What do Hawaii gardeners love to grow the most? Based on my interactions with plant lovers, landscape clients, farmers and keiki, the top answers are fragrant flowers, native Hawaiian and medicinal plants and food crops.
And who doesn’t love to grow, receive or get a whiff of white ginger or gardenia? Who wouldn’t be happy to grow and give home-grown ulu (breadfruit), papaya, citrus or ono green vegetables to neighbors, family and friends?
Pick up some favorite, old-fashioned flowering and fragrant plants and some new offerings as well at Foster Botanical Garden’s annual plant sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Jackie Lee Ralya contacted me to help identify a very long, bizarre-looking, cucumber-like plant that sprouted from seeds in her compost heap. At first glance it seemed like a long, curly hechima favored in Okinawa and certain parts of Southeast Asia. But it was a vegetable vine called viper or snake gourd, brought here about 25 years ago via a good gardener from Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia.
It has an interesting story and is fascinating to watch as it grows. Its delicate, white flower is very lacy and pretty, though short-lived.
The vegetable can grow to 5 feet long and resembles a swollen long bean or a snake. In Yap, where they call it "tree bean," the viper gourd is found growing into trees. It is the main ingredient used for curry in India. Julienned and sauteed in butter and garlic, it tastes better than green beans. If you are looking for something unusual, this is it.
It is called Trichosanthes anguina by scientists and is in the Cucurbitaceae, or cucumber plant family.
As gardener Ralya said, "It’s a cucumbah! Sometimes called Chinese cucumber. Only God knows why, ’cause this Chinese never saw one like it."
Ralya and Mittie Kelly will be selling seeds of this interesting and ono plant on Saturday and will talk story about how and where to grow it. It needs a tall strong trellis and lots of sunshine to help it attain its full length.
The first release of a new ti or ki plant, "Weissich’s Sunrise," will be sold at the sale. It’s named after Paul Weissich, who was director of the garden for 38 years and is still a staunch volunteer and botanical garden advocate.
There will be tours of the garden or you can go on a self-guided tour. Admission is free on this special day, so it will be nice to shop, meet growers and fellow plant nuts and just wander under the shade of huge old trees, see orchids and flowering plants, visit the glass house and check out the wonderful tropicals carefully cultivated by orchidist Scot Mitamura and his epic co-workers and myriad volunteers.
A variety of fragrant plants including gardenia and jasmine, as well as native plants, ferns such as hapu‘u (tree ferns) and palapalai, lotus, air plants, orchids, heliconias, fragrant gingers, drought-tolerant succulents, cacti, ceramic planters, small-dish gardens, loose and mounted Tillandsias and bromeliads, ti plants and 30-plus varieties of anthuriums will be on sale, many of them not found in garden shops. Also look for fresh flower adornments such as lei haku, kupe‘e and combs.
Foster Botanical Garden is at 180 N. Vineyard Blvd. Call 537-1708 for information, to join the Friends of Honolulu Botanical Gardens or to volunteer at the sale or in the garden. The sale is sponsored by the Friends of Honolulu Botanical Gardens and the Oahu Nursery Growers Association.
Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.
