A. Look at your community school for adults, and it will often have good classes. My sister Mimi learned a lot and made new friends at a class at Kaimuki High School. Lyon Arboretum and the Garden Club of Honolulu also offer classes in flower-arranging, as do the community colleges.

We also have been given a new, easy-to-use guidebook on the subject.

The prolific and knowledgeable florist Laurie Shimazu Ide has produced a great new book: "Hawaiian Tropical Flower Arranging: A Step-byistep Guide."

It starts off with the formidable task of identifying some of the flowers, leaves and branches that can be used for flower-arranging in Hawai'i.

Color photos of anthuriums, gingers, heliconias, marantas, orchids, proteas and a multitude of ferns and foliage are shown to help you know what plant materials you are arranging in your floral masterpieces.

Ide spent a lot of time and consulted with many experts to get her photos identified.

She goes into detail, with great pictures and easy to follow instructions, explaining what special tools and supplies you might need. She also discusses design principals, exploring American, European and Asian floral designs.

Not only is this a good book for Island gardeners and flower arrangers, it also is a great gift for friends and family on the Mainland and around the world. What could be more inspiring to the world's garden travelers than Hawai'i flower arrangements, well-designed?

Most bookstores and garden shops carry Ide's book, published by Mutual.

In Bloom

You can tell summer has really hit Hawai'i when the fragrant gingers bloom in sweet profusion. Gardenias are still here and there, if you grow them in sun, in rich organic acidic soil and foliar-fertilize regularly.

Picking all the flowers and buds also helps eliminate thrips and other pesky insects. As gardenias give way to gingers, our gardening seasons advance.

Rainbow shower trees are in thick, blushing, dripping profusion, and many of our flowering trees are still blooming heavily, thanks to the generous winter rains that still continue in some parts of the Islands.

"Isn't rain a great gift in summer?" my husband commented the other day, as showers swept our valley and were quickly followed by a rainbow.

I had to agree. This summer feels like small-kid time, when it seemed to rain a lot.

Crape myrtles, in both the giant tree form and the elegant shrub, are having a good season. I saw the most plush pink pyramid of a blooming one on Manoa Road the other morning. What a nice small tree or large shrub.

We also call it the kahili flower and queen flower here in the Islands. The flowers can be pink, burgundy, white and purple.