Wild Florals with a Maximust

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By Heidi Bornhorst

Ren MacDonald-Balasia of RENKO did a Floral demo with the GCH on Wed March 13, 2024.  

She likes to use wild, weird and foraged florals, and rare, strange fruit from gardens or Chinatown.

RENKO Floral dragon

This was such an inspiration!  We can all gather florals and foliage from our own gardens, from friends and even from wild weeds.  Weeds can be beautiful.

We don’t have to import florals. Imported materials have a Carbon footprint big time. They also can be the source of harmful alien pests and diseases.

Many imported florals (e.g. roses without perfume) can last a long time, yet they are substantially dosed with chemical poisons insecticides and fungicides.  Since they are not a food crop, they are not heavily regulated. 

Some countries which grow imported florals don’t have the chemical safety regulations that we do, and this poisons the growers and us the consumers.

Read the Book Floral Confidential, if you really want to be informed (and Scared!) by this overuse of toxic chemicals.

And as we say: Buy Local!  Or even better, Forage Locally.  Glean from Local gardens.

The Floral event was at the Halekulani, and I invited my siter Mimi Bornhorst Gaddis.  

As we were getting ready to go, my honey Clark Leavitt said, ‘set me up with a lei needle?’

He had gone on the roof and foraged for pua keni keni.  So romantic. Our anniversary was the day before and he took his nephew Mark to lunch at Kailua Nico’s.

Mimi and I used the valet service at the Halekulani and walked through the flower filled lobby.  

Two women were sitting in an alcove stringing Blue jade lei. “Wow kewl Blue jade!’ I remarked as we walked by (it turned out that these women were our speaker and her helper!)

We went to check in at the Garden Club desk, and as there was no usual flowers on second floor lobby, we walked around. 

There was a woman sitting on a bench. Mimi and I introduced out selves and I gave her a tiare li`I li`i.

Her name was Pam and turns out she’s Ren’s mother, just home to care for her 97-year-oldmother who was a journalist for the star Bulletin.

The first AJA writer in Hawaii!  

Soon the floral fun begins.  

The first arrangement is in a wide tall bowl. She puts in what she called sea tamarind. We were in back and it was hard to see but I’m thinking that doesn’t look like tamarind.  I kept trying to figure out what the orange bouncy floral might be. (Turnsout Harpulia, a common street tree in the Lychee family, Sapindaceae.

sterculia Mexican creeper lei Ohai Ali`i Harpulia AKA sea tamarind

She anchors the branches into folded up chicken wire set in the bowl.  (Oasis is environmentally out.  Mimi and I both have some stashed, just in case)

She then added Sterculia, Skunk tree pods, these are heavy and help to weight the other materials down. 

Ixora is added. We got these at a gas station, Ren remarks.

Mexican creeper, which used to grow in our Makiki garden is draped all around. She calls it coral vine.  

Bombax or shaving brush tree flowers like big puffs of pink added to the flora mix, next the lei she bought at Cindy’s Lei in Chinatown are added, ohai alii and a golden hala.  She cuts and drapes and winds them into the arrangement.

Blue jade lei were added and draped over the arrangement. Such a lovely seasonal Spring beauty from Hawaii gardens!

blue jade and tita Mimi

She scouted for wonderful and strange fruit in Chinatown markets: 

Fruiting Clusters of Longan, rambutan and Salak palm.  Mimi said that they call it SALAT in SE Asia and it’s really ono.  Pretty and scaly in an arrangement. 

She had some nice blooming orchid plants that she bought from Kawamoto orchids in Palolo Valley.  We kind of gasped when she cut the floral stems and put them in the arrangement.  (they would last for a month or more on the plant). But this is what florists do for that wonderful Ephemeral special occasion. 

CONSERVATION: instead of imported, chemically laden treated florals these were gathered in gardens in wild places and in local lei shops.

Such a good message we can get so much from our own Hawaii GARDENS!

Should we use the REAL name of Poinsettias? CUETLAXOCHITL

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By Heidi Bornhorst

The first time I saw the real native name, I went no, WAY too hard to say!  But learning to spell Latin names is not that much easier. So maybe we should practice using the real name.

