Posted on: Friday, April 15, 2005
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HAWAI'I'S GARDENS
Right trees provide beauty and privacy
By Heidi Bornhorst
Q. A big house is being built next door to my mom's house in Olinda, Maui. What is a good tree to plant to screen her view of the new property? We planted some kukui but they are not doing too well.
A. Several trees will do well in that microclimate. Screening out ugly views, sounds and dust and enhancing and framing good views is one of our major goals with good landscape design. Selecting the right trees, proper planting and placement for the site are more involved, but here are some ideas for you:
• Kukui, our state tree, the candlenut or Aleurites moluccana, is a rapid-growing screening and shade tree (the leaves also make great mulch and they can slow down wildfires with their water-holding trunks) — down in the lowlands. Kukui will not grow as well in the chilly air of Olinda.
• Jacaranda with its brilliant lavender crowns of (usually) spring blooming blossoms is all over upcountry Maui and Hawai'i Island. It is invasive and weedy in some higher elevations. It is a very pretty and striking tree and nice in a shared landscape view. It is not a super-rapid grower.
Advertiser library photo • 1997 These trees can grow to 50 feet tall. Crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia speciosa) have broad crowns and big heads of large deep purple blossoms. Some neighborhoods have them as street trees in Kaneohe, Kahalu'u and Mililani Mauka. You can see some of the different species in the parking lot at Foster Botanic Garden and at Ho'omaluhia.
• There is also a smaller crape myrtle, the queen flower (L. indica) that grows to about 15 feet with flowers that can range from white to purple to deep burgundy.
• Koa would probably grow pretty rapidly if you watered them well. You also will need to protect them from chomping and stomping alien goats that sometimes invade area gardens. • This is also an ideal elevation for that great and underused Hawaiian tree the manele or Hawaiian soapberry. • Lychee also would be a nice tree. The flowers are small but the fruits are nice and big and red and 'ono and give that attractive look to the viewer for several months. Lychee trees like rich organic soil, winter rains or supplemental moisture, and cool winter temperatures to bloom, so you will get some fruit in the summer.
Trees in a garden are an investment in the future. With time and good care, they become priceless.
Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant. Submit questions at islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com or Island Life, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Letters may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.
• Giant crape myrtle likes higher elevations and if well cared for — rich organic soil, regular watering and some wind protection at first — it should grow well.
Crape myrtles grow to between 15 and 30 feet, depending on the species you choose.
