HAWAI'I GARDENS
Flush bromeliad cups to fend off mosquitoes
By Heidi Bornhorst
Q.A gorgeous Nu'uanu garden rarely open to visitors is full of bromeliads, yet, it has no mosquitoes, those nagging pests for all of us diligent Hawaiian gardeners. What is the secret? I love bromos, but my honey says no because they attract mosquitoes. How does the Nu'uanu garden fend off the little pests?
— Unblemished marveling gardener, Pauoa
A. As one of my friends always says, "I flush my cups, babe, I always flush my cups thoroughly." As she waters and tends her garden, she flushes the cups of the bromeliads and hoses any mosquito larvae out into the soil where they cannot develop into blood-sucking pests.
What's in bloom
Reds, reds and more reds are flowering in this Year of the Monkey.
Kalanchoe is happy and blooming and comes in red, yellow, orange, pink and white. Pick up some kalanchoe plants from your favorite garden shop and do a cheerful new year planting.
Poinsettias are still hanging in, if the wind and rain didn't hit them too hard in your neighborhood. Soon, you can take cuttings of the old-fashioned red or white ones to grow in your garden or street scape.
Elephant-ear trees or Enterolobium cyclocarpum, known as guanacaste in its native south America, are in bare branch right now.
This is one of our few deciduous trees in the Islands. You can find these massive trees at the following sites: in the tropical American section of Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden, Archie Baker Mini Park, Makiki Pumping Station park, Foster Botanical Garden, and here and there in Manoa and other neighborhoods with space enough for the proper growth of this very large tree.
Keep a sharp eye peeled for their newest flush of leaves. The elephant ears are gorgeously refreshed when their new leaves appear in early spring.
The golden-flowered, double form of the buttercup tree, Cochlospermum vitifolium, is in full bloom at the St. John Plant Science Lab building at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.
African tulips are shining in all their orange glory. This weedy tree was the subject of the first article I wrote for The Advertiser, in February 1993.
They are great — in someone else's garden. They are a nice "borrowed landscape view."
Plant, produce sale
The Urban Garden Center will hold its annual Plant and Produce Sale from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow at the University of Hawaii Urban Garden Center in Pearl City.
There will be a variety of plants and produce for sale from various vendors.
Alvin Tsuruda, owner of Waihale Products, will have interesting plants for sale. Among them, green cotton — which has natural green-colored fiber around the seed, dark pink flowers (cotton usually has yellow blossoms) and burgundy shaded leaves.
Old-fashioned-type mini roses, old varieties such as loke lani, and the thornless fragrant seedlings of angel rose will be offered. Tsuruda will have a few of the red bud rose, which is hard to propagate and is rarely found.
Tsuruda also will have lots of the pink bud rose and the Fairy variety, which has been around since the 1930s. Anthuriums in at least 50 varieties also will be available.
Call the Urban Garden Center at 453-6050.
Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable- landscape consultant. Send questions to: Island Life, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802 or islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com. Letters may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.