Break it down and it’s easier to say.  Write it and your brain will remember it.

It is pronounced: Kwet La sho Chel

Sing it! Let’s try and remember and use it.

Just like we respectfully use, and properly pronounce ohelo Hawai’i words, we probably shouldlearn to use the real name.

Not only is it a seasonal festive plant for us (and a big production for our nursery growers), starting in Hawaii about June with little plugs, it is a very special and significant plant in its native Mexico and Central America.

Red is original color, and many new variations now exist. I like the new colors for their novelty, but the rich red is so seasonal and joyous.

In Mexico they were symbolic and were also used for medicine (A special recipe induced breast milk). they are not as poisonous as some rumors suggest. Red and purple fabric dyes come from the colorful. bracts.

The “flowers” we see so brightly are actually bracts, modified leaves. The true flowers are yellow and green and are nestled in the center of the bracts.

For the past few years, I have been buying them from the UH Manoa Horticulture club, to help support and encourage students in the fine art of intensely growing and studying plants.

I love going up to Manoa to buy them and then sharing this growing gift with family, friends, and neighbors.

We also have the old-fashioned hedge type of Cuetlaxochitl in some Hawaii gardens. They are becoming a more rare plant to see. In Foster Village, where my husband grew up, we’d love to see all the pretty tall plants growing in gardens as we drove out to visit his folks. A particular house had green walls and it was so striking to see the plants growing there.

If you see one like this, you might ask the gardener for a cutting to grow. This is not among varieties growers produce today. This hedge type one is more of a perennial and will grow and bloom every year.

Who remembers the old hedge that the Board of Water supply grew along the Pali Highway in Nuuanu?

For many of us this was the true sign of the season.

​These seasonal flowers can last for months if you treat them right. They like light but not baking sunlight. Water them about once a week. Take off any decorative foil. Fill the pot with water and let it drain all the way out. Then put it back with your other Holiday decorations. They may last and stay red all the way to April!

An old gardener trick is to trim them back in the A months, April, and August. This holds true more for the hedge type.

Although I keep them alive a full year, these newer cultivars don’t look great. Nurseries use all kinds of special fertilizer and lighting to get them looking so pretty and perfect.

Poinsettias and Holiday Décor

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By Heidi Bornhorst

DÉCOR! Brightens up a gloomy rainy day. Lights, trees, poinsettias it’s as simple or as complex as you want to make it.

Decorating with, and gifting plants and flowers is fun for gardeners and the plant lovers on our lists. I started looking around my garden for what I can give to whom and totally “Shop Local”. I Love to check out local garden shops for living plant gifts.

POINSETTIAS can last a long time in a pot if you water them correctly.  Once a week carry the pot to the sink (take off the foil) run water and soak the planting media, let it drain and then put it back in its decorative spot.

If you have the old fashioned hedge type Poinsettia growing outside KEEP it! Grow it, and share it, so can perpetuate this kama’aina classic. These are different from the ones the nurseries grow today.

WHITE POINSETTIEA or Euphorbia leucocephala is another outdoor hedge plant that is gorgeous and fragrant! It has many fun common names like Snow on the mountain, Puno puno, Flor de Nino, White-laced Euphorbia, Snowflake Euphorbia, Pascuita, Snows of Kilimanjaro, and Little Christmas Flower. Sometimes you can find this in pots as well, but it really is most glorious grown in the ground.

LIPSTICK PLANT OR ACHIOTE this old fashioned kama’aina favorite comes in at least three colors: red, super bright red (my fave) and yellow.  The fuzzy pods are attractive when fairly young and they keep well as a cut flower arrangement.  The more mature ones are good in a dry arrangement, and most fun of all are the red coated seeds.  You can make achiote oil for making true Spanish rice and other gourmet treats. Rather than red food coloring or other dyes, grow and use the real thing.  Easy to grow from seeds, cuttings or buy a plant at your favorite nursery.  You can see all of the colors at Ho’omaluhia Botanic Garden; they grown on the trail heading down to the lake, Waimaluhia, from the visitors’ center.

