The magic touch

On a quiet back street in Hawaii Kai, stepping through the door of the waterfront home of Bob and Kay Hampton is stepping into Christmas Central. A hundred nutcrackers, flocks of angels and a white baby grand piano garlanded with lights all stretch to a wall of French doors that open up to Santa’s Party Garden and Hampton Landing. A canal flows quietly beyond their dock and the lush tropical garden that began in 1994 as mud and a bit of lawn.

In addition to running their own businesses, the couple did all the design and much of the renovation and construction that turned a simple home into a showplace.

The garden is populated by frog figures, from a 1-inch piece to 4-foot-tall "hugging frogs" that wear a lei and Santa hat for the season. Frogs come in glass, brass, wood and stone and are some of Kay Hampton’s favorite things, earning her the nickname "Grandma Frog" from her grandchildren. (The amphibians even adorn her indoor Christmas tree.) A favorite pastime was counting the garden frogs, starting at the dock — 80 at last count.

"Growing up, the grandkids hardly knew where the front door was. So many of our friends and family arrive by boat," Bob Hampton said.

The covered lower deck, dubbed Hampton Landing, can seat 20 and is only three steps to the dock.

Bob Hampton, head of Waikiki Beach Services at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, does all his own planting, growing and trimming. "I just plant it and water it," he said. "God is the gardener."

The couple seems to have a magic touch. The autograph tree, centered in the garden and reaching the second-floor balcony, started as a knee-high plant. Any bad weather comes from the Kona direction, so the tree has braced itself by wrapping its air roots around some of the garden sculptures, growing deep and solid anchor roots. Hina­hina moss from a 3-inch clipping now cascades 3 and 4 feet from the branches of a jade tree. Areca palms have grown roof-high from their start in a 6-inch pot.

Kay Hampton, former president and owner of Media Matters, an advertising, marketing and promotions company, and an accomplished photographer, points out all the "happy orchids" from fingertip to dinner-plate size. Bromeliads, with hot pink to gold flowers, grow from clippings passed on by the Kaha­luu branch of the family. Tucked on the Kona side of the house, behind a bubbling fountain and protected by a vine-covered fence, is the "intensive care ward" where plants are nursed to health or given an extended stay to get a feel for the Hawaii Kai climate.

The Hamptons’ favorite plants are their poinsettias and crown of thorns (Euphorbia miliii), members of the same plant family. Bob Hampton said poinsettias historically have been regarded as symbolic of the blood of Christ, and the thorny plant, his crown. Again, a small cutting grew into six or seven plants as tall as Hampton with the unlikely result of flowers that bloom red, pink, coral and nearly white, possibly because of where they are growing in the yard.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, he suggests some refreshments, pointing toward the side garden and a sign reading, "Territorial Tavern Hawaii Kai." A large penguin is tending bar for a court jester and a stuffed border collie. Above the white marbled bar, repeating the design of the baby grand inside, hang the photos of the original Bishop Street Territorial Tavern, opened and owned by Hampton from 1974 to 1979.

The famous comedy group Booga Booga started at the Tavern, playing with other great talents including the Brothers Cazi­mero, Jerry Santos and Olomana.

Today their CDs play from speakers hidden across the yard and dock, ready for Kay Hampton, her kumu hula Cathy Ostrem and her hula sisters from Halau Hula Kalehua­pua­kea to practice or dance on the green stage of lawn, framed by the sunset, for one of the Hampton parties.

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