Allamanda

Advertiser library photo

Notable aspects: Large golden yellow trumpet flowers grace this plumeria relative. It was given the name nani ali'i when it was brought to Hawai'i from Brazil. There also is an old-fashioned purple variety and some new, wonderfully colored purples, browns and magentas brought in by Leland Miyano with the kokua of the famed Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx in the 1980s.

Care: This is a tough and less-thirsty plant that blooms heavily. You can train it as a vine up an arbor, or spill it over an ugly wall or pretty planter.

Find it: In old kama'aina gardens, in planters at the Hale Koa Hotel and at Koko Crater Botanical Garden.

Bougainvillea

Advertiser library photo

Notable aspects: Bougainvillea is native to Brazil, and we have many choice varieties. Bougainvillea spectabilis is the original, purple-flowered thorny plant from Brazil.

Miss Manila is a favorite hybrid, created in the Philippines and brought to Hawai'i in the late 1960s by Donald Angus. New varieties have been released with great excitement and plant fervor in conjunction with sales coordinated by the Honolulu Botanical Gardens.

Care: Bougies are very drought-tolerant but do better with irrigation. They flower on new wood, so don't cut off the shoots if you want abundant flowering color. They come in many colors and are good for xeriscaping, freeway landscaping and exuberant landscape adornment.

Find it: All over the Islands in hot dry areas. It is very nice on the banks of the freeway in 'Aiea. Ala Moana Center has beautiful planters with the Miss Manila variety.

Gardenia

Advertiser library photo

Notable aspects: Gardenia is one of the most prized, cherished and asked about of summer flowers.

Care: Foliar fertilize and grow in rich, organic well-drained soil. The Chinese double gardenia does best in acidic mauka soil. If you have sandy soil and live near the beach, a better gardenia for you is tiare Tahiti, the single-petaled, lightly fragrant Gardenia taitensis, which likes full sun and regular irrigation.

Find it: In home gardens and at lei shops.

Ginger

Advertiser library photo

Notable aspects: Ginger is a gift for Hawai'i gardeners. There are hundreds of kinds, including the edible; the shampoo, Zingiber; the fragrant yet ephemeral yellow and white and coral gingers, Hedychium; and the long-lasting durable red and pink gingers, Alpinia.

Care: Gingers are heavy feeders and thrive with lots of organic matter and compost topdressed around the roots and a fertilizer higher in P (phosphorus) and K (potassium), for example, 10-20-20.

Find it: At Ho'omaluhia, up Tantalus and in wet, forested areas. Some species are weedy at upper elevations.

Golden shower trees

Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Notable aspects: This tree is in the bean family, or Fabaceae, native to the driest parts of India. In small-kid time, kolohe (mischievous) kids like me and my pals Susan and Kathy Largosa would have epic "sword" fights with the rascally, troublesome neighborhood boys using the long, somewhat brittle and definitely stinky seed pods that the golden shower tree produces in great abundance.

Care: Golden shower trees can be grown from seeds. It is a tough, less-thirsty tree than the rainbow shower tree.

Find it: At Ali'iolani School in Kaimuki, on Wai'alae Avenue between 6th and 7th avenues.

Heliconia

Advertiser library photo

Notable aspects: Tropical and striking, with many species in various colors, shapes, forms and sizes.

Care: Heliconia like full sun, water, rich organic soil and lots of potassium-rich fertilizer.

Find it: At Lyon Arboretum in Manoa, Ho'omaluhia and Waimea Valley Audubon Center.

Mussaenda

Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Notable aspects: Mussaenda is a choice plant, native to the Philippines, that now graces Hawai'i gardens. The colorful part of the plant is not a flower but is a colorful bract composed of modified leaves. They come in white, pink, coral and red.

Care: Mussaenda requires special nurturing and TLC.

This is why you don't see it in every garden. It likes full sun to bloom, coupled with daily watering.

Find it: There is a nice flowering display of them in the Philippines section of Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden in Kane'ohe.

Hibiscus

Advertiser library photo

Notable aspects: Hibiscus are abundant in summer gardens in Hawai'i. We have native Hawaiian kinds that are unique: fragrant, they last for two days and are white with a pink or burgundy staminal column. These fragrant whites are called koki'o ke'o ke'o. These have been hybridized with hibiscus species from tropics worldwide, and today we have an abundance of choice hybrids. One nice, ever-blooming hybrid is the golden yellow "dinner plate" hybrid, Hula Girl.