KALAMANSI AND TANGERINES both fruit at this time of year and the trees are so pretty and festive.  I especially love kalamansi for smaller gardens and for versatility in cooking, from drinks, to fish marinades to that special acidic citric touch in salad dressings.

NORFOLK or Cook pines can be grown in pots or in your yard. They don’t smell like the mainland ones but they don’t risk importing any new noxious alien pests either and you can get them for free. They also stay green for months and you can treat them like a houseplant for months (if you like!) and as my Mom says, “No needles on the floor!”

Orchids are so decorative and make the best gifts. Water them like you do Poinsettias.

Happy Holidays!

Dragon Fruit

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By Heidi Bornhorst

Q: Heidi when did dragon fruit come to us here in Hawaii?  Seems kinda recent to me but one of my gardening writing friends tells me its been here since the late 1800s.

Pls inform

Mahalo

KD, Kahala

A: Like you, I think it’s recent. I know night blooming cereus, a relative of dragon fruit, has been here for a long time and has an interesting survival at sea/ revival by Horticulture story. So, I did some digging.

Ken Love, one of my go to Fruit experts, informs me that yes, it’s a recent arrival to our shores and gardens.

Love says that Greg Adams brought them from Vietnam in the late 60s or early 70s. Since then others have introduced cultivars from places like Israel.

They are native to Mexico and Central America where we get the common name pitaya. Now widely grown by masterful Horticulturists and entrepreneurial Farmers in Thailand and Vietnam, we are seeing more in Hawaii home gardens and fruit markets.

There are some reports of it getting here early, maybe by that epic plantsman and translator for Alii, Don Francisco de Paula Marin. He brought us our first mango, grapes and Yellow Plumeria, among many other wonderful plants that now enhance our Hawaii gardens.

I think the red fleshed one is gorgeous especially in a mixed fruit platter. To me the white one is more ono but less colorful and pretty. I’m still waiting to try the yellow fruited one.

Scientists call it Hylocereus.  H. undatas is the white fleshed one, H. roja is the red fruited one and H. amarilla has yellow flesh. All are in the Cactus family, Cactaceae.

They are fun to grow if you don’t mind thorns.  The stalks are heavy and need support on a sturdy trellis or fence.  You get more fruit if you hand pollinate.

We always wonder how nutritious our Hawaii grown fruit are and dragon fruit has some great nutrients.  It is high in lycopene, as are tomatoes and watermelon. It’s a good source of calcium and iron.

Night-blooming cereus or panini o ka Punahou is a kind of cactus. The most famous planting of it in Hawaii is on the rock wall surrounding Punahou School in Makiki.

Night-blooming cereus

The plant, Hylocereus undatus, is from Mexico, where it is called pitahaya. It first landed in Hawaii around 1830 on the brig Ivanhoe, which was carrying plants collected in Mexico. Most of them died and were tossed overboard, and the nearly dead, dried-out cereus cutting looked like a goner, but First Officer Charles Brewer took care of it on the long voyage and planted it in Honolulu.

Dr. Richard Criley of UH Manoa, has been monitoring the night blooming cereus flowering cycles at Punahou school, for about 20 years, and sometimes sees fruit.  Maybe young scientists are hand pollinating them. He contends that hand pollination is needed for them to set fruit here in Hawaii.

They set fruit in Mexico where they are naturally bat pollinated. Our native bats are insect eaters and they are rare.

Its thorny stems send out aerial roots from the nodes or sections of stem. You can grow it from cuttings but watch out. It looks innocent at first but as it grows it can take over your rock wall, climb up slopes or trees, or even up your utility poles and lines.

(This happened at my parents’ home and they were without a phone for three weeks! I told my mom to keep it in a pot, but she is too kindhearted and said, “It looked so cute and helpless in the pot.”)

Gardenias: Blooming in May in Hawai’i Gardens

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by Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst

Q: my Gardenias are blooming a lot right now! I even put some of the dead brown flowers back around the plant, like mulch.

That’s the right thing to do, right Heidi?

Mahalo Debbie Azama Park

(Our fave Yoga teacher)

A; Brief answer: the spent flowers are good for mulch if they are pest free. Leafy mulch is also greatly beneficial for Gardenias.

