Tropical Gardens

Garden #1

This was a garden I helped plant. A couple of notes on the picture above. On the far left is a Sealing Wax Palm. Originally from Indonesia I believe, it is a rainforest palm and likes it wet (ie: peat moss for sure). These are such unique palms, and definately one of my favourites. If you look closely the trunk of the palm is a deep red. This palm got it's name after the sealing wax they used to use to close up envelopes. Remember, they would use some kind of mark as well, maybe a ring, to squish a design into the wax as it dried. Then you would know it had never been opened. Anyway, extremely valuable palm and very hard to grow, Dave has it all figured out. This is pretty close to his signature palm I'd say.

Also with the red flowers, Red Ginger. Same family as the root Ginger we eat back home, but this one is not edible. Obviously used for it's gorgeous flowers, there is also white and pink Gingers. We used read to highlight the Sealing Wax Palm.

On the ground, Impatients (sp?), these grow like crazy here. They're wicked ground cover and keep out the weeds. Ironically these grow as weeds in our nursery. So we take them out and then transplant them into garden settings like this one.

On the right side of the pictures, just to the left of the brown trunk, is a Manilla palm. These are found everywhere. They don't grow that tall, and always look clean and tidy. Very minor maintenance and a great palm to put in a triad, which we did here but it's hard to see from this angle.

I totally forgot to take the before picture, but this side of the house was COMPLETELY overgrown. Here on Kauai, and especially in Haena, the minute you turn away you lose control. We had bromeliads growing up trees, ferns everywhere, and lots of vines. Dave took out the big saw and we dropped probably four trees, and then I dug out the root balls and we brought in some good soil. I wish I had a before picture, but trust me it looks a lot better now. Here's another pictures looking down the other way. You can just see the top of a banana plant in the background.

Garden #2

This garden was oceanside. I've learned a lot from Dave about planting in different climates. I was eager to learn about different settings and how it affected plant selection. First things first, living oceanside is obviously an amazing spot, however it severely limits what you can plant. Living on the north shore of Hawaii means huge swell. Which in turn means lots of ocean spray, which in turn means salt. So you really can only plant things next to the beach which are salt tolerant. And so most of the following are known to be salt tolerant. It doesn't mean the plants will love it, it just means they won't die a horrible death withing a week of being there.

At the bottom of this picture are bromeliads. These are really funny plants they don't root into the ground very much and they catch water in a bowl shaped center. So first drawback, mosquitos, however they are salt tolerant. We'll get a better view of them in the next shot. The middle left of the screen is a Pritchardia. A great palm that Dave grown in the nursery. Actually we just repotted about 18 of these into 15 gallon pots. Big fronds, look kind of like a fan palm, same same but different. Then in the background, oceanside, coco palms. Probably one of the toughest palms out there, and they really don't care about the salt. Obviously known for their coconuts, the best workday includes harvesting coco water at lunch break.

This next picture, has the Cycad I just planted in the middle. (Also note better shot of Bromeliads on left and right). These are amazing plants, and they get huge. Survived since way back in prehistoric times Dave says. It's clear to see why when you look up close as they are full of sharp thorns on their fronds. This defense worked wonders as the thorns stopped animals from eating their fronds, and so they are still here today to tell their story. Beside being salt tolerant, Cycads are tough as nails. Dave said he heard a story about a guy who found a mature Cycad that had been dug up and thrown into a shed bare roots and all, and this thing was found 9 years later, and it was still alive. Now that is impressive folks.

I hope you enjoyed the show...

WW