HAWAI'I GARDENS
Wealth of knowledge awaits you at Lyon Arboretum
By Heidi Bornhorst
Q. We want to learn all we can about plants and Hawai'i gardening, especially native Hawaiian plants. We have just retired and want to grow natives and maybe work as volunteers in a botanical garden that is preserving Hawaiian plants.
— Dr. Alan and Marjorie Tanigawa, San Francisco, but Honolulu-bound in 2004
A. Lyon Arboretum in Manoa, one of our botanical treasures, may be the place for you. It grows many natives and Polynesian-introduced Hawaiian plants. The arboretum is a leader in perpetuating our vanishing natives, especially through the micropropagation skills and dedication of Nellie Sugii.
It has an extensive educational program led by Jill Laughlin. She and the other staffers welcome volunteers. It's a great place to learn and make new friends.
You can also help in many capacities in the new Hawaiian garden, which is featured in more detail below.
New Hawaiian garden
Many years ago, horticulturalist Liz Huppman of the Lyon Arboretum recommended a native Hawaiian educational plant garden be built near the visitor center and gift shop so the public could easily view our indigenous and endemic plants.
In 2002, the garden started to take shape. Its design includes a gravel pathway connecting the garden to the nearby Beatrice Krauss Hawaiian Ethnobotanical Garden.
Huppman, fellow staffers, garden interns and volunteers have been creating the garden and have learned a lot during the process.
Wonderful plants grow in the garden, some of which are never or rarely seen in cultivation. Pukiawe is fairly common in dryland forests, being somewhat distasteful to goats and pigs and thus less vulnerable than most other native Hawaiian plants. Pukiawe is very hard to grow and is rarely seen in gardens, yet it grows here.
Many interesting grasses and sedges grow in the garden. Native grasses are very interesting to those of us in the landscape industry.
Because because many grasses are aggressive weeds, we need to explore the many native grasses and sedges for our garden diversity.
Many grasses have cultural and ethnobotanical or medical uses. Contortus grow in attractively placed clumps and groupings.
'Ahu'awa (Cyperus javanicus), Carex wahuensis and pili grass (Heteropogon contortus) are some of the grasses and sedges with great gardening potential.
Gorgeous healthy plants of ko'oko'olau (Bidens torta) from Wai'anae, show how pretty this valuable medicinal herb can be under the care of a dedicated and vigilant horticulturist. Volunteers are welcome, and you can learn a lot working with Huppman.
Huppman was awarded an $8,580 grant from the Kaulunani Urban Forestry Program (administered by the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife). This money will help with plant signage.
The Hawaiian garden project is about half completed. And as any gardener knows, maintenance and vigilant horticulture are key.
What's in bloom
See the yellow-flowered ko'oko'olau at Lyon Arboretum. The golden-yellow ma'o hau hele (Hibiscus brackenridgei), our state flower, is in thick bud and coming into bloom.
The O'ahu variety is a "working person's" flower as it opens its fragile buds at dusk in the spring.
Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable-landscape consultant.