Gardenias are called KIELE in Hawaiian.

They came to us from tropical China. The scientific name is Gardenia chinensis. They are in the RUBIACEAE plant family.

Did you know that there are over 200 species of Gardenias in the world?

Gardenias are easy to grow and bloom if you follow a few basics:

• Grow them in full sun.

• Pick every flower.

• Use soapy water to control ants and other insect pests.

• Cut long stems with blossoms if your plant is tall and flourishing!

• Cut the stems in the right place!

• Water!

• Shoot the undersides of the leaves to rinse off pests.

• Foliar fertilizer

• MirAcid 

The more sun the better, for Gardenias and most flowering plants. Study your sun and shade patterns and try to find the sunniest spot. Wind is good too. Air circulation helps get CO2 to the leaves of the plants and helps reduce insect pests.

You will have way fewer pest insects: thrips, aphids, scale, if you pick every blossom, look for a swirl of white on the green fat kiele bud, that’s the time to get your clippers and cut the bud and some stem.

Put that bud with stem, right into a vase of cool water.

If you see any pests on the buds or flowers, rinse them gently at the sink. If the pests are stubborn or plentiful, squirt some dish soap (1-2 drops) in some water and swirl it around, rinse off the pests.

Soapy water for the plant pests outside one tablespoon per gallon.

You can use a pump sprayer or handheld spray bottle. Spray the soapy solution onto the leaves and young stems, get the undersides of leaves, as that is often where the pests seek shelter and hide.

Leave the soap to sit on the leaves for at least an hour.

You can then rinse the leaves and shoot off the now smothered and dead pests and rinse the sooty mold off of the leaves.  Or you can just leave the soapy residue on the plants.

If you really want clean shiny Gardenia leaves, take a soft rag, dip that in the soapy solution and rub off the sooty mold and any insects or their eggs.

Watering and rinsing, like a strong windy rainstorm would do, is a great way to keep your plants healthy and pest free.

Observing while watering is also good; look for any buds coming along, and think about the best place to cut the stem to enjoy the blooms (and Fragrance!) inside your home.

GARDENIA Basics: THEY LIKE RICH, ACID SOIL, RED DIRT MIXED WITH GOOD LEAFY COMPOST. DIG OUT THE GRASS AND TOPDRESS WITH GOOD SOIL, MAKE AN EDGE TO THE PLANTER BED LIKE FLUSH BRICKS OR STONE, AND THEN JUST MOW AROUND THE BIG EDGE. KEEP THE GARDENIAS WEED FREE.No grass next to the stem.

Make a good soil zone area for the Gardenia roots with no competition from turf grass.

Gardenias also will bloom more if you fertilize with MirAcid. It’s the miracle gro in a blue box. If you fertilize with this each time you water, or at least a month or two before the main blooming season in May in Hawaii, you will get lots of lovely gardenia blossoms.

 

What will Wild West winds bring? More flowers and fruit?

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By Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst

We had such a weird windstorm with those super strong and gusty west winds! So different then normal.

Up in our valley we lost power twice to the wind and HECO did not restore power until 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday 3/8/2023.

Mangoes and avocados were full of blossoms, Honohono orchids were in bud and some in bloom.

My Portuguese Madeira roses, and native Hawaiian gardenia Na`u have been blooming well, loving the cool and rainy winter were are finally having.

As I clean up the storm debris, (Mahalo for nature’s Arboriculture) including blown down dead twigs and branches, and lots of leaves, some I notice are from my mauka neighbors.

One of the tenets of true Horticulture is to OBSERVE nature and plants, to track the moon, winds, rain and other weather phenomena as see how the plants respond.

I am still reflecting on how the plants would respond.

What do you see? How are your plants after the winds?

Did you have any big tree failures? Or just small or dead branches?

The leaves are whipped on my gingers, Surinam cherries, mulberries, and ohia shed a few flowering branches. A young popolo plant got totally blasted on one side, it was just coming into fruit.

So, we shall see!