Care: Full sun for blooming, regular watering and a light hand with nitrogen fertilizers. A garden tip from the famous Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania: "Remember not to prune your hibiscus too much or you'll get lowbiscus."

Find it: The rose garden at Kapi'olani Park, Nii nursery in Hawai'i Kai, Koko Crater Botanical Garden, Waimea Valley Audubon Center.

Monkeypod Tree

Photo courtesy Gerald Carr • University of Hawai'i-Manoa, Botany Department

Notable aspects: Monkeypod is usually thought of as a large, welcoming shade tree or overgrown street tree, yet it has a pretty and fragrant flower. This year, they are blooming later than in many years; many trees are still in bloom now. The flowers of Samanea saman are pink and white powder puffs, reminiscent of a mimosa. As my akamai mother always taught us, "Never stand under a monkeypod during the rain, unless you want to get more wet!" The leaves close when it rains, dumping more water at the durable tree's roots.

Care: This large, flowering shade tree is good for parks. It is very tough and drought-tolerant once established in the ground. These huge trees can be transplanted.

Find it: Moanalua Garden has huge, gorgeous monkeypods that are famous as far away as Japan. Many of our streets have them. An exceptional grove lines Paki Avenue, mauka of the zoo.

Orchids

Advertiser library photo

Notable aspects: Orchids are abundant, floriferous and inexpensive in Hawai'i. Many are given as gifts, and many can be divided from older kama'aina gardens.

Care: For the novice, some of the easier orchids to bloom and grow are dendrobiums, cattleyas, phaleonopsis and butterfly orchids. As my great garden mentor May Moir would say, "if the orchid doesn't grow right or bloom, I move it around till it's happy. Maybe I just stick it up in a tree" (This is how many orchids grow in the wild — perched up in a tree where they can catch the nourishing breezes.) Most orchids are epiphytes, or air plants.

Find it: Foster Botanical Garden displays some of the best.

Plumeria

Advertiser library photo

Notable aspects: Plumeria are native to Mexico. Originally, three species were brought to Hawai'i: a red, yellow and white. Gardeners have created many hybrids, and today they come in various colors. Each variety has its own unique perfume, keeping quality and color of blossoms. They are a lei maker's and lei wearer's delight. The fragrance is a sure sign of summer in Hawai'i. Pua melia is the name given to them in Hawai'i. In many other tropical lands, plumeria are called frangipani. The first plumeria were planted in cemeteries in Hawai'i, and one of the most beloved varieties is the fragrant yellow "graveyard yellow" plumeria.

Care: These are easy to grow in Hawai'i and make a pretty flowering tree for any garden.

Find it: In the hot lowlands.

Poinciana (flame) tree

Advertiser library photo

Notable aspects: This gorgeous urban tree usually blooms red-orange. It adorns many streets and parks and schools. We also have a rare one, a golden yellow form, promoted and popularized by the late horticulturist and educator Horace Clay.

Care: Poinciana is very tough and drought-tolerant once established in the ground. Never prune a big one as this can lead to rot. You can train and prune them when they are young with small branches.

Find it: Several grow at the Hale Koa Hotel in Waikiki. Horace Clay's wife, Yolanda, gave one to the Honolulu Academy of Arts; admire it, next to the Linekona building, from Victoria and Beretania streets. The "Horace Clay royal poinciana tree," growing in the Queen Kapi'olani Garden, mauka of the zoo on the corner of Paki and Monsarrat, is plush and dripping with golden blossoms right now.

Rainbow shower trees

Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Notable aspects: These flowering trees come in a range of colors from deepest guava sherbet to palest liliko'i chiffon. The flowers have a delicate perfume early in the morning. This is a unique, made-in-Hawai'i hybrid.

The original Wilhelmina Tenney specimen grows in Foster Botanical Garden; thousands of descendants were propagated from it by air-layering. The tree was a gift from Tenney herself to Harold Lyon, the first director of Foster Garden. "Early in the morning, walk under a rainbow shower, especially the more golden and pale yellow-white ones. The perfume is fabulous, you've gotta try it," says Honolulu student Shantel K. Pimentel.

Care: This tough and drought-tolerant tree is an ideal "urban forest" tree, the official street tree of O'ahu (so designated in 1965 by then-Mayor Neal Blaisdell). It is propagated by air layers because it does not set seed; it is a sterile hybrid and thus puts all its energy into a long blooming season.

Find it: Check out King Street, Kapi'olani Park, Hawai'i Kai streets and along Kalaniana'ole.