Tag: native plants

`Ohi`a `ai (mountain apple) pickles

Leave a comment

`Ohi`a `ai (mountain apple) and a fun pickle recipe

By Heidi Bornhorst

After the flooding rains and wild winds of 2026, I was curious to see how plants and trees, flowers and fruit would respond.

We have a neighbor who has a fabulous Tahitian mountain apple tree in her garden.  Over the years I have helped prune, oversee a big crown reduction pruning and helped her (and former owner Cindie) rake up many many fallen fruits (makes great compost) or an overloaded dripping green trash bin!

This year I watched buds and flower form, and fruit ripen.  Now I have been going up to pick and help her again in her garden (drainage issues from the flood)

I Love picking these jewel like fruit.  It’s a good upper arm workout, with the picker.  You see a gorgeous red plump one, wiggle the picker up to it, carefully, so as not to dislodge the unripe neighbors.  The best ones have a bird peck in them; I just rinse well and cut out the bird bites. 

With an abundance of Tahitian mountain apples, this short season ephemeral fresh fruit that you can’t freeze like mangoes, what to do?

Hawaii people are funny about `Ohi`a `ai or mountain apples.  Some Love them, especially this giant pretty variety, and some politely say no thank you.

These days we are joyous to accept mango and lychee, avocado and `ulu even to the point of buying them! (And as soon as you do spend money on them, guarans, somebody is going to gift you with a whole bag of same fruit or produce from their garden or farm!)

But mountain apples, not so much.  

Some do not like them; some must have raked up too many fallen ones as a kid or something!

I tell them they are rich in vitamin C, and supply dietary fiber, as well as vitamin A and C and Calcium… freshly picked, rinsed and chilled, so crisp and refreshing, etc., but only a few takers among my neighbors and friends.

Mountain apples are a natural source of hydration – perfect for hot summer days!  Or enjoyed down at the beach. 

My niece Jalene was visiting and found an article about them, which included 2 recipes, one for pickles and one for apple sauce with ginger.

Both sound ono and not too complex.  My friend and Farmer on Hawaii island, Deborah Ward makes `ohi`a `ai PIE.

Jalene and I harvested several bags, came home, cleaned, and ate some.  

Then we decided to make pickles:

1. Wash well in cool water.

2. Slice thinly

3. Marinated in clean jars:

Ingredients

• White vinegar

• Braggs apple cider vinegar

• Finely chopped garlic

• 2 chili peppers, Ni`oi, chopped.

• Pa`akai Hawaiian salt

• Brown sugar

Mix well, cap jars and refrigerate.

The chili peppers have been in a bag in my freezer, a gift from Surfing Budley, Colleen Kudo.  The salt from Kalaupapa where my friends Mari Zane; and Ben and Ellie Lum volunteer.

The brown sugar I bought at Longs a while ago, when the last sugar plantation closed on Maui, thought I had better stock up on real Hawaiian sugar while it lasted.  I don’t cook with sugar much, usually.

This came out pretty ono and very lovely to look at in the jar. They will be gifts and side dishes for our Fourth of July pa`ina with our Gourmet hiking buddies.

Mountain apples or `ohi`a `ai (the `ohi`a that you `ai or eat) are related to `ohi`a lehua, both are in the Myrtaceae plant family. They are a Polynesian introduction or canoe plant. Some call it ‘Malay apple’ as it is native to the Malay peninsula, and nearby areas, but long spread around by fruit eating and planting people. 

Brought not only for the fruit but also for medicine and for beauty. As my mom says the prettiest stage to her, is in flower and the magenta blossoms on the tree and reflected up from the ground below, from masses of fallen stamens.

Syzygium malaccense is the Latin name that scientists use.  The typical Hawaiian variety is kind of fat and round. There are also white fruited varieties.  The ‘Tahitian’ is long and becomes deep red when ripe.  

This is not a common variety these days, so I’ve been carefully saving seeds from the biggest, nicest ones to share and plant.

We all need to plant more trees and cool our islands and ourselves.  Why not plant a nice Tahitian Mountain apple tree?!

Naupaka

Leave a comment

By Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst

Naupaka is such a simple and elegant native Hawaiian plant to grow in beach gardens, xeriscapes, and to nurture in the wild.

It makes a great hedge, or specimen plant.  It protects our coast and holds onto the sand.  You can also grow it in large pots.  