Honohono orchids had been in full glorious fragrant bloom as they budded and bloomed early this year. Originally I thought the orchids stood the wind storm but after a few days those in the main wind tunnel area of my garden wilted and withered prematurely.

Went to a neighborhood watch potluck pa`ina and a nice lady, Lokelani, that I always say hi to on my walks was there, with a gorgeous papale lauhala. She admired my honohono and said she caught a whiff of fragrance, from way across the yard, and she looked for the source of this favorite old time Hawaii fragrance, and from where? My hair!

Since she admired the orchids, I had to give them to her, along with maire ferns!

Now a couple weeks after the winds, I’m observing some of my favorite flowers and fruit trees in my garden and neighborhood:

• ‘Ohi’a lehua  Blooming profusely, some dead wood branches and twigs broke in the winds

• Native White Hibiscus wind whipped leaves, a few blooms at the very top of the tree

• Tahitian mountain apples were blooming before, still many flowers and now small fruit.

• Gardenias surprise early blooms two on one stem, but no other apparent buds yet. (they usually bloom for me in May).

• Na`u, native Hawaiian Gardenia lots of flowers and buds (also triggered by abundant soft rains before the winds)

• Madeira roses Blooming profusely.

• Mangoes my Friend Dawn Shim from Makakilo brought me a gift of Haden mangoes, super early for this to fruit.

• Mulberries wind whipped leaves, lots of young fruit

• Pua Keni keni usually Bloom less in winter, BUT after the storm mine are full of Buds, flowers and lots of developing green “ball” fruit.  I made some lei for a fundraiser, and plucked and cut off all the young fruit, to encourage more blooms from the tree 

What are YOU observing, in your garden in your unique microclimate? I would love to hear back from my Gardening Readers …..

Helpful ideas for weed eradication and creative ways to reuse erosion debris

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By Heidi Bornhorst

I asked my friend and great Gardener, Mari who lives Mauka of Sunset beach how bad the shoreline erosion was, and can she access her beach?

NO, she said sadly, It’s still blocked off and there is a steep Cliff, and dangerous drop off, it is too dangerous to walk down to Sunset Beach or Kammieland.  

Plus, she continues, there’s so much beach litter and trash everywhere that are a result of “temporary” sandbag burritos and black saran shade cloth.

Along with the liter there are multiple safety issues including rebar, concrete and other structural debris from coastal houses. These houses are now too close to our North shore surf swells, breaking waves and high tides.

BUT, says Mari, there is one upside to this trash and mis-use of our public beach.

My friends and I gather up the black matting erosion control debris that is floating in the ocean. (And yes, its very heavy when waterlogged).

What do you do with it then? We dry it out and SOLARIZE a most hated weed.  You know that Asparagus pokey groundcover? Or sometimes called Asparagus Fern?

Asparagus “fern” is not a fern,  Asparagus sprengeri is actually in the Lily family and is related ot our edible asparagus. It is very pokey, and if it pokes your bare gloveless hands, it’s kind of toxic.

I used to favor it for landscaping because it is extremely tough, xeric, and a good ground cover in a dry neglected garden.

But as a maintenance gardener I HATE it! Its pokey and the pokes from the minute thorns on the stems, can get infected. (remember to put on your garden gloves!) It has underground storage tubers, like little potatoes that make it a drought tolerant survivor plant and also Supremely difficult to eradicate.

You can dig and dig it out, but if one small tuber is left behind, Auwe!  It will all sprout up again.

And it has RED FRUIT, with several black seeds inside.  Birds love to find and eat red fruit and then they poop out the seeds everywhere.

AN ALL AROUND PESTY PLANT !!

We were talking about the wave erosion, high tides and overly heated water, and global warming change to north shore  and illegals things people are doing..

How’s about the guy pouring concrete and rebar on the beach?  Didn’t someone see it and report the Concrete Company?! Really unfortunate and unsafe issues here. Something needs to be done to save our beaches and Kai for everyone. Hard to watch.

Though there are many things we cannot control, the reuse of this beach trash to help eliminate a weedy plant in the garden, this is AKAMAI!

SOLARAZATION is a great way to control weeds without using dangerous chemical herbicides.

