Bridal bouquet plumeria adds splendor to gardens

Question: There is a beautiful, tall white-flowered bush on Kamehameha IV road in Kalihi. My husband is in a care home there, and when I visit him I am sad, but when I see these pretty plants it cheers me up. He loves plants and misses his garden so I wanted to share more knowledge with him. There are some really pretty, well-tended walled gardens with these very striking plants in the neighborhood. Is it some kind of plumeria maybe? I think we saw some like this in the plumeria collection at Koko Crater Botanical Garden and near the lake at Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden. — Mrs. K

Answer: Yes, this is a plumeria, a species called Plumeria pudica, or the bridal bouquet plumeria. The flowers grow in a big bunch at the tips of the branches and are long-lasting and bright white. It is a fairly columnar-shaped, narrow-profiled plant. We have had them in Hawaii for a few years now and gardeners and landscape designers are adding them to their plant palettes.

Horticulture emeritus professor Richard Criley at the University of Hawaii at Manoa has helped to plant and test this new flowering plant. Two grow on the Manoa campus mauka of the Sherman Laboratory of plant science. They are flowering happily and profusely in this hot summer weather.

Criley told me they are easy to root from cuttings and are somewhat shallow-rooted, so they need some wind protection. This is one reason they look so nice and grow well in walled gardens. The walls provide wind protection and some warmth for the root zone.

If you are planning to decorate for a wedding, you might consider using potted specimen plants of this white-flowered plumeria. They will look really pretty indoors and can stay there for a week or so. Then move them outside because they prefer bright sunlit conditions.

Decorate with it as a specimen or really make a splash by using a bunch of them in pots to divide a room or make interior flowering garden spaces. White potted orchids, white ginger and gardenias would be nice companions in this decorating theme.

Nurseryman Bill Durstan of Leilani Nursery in Waimanalo shared a plant with me several years ago and asked me to test it. I really like it for the pretty flowers and for its toughness. One drawback for me is it has no fragrance, but some people actually prefer that.

Another great thing about Plumeria pudica is that it doesn’t get the rust fungal disease that attacks the leaves of some kinds of plumeria. It is rust-resistant.

Bridal bouquet plumeria is native to the northern coasts of South America. Most of our other plumeria are native to Mexico. It was introduced on the mainland by Glen Stokes and made popular by the Plumeria Society of America.

Another good place to see the plant in its flowering splendor is downtown at TheBus’ Alapai Transit Center. A nice long line of flowering plants is on the ewa side of the building, perpendicular to King Street. Check out this attractive landscape design the next time you catch the bus.

It’s nice to have new kinds of hedge plants that flower and are drought-tolerant and pest-resistant. If you are doing a pure-white theme in your garden, this might be one for you.

Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.