Naupaka is a less thirsty plant, perfect for your xeriscape garden. It is also salt and wind tolerant.

Grow it from seeds or cuttings or buy some potted ones and support your favorite local nursery.

Strategic landscape designed naupaka hedges can protect beach homes from the strong ehukai, salty winds. 

It is beautiful with its soft green leaves and half flowers which are white with a hint of purple. White fruit follow the flowers.

Beach Naupaka, Naupaka kahakai is known as Scaevola taccada to scientists.

It is an indigenous Hawaiian plant, which means it got here on its own, but it grows in other tropical areas too.

We also have native endemic species of Scaevola, Naupaka kuahiwi that inhabit our uplands. They too have a half flower, which features in Hawaiian love legends. 

It is the easiest plant to care for if we keep it simple:

• Minimal water once established.

• No fertilizer.

• Keep turf grass away from the root zone.

• Minimal trimming, and only by hand.

As with many of our native Hawaiian plants, modern ‘mow blow and go’ landscape techniques do not agree with naupaka.

The worst is gas powered hedge trimmers, this will mutilate naupaka. Do minimal trimming and shaping with hand clippers or loppers.

Do not TOP naupaka.  Prune carefully, and minimally and only when you are in a good mood. 

​Topping is where you mindlessly cut trees or plants.

The new growth is soft, and the older branches are very woody and tough.  

Power equipment trimming shakes up the roots and then makes the branches grow too dense, making habitat for insect and disease pests.

Turf grass should be physically separated from the Naupaka planting area.  Use a nice stone, coral, or brick edging to keep grass and naupaka separated.

Hand weed out any invading grass. Grass will compete and rob water, nutrients, light and space from the naupaka.

An edge also makes it easier to mow the lawn.

Thoughtful Landscape design and old fashioned garden maintenance will help you keep your naupaka thriving and Beautiful, as nature designed.

Miniature Forest Revolution

Leave a comment

The Miyawaki method

By Heidi Bornhorst

Koa trees, Loulu palms, mulch dishes Ho`omaluhia

Aloha Hawai`i Gardeners: are we ready to plant and nurture a miniature forest Revolution?

I have wanted to learn about the Miyawaki method for a while. Thanks to generous friends: Chirstine and Pokey, I got my hands on one of the books about the Miyawaki miniature forest method, and plunged in.

The book I just read is called, “Miniature Forest Revolution”, by Hannah Lewis. 

Developed in Japan and now spread around the world this is a new and akamai way of forest restoration.

Dr Akira Miyawaki was a Botanist, ecologist, and researcher. He networked with others in Japan and around the world to plant mini climax forests and nurture them. 

I have advocated for years, to simply plant a tree, nurture a garden, keep one plant alive, Volunteer at a garden.  Go hiking, learn about our Hawaiian forest. Nurture our Hawaiian forests and learn more. 

Learn about and nurture our living soils.

This is a new way to do it and is very inspiring.

Trees and forests really do heal our land. Compost really does work. Watersheds can be restored by the forest. Healthy forests of multi layers cover the soil and nourish it. 

Koa tree and Uluhe ferns

With plants covering soil and adding their leaves to the living soil mix, we have less runoff when it rains.

We like to keep soil alive and where it belongs: on Land

When soil washes into the ocean after heavy rains we have fresh water killing the reef and silt and mud smothering the reef, clouding the water and adversely affecting fish, honu and all the saltwater living life forms.

Healthy forests funnel rainwater down into the ground enhancing our water sources. 

There are so many benefits. 

To follow the Miyawaki method you get rid of grass and weeds and plant climax species really close together like how they occur in nature. 

(Koa and `Ohi`a lehua trees are two Climax species that we do now know how to nurture and grow)

Soil preparation is key. Get rid of weeds and grass and mix in compost. Lots of compost and organic matter gets incorporated into the original soil. Drainage is also very important. 

Adding mycorrhizae or native soil from a healthy forest area might be advisable.

Soil tests help determine what soil type and fertility you have. 

After all this planning and preparation, the fun begins: Planting the forest.

The plant mix is trees, shrubs, ferns and ground covers, throw in some vines. A different plant mix would be suitable for various soil types, rainfall amounts and elevation. We have so many microclimates and soil types in Hawai`i.

Elevation is a very important consideration for growing native Hawaiian plants.   

