HAWAI'I GARDENS
African iris beautifies community center
By Heidi Bornhorst
Q. The late Tutu Betty Crocker planted African iris all around the Waikiki Community Center. We love them and would like to know how best to care for them. I have the honor of training some landscape workers (they groomed and fixed up the children's garden recently), and we'd all like to know more about our green and growing legacy.
— Jeff Apaka, Waikiki
A. African iris is a great plant, excellent for xeriscaping. Moraea bicolor is the Latin name. It has yellow blossoms with brown spots, and its flowers are about two inches in diameter.
The planting at Waikiki Community Center is a wonderful golden yellow blooming legacy from Betty Crocker. She did so much to beautify Hawai'i. Her children and I were surprised and happy to learn that she had planted the African iris at the center.
I first learned about this plant in the late 1980s while I was horticulturist at the Honolulu Zoo. We had it planted on the "African mounds" near the lion exhibit.
Landscape foreman Seiko Tamashiro told me it was a tough, less-thirsty plant with nice flowers.
Divide the clumps of African iris to get new keiki plants.
We had it at the Hale Koa Hotel in a spot that was difficult to landscape and maintain: interior elevator lobby planters. It did very well with little care and water. We also planted it on the sunny side of the building.
Like most flowering plants, the more sun you give African iris the better they bloom. Observe and note the sun patterns of your garden. Note how many hours of direct sun you have in various sections of your garden, then plan your plantings accordingly.
Vertical gardening
The National Garden Writers Association recommends vertical gardening for summer — plants growing on trellises and stakes, decorating a fence (such as our prevalent chain-link lovelies) and other creative horticultural techniques, such as espalier.
This is akamai for us in Hawai'i with our small growing spaces. You can help your keiki grow beans and squash on a "teepee."
There are many types of trellises available. Your neighborhood garden shop sells dura stakes in green, which last forever, or redwood stakes, which come in one- and two-inch sizes.
Or you can clear the weedy lot next door of koa haole or bamboo. These make nice, decorative and useful stakes to grow a vertical garden of veggies and flowers.
Think of vines such as string and wing bean. Want flowers? Try native 'awikiwiki (Canavalia galeatea) a Hawaiian "sweet pea" with purple and lavender flowers — perfect for that special lei. If you love flowering vines, grow them on a substantial trellis.
Got a welder in the family? Make an heirloom garden trellis of brass, bronze or copper. Grow pakalana, stephanotis and Hoya (wax vines) on it, alone or in combination, for fragrance.Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant. She has retired from Honolulu's botanical gardens and now volunteers there. Submit questions at islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com or Island Life, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Letters may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.
