Who says we need to import trees from the mainland? Who decided what Christmas should smell like in Hawaii? Do we really need to import more pests, such as stinging nasty wasps and yellow jackets, alien slugs carrying deadly paralyzing diseases like rat lung worm, or even Oregon tree frogs?
Be creative and think about what you could find to decorate and call it your new Hawaiian holiday tradition.
We were out at the beach on the Windward side and decided to get decorative. My friend Susan and I looked for some nicely shaped driftwood. She found an epic piece from a dead tahinu (beach heliotrope) tree. We got some muscle kokua, stood the tree up in a bucket of sand in a corner, strung on some lights and got creative with hala keys and other beach decor. It was the most lovely tree and so easy to set up. And it was free!
Set a young potted food tree — such as an ulu, coconut, mountain apple, lychee, mango, kalamansi or tangerine — in a sunny spot indoors and decorate it. After a bit take it outside and plant it. As it grows bigger dress it with lights and ornaments out in the yard.
Nothing says Christmas colors like a blooming ohia lehua tree. Get one with red flowers and share this most beautiful and festive of native Hawaiian trees as a special living gift. Make sure to water it daily and keep it in a sunny place.
Norfolk and Cook Island pines make good Hawaii Christmas trees. Cut the big ones or grow a potted one on your lanai. They last a long time and stay green even when cut.
We always did a Norfolk as our ohana tradition. My parents’ yard has two big ones that we cut on alternate years. We shared the extras with friends and neighbors. (As an arborist I usually don’t recommend that people top trees. But with Norfolk pines you can, and many keiki will come up every year.) My dad would cut them, and then my husband, Clark, took over the job.
He had planted a Norfolk pine in his folks’ yard as a gift to his mom as a young boy. Now we cut that one, too, and share the trees. His sister Karlene, who lives in California, also has a potted Norfolk and a big one in her yard. It makes her feel like she’s home in Hawaii, and saves money, too.
One of my favorites was a medium-size avocado tree with huge purple-black fruit at a friend’s house. The tree was carefully propped up because the fruit was so big and heavy. It had been her mom’s avocado, and they grafted it and brought it to grow at her home. Red velvet bows were tied to the choicest fruit. So pretty and so ono!
And her mom lives on in her garden via a favorite ono fruit tree.
No guilt if you felt commercial pressure or bound by tradition to buy a mainland tree this year.
Just plan on starting a new tradition next year. Buy or grow some fruit trees, local-kine pines or native trees as special living gifts for friends and ohana.
Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.
