or climbing room.
This is a delicious and nutritious old-fashioned squash that we don't see growing so much nowadays. It is from tropical America. All parts of the plant are edible, not only the fruit.ÊYou can eat the leaf shoots and even the roots.
Waimea Valley
A nonprofit, environmentally sensitive group, the National Audubon Society, has been chosen to manage Waimea Arboretum, one of the best botanical gardens in the world.
Waimea was the first botanical garden in Hawai'i to become a participating member in the Center for Plant Conservation, and so it got the responsibility for perpetuating high-profile endangered Hawaiian plants such as Gardenia brighamii, ko'oloa'ula or Abutilon menziesii (the red or pink 'ilima) and two of three subspecies of the state flower, ma'o hau hele or Hibiscus brackenridgei.
Waimea grows all three species of the endemic genus Kokia, and for the last two years, all three have flowered simultaneously. Another endangered endemic genus, Hau kuahiwi or hibiscadelphus, grows well here, and Waimea has three accessions of two of its three known species.
Director emeritus Keith Wooliams was a brilliant horticulturist, and thanks to him, many of the rarest of the rare still grow and thrive at Waimea. Wooliams had the foresight to form the Waimea Arboretum Foundation in 1977, which became the employer of the garden's plant scientists, and allowed the propagation and plant record-keeping to be continued after these were cut from the park's payroll at the end of 1998. Vital maps, plant labels and records were kept up to date on a shoestring budget by dedicated staffers and volunteers like David Orr, Frani Okamoto, Cilla Lang, Erin Purple, Cissy Ufano and Linda Bard.
Waimea has been known as the best-labeled of Hawai'i gardens. Labeling and the plant education center (a small but highly visited plant museum) are Waimea Arboretum Foundation responsibilities. People from all over also helped with donations, attended public hearings and voiced support for the embattled botanical garden. Mahalo nui loa to everyone who supports Waimea, and let's work to enhance this green and growing gift for all of us.
Pink showers
As a sure sign of spring in Hawai'i, the pink and white shower trees, Cassia javanica, are coming into bud and bloom all over the
Islands. The trees in bud are a gorgeous sight. There are three majestic specimens that you can gaze at overhead in the tropical American section of Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden, by the lake.
Some of the golden showers, C. fistula from India, also are in bloom, as are the hybrid offspring of the two trees, the rainbow shower. Check out fine specimens in Kapi'olani Park and on our streets.