For example, Koa seeds collected at 5000 feet on the richly soiled flanks of Mauna loa, would probably not thrive in Kapi’olani park.   It is partly soil (they do not like sandy salty soil), but even more it’s elevation. Cool night temperatures and other factors 

Often lowland plants can grow at higher elevations, but high elevation plants struggle and lower, hotter elevations. 

For the first few years you tend the forest, watering, and weeding. The book says you do this for three years. Maybe in Hawaii we need to tend to it longer with watering and weeding and adding to the mulch beds.

Then it can basically care for itself but it’s still good to do some nurturing. 

That is what horticulture is: Close monitoring, observation, and careful tending of your plants.

Like in a natural forest, leave the leaves. They nurture the soil.

Rachel admires koa tree

ASHS coming to Honolulu!

Leave a comment

By Heidi Bornhorst 

Heidi Bornhorst Keynote Speaker

A prestigious Horticulture group is coming to Hawaii for a weeklong conference.

The American Society for Horticulture Science will be here on Oahu for a week long conference beginning Monday September 23, 2024, closing on Friday September 27.

Over one thousand attendees are signed up and registration is still open. (1067) at last count.

This is great for Hawaii gardeners, Horticulturists, Botanists, and plant scientists.

The conference will be held at the Hilton HawaiianVillage hotel, right on the beach in beautiful Waikiki.

Renowned for its extensive gardens, featuring many native Hawaiian plants, along with canoe plants and tropical exotics, it is a great venue for these plant loving scientists to enjoy.

The Hilton is also right next to the Hale Koa Hotel (where I served for over 10 years as Landscape Director).

The extensive landscaped grounds of the Hale Koa were designed as a botanical garden and the plantings there are very impressive and worth a stroll.

There are many wonderful gardens in Waikiki, amidst all of the hotels and high-rises.

I was very honored to be invited to be the keynote speaker for this conference and I plan to be talking about my favorite: Growing native Hawaiian plants.

There are over one thousand native Hawaiian plant species, and we now are growing about 100 of these Hawaiian plant species. We can grow more!

We have 1367 native Hawaiian plant species. Over 90% of them are endemic, meaning they only grow naturally here in Hawaii. About 9% of them are extinct, and many are rare and endangered.

Some are common and easy to grow, and we see them all around. Examples are: Hala, beach naupaka, `ilima, Hapu`u or Hawaiian tree ferns, and Kou and Milo trees.

Other native plants are less common in our gardens and landscape, but horticulturists are working to change that.

​My friend, Dr. Mike Opgenorth, who is the Director of Kahanu Botanic Garden in Hana, Maui will be speaking on Thursday about his PhD work on our endangered native Hawaiian Gardenias 

Many more students and graduate student at the U.H. are studying how to grow and perpetuate native Hawaiian plants.

The landscape or “Green industry” here in Hawaii is doing the groundwork with native plants.

Home gardens now feature native Hawaiian plants especially those loved by lei makers such as `Ohi`a lehua, `ilima, Palapalai and Pala`a ferns, and our native fragrant Hawaiian white Hibiscus, Koki`o ke`o ke`o.

Our public parks and urban forests are growing more native plants too.

Let’s learn and grow more, let’s perpetuate our native Hawaiian plants together.

https://ashs.org/page/ASHSAnnualConference

Variegated Hala tree. Pandanus. Growing happily at the Hale Koa hotel.

Wild Florals with a Maximust

Leave a comment

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!

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

Leave a comment

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 …..

Leave a comment

Nutrition of Mountain Apples

By Heidi Bornhorst

Local Hawaii people are so Funny!

Nowadays people go nuts for Mangos and lychee and `ULU.

Even to far as buying them in the store!

Don’t you all think we should have some fruit trees in our gardens? And share with friends and neighbors? Let’s plant and grow some fruits today!

As kids, mangoes were like stray kittens, people would beg you to take them! We got jobs raking up the fallen smashed ones from super tall trees for elderly neighbors.

I could never get enough lychee even tho the trees were abundant in Makiki where I grew up. Lychee enticed me to move to Wahiawa where we had two lychee trees and then planted a third.

When you offer people mountain apples or `ohi`a `ai some are enthusiastic, some will help you pick and rake up and some meet the offer with distain.

Funny.

Nutritionally they are great; lots of hydration for your body, and rich in vitamins C, Calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and super rich in potassium.

