HAWAI'I GARDENS
That fussy gardenia needs nurturing
By Heidi Bornhorst
Q. I am not an experienced gardener but do enjoy maintaining plants around the home. I have tried many times to grow the gardenia plant with little success. I have tried sunny locations, partly sunny, shady, in the ground, in the pot. ... I am currently on my longest streak with keeping an Amy gardenia plant in the pot alive, for almost three months. However, it appears to have developed yellow spots on the leaves that eventually spread bigger, and then the leaves drop off. I also noticed those branches show the stems to be shredding. I tried spraying Volck oil spray, with minimum success and the return of the yellow spots within two weeks. Any suggestions or good books you may recommend?
A. First thing is, what are you spraying for? You need to identify the pest to spray the right thing. Many times you don't need to spray anything. I would take your spotty leaves up to the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's plant disease clinic and see what the spots are caused by. Call 956-8053. There is a fee for the diagnosis, but it is worth it to know just what is troubling your gardenia. We need to see the symptoms to make a correct diagnosis, just like a doctor does.
Some spots you don't need to worry about. Some are just old age, with the leaves yellowing as they age, as the gardenia plant pulls the nutrients back in. If it is a few lower (older) leaves, do not worry.
In general, gardenias, like other flowering plants, like full sun.
They like acid soil and respond to foliar fertilizer. Gardenias will bloom and grow better in the ground than in a pot, unless you have sandy, salty or alkaline soil. You can grow Tahitian gardenias or tiare if you have nonacid soil and love gardenias.
'Ulu found Big Island haven
My longtime friend and dedicated Big Island extension agent in charge of UH programs, Debbie Ward, has a huge 'ulu tree in her yard. It is over 100 years old and it is a part of Kurtistown history.
Herbert Shipman decreed that all 'ulu on the lands were kapu. Breadfruit trees could not be cut down even to make room for sugar cane. What an akamai legacy!
'Ulu is one of the most ono and nutritious staple starches and it is also a beautiful tree. I think more of us should plant and nurture important food trees like 'ulu. Think if we could buy breadfruit in the stores. Think if we had all kinds of tasty 'ulu treats like chips, cookies or pancakes, as farmers and entrepreneurs have done with kalo (taro).
Today we have this legacy of 100-year-old 'ulu trees. Try and find some the next time you get up that way.
Look for the large bold leaves of the breadfruit in the Kurtistown area above Hilo.
Air plants
My mom had a simple vase of old-fashioned air plants, and it reminded me of lots of other springs. This simple wildflower is a long-timer in Hawai'i gardens. It is a native of Africa and used to be more widespread here.
As keiki, I and my kolohe friends Susan and Kathy Largosa used to love to pop them on the way home from Lincoln elementary school. There were lots of them in dry parts of Makiki in those days. They line my parents' stairs, and we'd gleefully pop all those too, much to my mother's dismay.
They really are quite attractive in a vase with their light green "bubbles" and red counterparts. This is the leaf that we used to stick on the bulletin board at elementary school and wait for the keiki plantlets to emerge at each loop of the leaf. Do any of you remember this plant?
It is very easy to grow from the leaves and is an attractive, less-thirsty plant, perfect for the rock garden, that dry slope or your sunny lanai.
Heidi Bornhorst is director of Honolulu's botanical gardens.
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