A. Enjoy your dendrobium in your brightly lit office while it is in flower. Once a week, peel back the ornamental foil and water it thoroughly. Let the water drain all the way through the pot (do this over the sink) to make sure you've watered it completely, then replace the foil.

When all the flowers are pau, take the plant home, set it in filtered light and gradually acclimatize it to brighter light. You can water a dendrobium every day (morning is best; orchids don't like to go to bed with wet feet) if they are out in bright light and have good air circulation. This is a very tough orchid and should bloom two to three times a year for you.

Q. Heidi, my 5-year-old daughter gave me an impatiens for Mother's Day. I have been putting it out in the morning sun while I'm at work, but it looks a little droopy. How shall I care for it?

A. Impatiens like shade and water. Keep it in a cool, shady place and water daily. They can go a bit droopy from lack of water and strong sun, but if you water it in time, it should perk right up.

In a few months, you can transplant into a slightly larger pot and keep enjoying it. Impatiens also are really easy to grow from cuttings. You can make more plants to share from two- to three-inch cuttings.

Q. I got a beautiful blue hydrangea from my son for Mother's Day. It was so gorgeous and plush and had three big pompons. Now the flowers are melting and are all wilted. How can I take care of it and bloom it for next Mother's Day?

A. Give it to your auntie in Wahiawa, Mililani, Koke'e on Kaua'i, or Waimea on the Big Island or somewhere else that's up in a high and cool garden. This plant, no matter how well you care for it down in hot, dry Kapahulu, will not be happy. It wants to be high and cool to thrive. In the proper climate in Hawai'i, hydrangeas are easy flowering hedge and specimen plants.

What's in bloom

Shower trees are having a great spring. The pink showers, which are street trees in older Kaimuki and Kapahulu neighborhoods, are really blooming well this year.

Lignum vitae, with its pale lavender flowers and attractive mottled green and gold trunk, look great in combo with bright yellow lantana. Formosan koa, be-still trees and the gold and silver trumpet trees are all putting on a nice golden-yellow show.

Blue agapanthus or Nile lily, which comes in old-fashioned pale blue and white, is also blooming, and there are new deep blue and purple cultivars. Day lilies in oranges, golds and many other colors are also sending out lots of blooming flower spikes.