Also known as `Ohi`a `ai, the `ohi`a that you eat (`Ai) they were carried here by ancient Polynesians in their sailing canoes, an important part of our “imported” landscapes and gardens.

What a gorgeous gift to find when hiking the low moist forests. This fruit will keep you hydrated on your hike!

And you can bring home a seed and grow it to commemorate that special hike. Surprise and share with your hiking buddies at the next festive occasion.

They are nice to grow in our gardens too. A small to medium tree with pretty leaves and bark most of the year and then BOOM! in flower so pretty magenta pom poms

A month or two later you will have that juicy ono fruit. Like jewels up in the tree canopy.

Besides eating them straight off the tree, you can slice and add to fruit salads.

Or as my niece Jalene found out for us, you can make pickles from them to savor for another day. 

My friend and akamai farmer Deborah Ward makes a mean mountain apple pie and you can also make mountain apple sauce.

Add some slices to your favorite cold beverage.

You can make a lei with the smaller green and white fruit.  Store the lei in the fridge and when you wear it “Fruit cooling air conditioning” !  I made one for my then boss, Sydney Iaukea at a Kupuna Hawaiian studies training session and the lei kept her cool all day.

It’s an unusual lei today.   But easy to make and fun and unusual to wear.

​The scientific name is Eugenia mallaccensis and they are in the MYRTACEAE plant family along with `Ohi`a lehua, guavas, rose apples, Eucalyptus, and more.

Some call them Malay apple as they are native to the Malay peninsula and southeast Asia.

We have different varieties in Hawaii, a pure white one, a seedless one, squat plump Hawaiian variety and long and big Tahitian variety.

Many grew naturally in the wet lowland tropics of Ho`omaluhia Botanic Garden and then we planted more in the “Kahua Kukui” Polynesian plants section of this amazing and FREE botanic garden in Kane`ohe.

They are easy and fun to grow from seeds.  Save a seed from an ono one and plant it right away.

Besides the ono fruit and attractive flowers and tree, bringing shade and birds to yoru garden, mountain apples have medicinal uses.

The bark is a sore throat cure.   If you feel a sore throat coming on or are getting a cold, scrape off some young bark, rinse it and chew it.  It has lots of tannins and this truly can help ward off a cold.

The nutritious fruit will also help keep you healthy !

WASH your plants! Uncle Griff amazing Waialua Garden

Leave a comment

By Heidi Bornhorst

Interesting to learn something new from my honey Clark, the other day, after all these years, fresh kewl stories! And about plants and gardens, my fave !!

We were out at the Uluniu beach house in Laie.  Colleen and Randy asked Clark and I about growing some plant out there.

We discussed various plants and what would grow in strong salt winds.

Clark mentioned Uncle Griff and how he grew things out in Waialua,  right on the beach. That nobody else could grow.

Or his looked and thrived better than others.

Clark said Griff’s secret was to wash the leaves.  Rinse off the salt water residue on the leaves.  Daily, lovingly.

So interesting! And to think about. Rinsing my leaves more now too. It gets bugs and eggs off

Nothing like a big rainstorm to clean the air and our plants and gardens …..

Why to rinse and bathe our plants with Fresh water (WAI)

  • Salt water has major nutrients
  • Rinsing gets wai in the stomates?
  • Rinsing cools us all
  • Washing off pests
  • And potential incipient pests

What did he grow?  Clark?

I remember a nice big lawn, with a view of the surf and beach, a better pa`ina spot than our sandy front yard with a bit of grass and a big Hau tree.

I think we have pics with Elaine, Clarks mom and Iliahi, our cutie poi dog, maybe at Griff’s house.

Hawaiian wife named …. Aunty Mary, silver hair in a flip, wore mu`u mu`u elegantly.

Last name ? Panker! We both remember at the same time.

Is Butch their son?  Or in-law? Carpenter lived in Wahiawa,  daughter swim team …

Clark would go out there and immediately trim down the Hau tree, and do other heavy yard work to help  out and hopefully get invited again.

The good yard at Crozier loop was out by the street but too hot in the day, perfect for a wedding like Rachel and Peter’s!

