Make your garden grow

By Zenaida Serrano
Advertiser Staff Writer

Jari Sugano, University of Hawai'i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, is a fruits and vegetables expert. She and three others will be Advertiser gardening columnists. Photos by Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Three columnists with roots in the Honolulu botanical gardens came up with ideas for a monthly column they'll take turns writing, on topics including orchids, veggies and medicinal plants. We found them just down the road at the Foster Botanical Garden, but we discovered — as will you — the trio's expertise is felt around the island.

We also sought a fruits and vegetables expert. Friends of the Urban Garden Center directed us to Jari

Sugano, an extension agent for the past year with the University of Hawai'i-Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources who is based in Kane'ohe.

All told, the four specialists bring 100 years of passion and experience to our gardening coverage. They join Advertiser gardening columnist Heidi Bornhorst in helping all our thumbs get a little greener in the future.

The new columnists will alternate with Bornhorst, who will be published in Friday's Island Life section every other week, writing primarily about native Hawaiian plants.

Sugano will write every fourth week, while Duane Choy, Scot Mitamura and Winnie Singeo will share the final monthly column slot.

We're excited about our new additions, and we're confident their contributions will enhance your own gardens. A quick look at our new gardening experts:

DUANE CHOY

Duane Choy, a hike leader with The Nature Conservancy, says "plants are in his blood."

Specialty: Medicinal and "eclectic" plant-related topics.

Choy's educational background, though impressive, says little about his plant expertise.

A St. Louis High School alumnus, Choy, 52, majored in political science and business at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. He then went on to the University of California's Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

Choy's degrees aren't the reason he's become a plant specialist. Nor are the dozens of seminars and workshops he's attended. Plants, he said, are in his blood. And he believes that when you put it all together, that's what matters most.

"Part of it came from my dad," Choy said. "When the TV was on, he liked to watch 'National Geographic' and 'Nature.' "

Growing up, Choy liked being outdoors, always appreciating "great natural beauty," he said. "It's been something that runs in my genes."

An attorney by profession, Choy no longer practices full time, which meant an income cut. But money wasn't an issue. "The issue is life," Choy said, adding that he now has the time to do things that are "a better balance for my heart and mind."

For the past year, Choy has devoted part of his time to being volunteer coordinator and docent trainer for the municipal gardens. An avid hiker, Choy leads walks for The Nature Conservancy.

Choy has traveled the world, living on an island off Honduras for several years. With the friends he has made throughout Central America and in New Zealand, Choy is using his background in nonprofit management to help them start organizations that focus on environmental causes, conservation measures and more.

"I want to align myself with some type of cause, and with the flora and fauna diminishing in many places, I want to help out as much as I can," he said.

SCOT MITAMURA

Scot Mitamura began propagating orchids when he was 15.

Specialty: Orchids.

Mitamura, 45, discovered his green thumb through an after-school job as a pre-teen.

"It started at age 12, when I used to clean yards," Mitamura said. "I propagated (plant) cuttings and sold them to garden shops."

His first real job was at a full-service garden shop, Ko'olau Farmers, where employees encouraged the 15-year-old plant enthusiast to join the Windward Orchid Society.

"That's how I learned a lot about orchids, from the old- timers," said Mitamura, now an honorary life member of the society.

Mitamura has been the orchid horticulturist for the municipal gardens since 2000 and has been with the organization for nearly 16 years.

After graduating in 1981 from the University of Hawai'i-Manoa with a degree in horticultural technology, Mitamura's jobs have included running a nursery and selling agricultural equipment and supplies.

His responsibilities as orchid horticulturist include overseeing the orchid collection for the five Honolulu gardens, addressing orchid-related questions and providing flowers for various city offices, including the mayor's.

But the most satisfying part of the job is working with the gardens' orchid volunteer program, in which he oversees 300 hours of volunteer help a month, he said. Many of the volunteers are elderly people.

"Working with retirees and, of course, working with the plants, it's very enjoyable," he said.

WINNIE SINGEO

Winnie Singeo's plant passion came from parents who were "always tinkering with plants."

Specialty: Plants within the Honolulu botanical gardens.

As a municipal botanist, it's a given that Singeo likes working with plants.

But there are also the keiki.

"What I enjoy most is when I have the opportunity to talk to children," she said.

The cannonball tree at Foster Botanical Garden bears fruit on its trunk and branches. The fruit shells may be used to make bowls.

Have a garden question? Contact information for The Advertiser's gardening columnists: Heidi Bornhorst, native Hawaiian plants. From Honolulu Botanical Gardens: Duane Choy, medicinal plants and "eclectic" plant-related topics; Scot Mitamura, orchids; and Winnie Singeo, plants. Jari Sugano, fruits and vegetables. Honolulu Botanical Gardens I 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, except Christmas and New Year's Day Honolulu botanical gardens are under the jurisdiction of the city Department of Parks and Recreation. There are five gardens: Foster, Lili'uokalani, Wahiawa, Koko Crater and Ho'omaluhia. Admission is free, except at Foster Botanical Garden: $5 for nonresidents, 13 and older; $3 for residents, 13 and older with ID; $1 for ages 6 to 12; and free for 5 and younger. Information: 522-7060, website, e-mail. The mission of the Honolulu botanical gardens is to develop, maintain and study collections of tropical plants in attractive settings for conservation, education and recreation. The gardens are in various ecological settings around O'ahu. Each offers year-round opportunities to explore unique and diverse plant collections.

"I really enjoy that facet of my work, I guess because I'm having a hand in the future," Singeo said.

She knows firsthand the powerful impressions that can be left on a child. Her interest in botany stems from her father and grandfather, who "always tinkered with plants," she said.

A turning point in her childhood: When she was about 8 years old, her father gave her some zinnia seeds.

"I planted them, and what came up were cherry tomatoes," she said. "I've been interested since." (Looking back, Singeo thinks the zinnia seeds died and remnant tomato seeds grew instead.)

Before joining Honolulu botanical gardens in 1990, Singeo, who has degrees in botany and agronomy from UH-Manoa, has worked as an agriculturist for Palau, an island republic in Micronesia, and as a research assistant for Dole Pineapple and Waialua Sugar.

In her spare time, Singeo enjoys volunteering at college fairs, where she helps run booths for her daughter's alma mater, a Mainland private school. She also is an avid reader and fan of TV's Discovery Channel.

JARI SUGANO

Home: Mililani.

Specialty: Fruits and vegetables.

Sugano's mother earned a degree in botany and her father has a degree in zoology.

"Both of them are backyard growers ... so our house was a jungle," said Sugano, 31.

With her parents' academic backgrounds and their gift of gardening, "it made sense" to follow in their footsteps, she said.

Sugano has been an extension agent for the past year with the UH-Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Sugano, who works for the college's Kane'ohe extension office, provides education and research support to Hawai'i's commercial fruit and vegetable growers, with the help of UH research specialists with the federal and state departments of agriculture.

Sugano graduated from UH-Manoa with a bachelor's degree in agriculture and from Michigan State University with a master's in agriculture and extension education. Afterward, she spent nearly five years as an extension agent with the Hawai'i fruit-fly pest management program.

Sugano enjoys what she does, calling the work "dynamic" and the people she works with "nice and always eager to work with you," she said. ... "(There's) never a dull day."

An outdoors enthusiast, Su-gano's hobbies include surfing, canoe paddling and photography.

Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8174.