Often we use layers of wet newspaper, cardboard or even carpet to smother and solarize weeds, and turf grass where we don’t want it etc. Then after the weeds are safely killed, you can peel them away, restore the soil, and plant useful plants in place of alien weeds.

The black saran or shade cloth which some use as weed controlling ground cover, or in this case to slow down the power of wave erosion, can be used to solarize and kill weeds in our gardens.

This a beach clean up with a purpose!

Mahalo to Mari and her North shore friends who help clean our beaches and then grow good productive gardens.

Arbor Day 2022, Brachychiton acerifolium, Illawarra Flame Trees

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By Heid Bornhorst

Heidibornhorst.blog

After three years of lockdown, we are finally, Happily, able to celebrate Arbor Day in Kapi`olani Park once again.

On Saturday November 19, 2022, we will gather with ScenicHawaii, Inc., Kapi`olani Park Preservation society, some Dedicated City tree workers and Arborists, Volunteers, and all of us who love and cherish trees and our Park.

We will be planting and ceremonially mulching four new trees courtesy of the Division of UrbanForestry led by Certified Arborist Brandon Au and DUF/ City and County of Honolulu Parks Department.

Citizen Forester Emily Perry will be representing our busy parks director Laura Thielen.

The trees are drought tolerant and are native to coastal subtropical forests of Australia.

The common name is FLAME Tree, or Illawarra Flame tree. Also called the lacebark tree.

One thing our mentor Paul Weissich, Director Emeritus of the Honolulu BotanicalGardens taught us, is to look beyond flowers when you view trees.

What does the bark look like? How is the truck shaped? What is the growth pattern? What kind of shade pattern does it adorn the ground with? What are the leaves like? Are they good for mulch and soil nurturing? For Keiki art projects?

As we Arborists say, “Touch trees”. Place your hand on the trunk and look UP! What do you see, in the Tree Canopy? I love doing this with keiki of all ages!

When we plant a tree, we are investing in, and finding out about the future. This small tree, grown from a tiny seed and planted today. What will it grow into in the Future?

We can read about the size and growth habits in a book, but how big will it really get here in Hawaii? Will it grow big and strong with proper nurturing and akami tree maintenance?

Will it withstand the abuse that trees sometimes take in public park spaces? Will most people be happy and respect the growing young trees? We sure hope so! Trees ensure a healthy, happy future for all of us.

Known in Scientific Latin as Brachychitonacerifolium, the Illawarra Flame trees are in the Sterculiaceae plant family.

We don’t have many of these trees in Hawaii.  A few grow at Foster and Ho’omaluhia Botanical gardens. These were grown from seed by the Horticulturist and Plant propagators at Foster Botanical Garden.

They are particularly striking when in bloom,with bright red orange or scarlet flowers. The flowers look like a hanging red bell when viewed from the side. If you look directly at them, they look like stars.

The leaves are shaped like a kukui leaf, or a mainland maple tree leaf.  This is what the species name acerifolium means.  Acer is the Latin name for Maple, and folium as you might guess is referring to the foliage or leaves, maple shaped leaves.

The trees will grow up and into a pyramid shapewith a tall, greenish grey, smooth round shapedtrunk. In time they can grow up to about 100feet tall (30 – 35 meters). They are a popular street tree in Australia and around the subtropical world.

The seeds of Brachychiton species are edible. But like many plants in the sterculia family they have irritating hairs, which must be removed or carefully removed to get to the edible seeds. Native Australians ate them raw or roasted. They are nutritious, containing 18% protein and 25% fat with high levels of zinc and magnesium.

There are uses for this tree in its native Australia. Fiber is made from the bark and a kind of gum can be extracted. The wood is soft but dries hard. Shingles, among other things, are made from the wood. The roots of young trees are edible, but let’s not do this in our park!

A related tree, Brachychiton rupestris is called the bottle tree.  It grows a big fat water retaining trunk over time, somewhat like the Baobab tree from Africa.

Mahalo to Wikipedia for some of this info, I also referred to our old standard book: In Gardens of Hawaii, by Marie C. Neal.