Rinse your Gardenias and `ohi`a lehua

We love Gardenias and so do various pests:

  • Sooty mold
  • Aphids and scales
  • Ants which spread and protect the sap suckers
  • Thrips, the little black pests in the blossoms

The “cure” for all of these Gardenia attackers? SOAP and water !  Gardenias are the one plant that I also fertilize with liquid Miracle Gro fertilizer.   (use Miracid, the one in the blue box if your soil tends to be alkaline)

Gardenias are acid loving plants, so they like our red dirt soils and leafy compost too.

When I fertilize them, I add some liquid soap to the sprayer.  Dish soap like Palmolive or Dr Bronner’s peppermint if I’m feeling rich. I spray this on the leaves and let it drip to the roots too. (if you see pests on the stems and leaves, they are probably attacking the roots too.)

After spraying wait an hour or so and you can then wipe the sooty mold off the leaves with a soft rag.  Or you can just let the soap do its job.

Rinse the leaves well the next time you water.  Dead, sap sucking pests like scale, mealy bugs and aphids will slough right off if they have been effectively smothered by the soapy water treatment.

MAY is usually when Gardenias bloom.  I had buds earlier this year, but the cool LOVELY weather of April must have delayed them.  Green buds for a long time.

Now its HOT and they are blooming gloriously.

How to have epic Gardenia blossoms:

  1. Pick them daily. (if you leave them on the plant, the pests will love you, they will have a pa`ina <party with good food> and they will multiply.
  2. Spray them, and the whole plant with water before you pick
  3. Take the buds and pua inside and rinse them
  4. If they have thrips, drip soapy water on them or dunk them in soapy water
  5. Let the bugs get smothered by the soap for a few minutes
  6. Then rinse them off
  7. Cut or pull off lower leaves
  8. Display them in Deep, cool water in a vase
  9. Change the water daily
  10.  Rinse the stems and recut the base
  11.  Put the gardenia flowers back in cool fresh water
  12. Inhale and enjoy!

Since hearing this Uncle Griff rinse your plants and gardens story I have been doing my early morning or evening watering a little differently.

I look at the plant or tree and wonder if it will benefit from a rinse.

If it’s hot I don’t mind getting a rinse myself !  I think like a gentle rainstorm, or sometimes like a rainy windy storm is needed.

I have been rinsing my `Ohi`a lehua which are full of blossoms.  I rinse the flowers and know it will benefit the birds and bees that visit and pollinate the flowers.  Bees get thirsty too! `Ohi`a are from rain-forests so the more wai the better. 

As I rinse and spray off my banana leaves, I visualize the washing away of any leaf hoppers. I also remind friends and neighbors to get rid of their clump thoroughly if it gets this disease.  It’s like getting a measles shot, it protects all of our community of banana growers.

Rinse your mock orange and Bougainvillea after a kona storm.

I learned this one while working as Honolulu Zoo Horticulturist.  I forget from who, maybe my working foreman Seiko Tamashiro, or epic Retiree and Volunteer, Tony Kim?

A nice big fat thick, and very xeric Mock orange hedge surrounded the whole zoo. Periodically we would have to trim it, and this was a big process involving the whole crew, trusted CSSP workers and scaffolds.  It took at least a week.

There was a big drought and we were forced and encouraged to save water.  I read the night logs, some of my staff worked at night as security, food prep and irrigators.  One guy Bob would turn on the sprinklers for the mock orange hedge and run them for several hours.  I told him, “Bob, you are watering the ocean!”

What?

Bob, we have sandy soil, by running those sprinklers for hours you are wasteful. So please, just about 20 minutes will be fine for the hedge!

‘OK boss whatever you say’ he said with some skepticism  (what did a 25-year-old with a nice fresh B.S. degree know, right?!!)

Well, we reduced our irrigation budget significantly and the zoo gardens were still green enough and healthier. Someone even wrote a letter to the editor about how great the grounds looked!

Mock orange is in the citrus family and it comes from driest India.  Super deep and wide spreading,  tough roots and shiny leaves help make it drought tolerant. They also come from monsoon areas so after a big rain we see fresh growth and fragrant blossoms.  This is how they would respond when the monsoon rains come to India.

Somewhere along the way in this discussion, came the fact that mock orange is sensitive to the sometimes strong salty kona winds we would get at the zoo.  When those came we deployed the sprinklers to wash all the leaves.

Same is true of Bougainvillea.  We didn’t have a lot at the zoo, but I had tons of lovely roof planters of Bougainvillea ‘Miss Manila’ at the Hale Koa hotel. These we would diligently rinse leaves after kona wind storms.