Have you visited your local botanic garden lately? Walked through it and looked up at the towering and flowering trees, orchids, rare palms? Have a few plants follow you home?
My friend and fellow horticulturist, Rachel Morton, was in town visiting with her mom, and she reminded me that we hadn’t been to Honolulu’s Foster Botanical Garden lately. People like to connect with nature, and we know that it’s good for us to breathe the fresh air that only big trees and plant-filled spaces can create. She reminded me of how much her mom, Sheila Kariel, likes to just go there and slowly stroll through our own heritage gardens.
If you need a good excuse to go, mark Saturday on your calendar and head on down. The garden admission is free that day, and there will be a great plant sale and the very popular horticultural classes. The garden event runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
GARDEN PARTY
Planting ideas at Foster Botanical Garden:
>> Where: 180 N. Vineyard Blvd.
>> When: 9 a.m.- 2 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: free
>> Contact: 537-1708
>> What: This year’s theme is “planting ideas” and includes free gardening classes and tours.
>> Plants for sale: There is a large selection of rare and unusual plants, both indoor and outdoor, including native Hawaiian plants and ferns, young hapuu, palapalai, orchids, heliconia, ginger, bromeliads, cactuses and succulents, terrariums, pond plants, air plants, ceramic planters, miniature succulent gardens, handmade hypertufa pots, loose and mounted tillandsias and bromeliads, ti plants, fruit trees, ivory nut seeds, more than 30 varieties of anthuriums, miniature roses, ohia lehua, the world’s hottest peppers and sempervivums.
CLASSES
>> 10 a.m.: “Container Gardens,” with Leslie Almeida and Susan Beers of The Garden Club of Honolulu, who will demonstrate designing small container gardens suitable for a table or small garden using small pots.
>> 11 a.m.: “Success at Growing Orchids” with Scot Mitamura, orchid horticulturist.
>> Noon: “Water Gardening,” with Brian Panee of Happy Koi Nursery, who will explain how to start a water garden and keep it lovely through proper maintenance.
>> 1 p.m.: “Honolulu Botanical Gardens’ Special Plants,” with botanist Naomi Hoffman, who will discuss some of the rare and beautiful plants at Oahu’s five botanical gardens.
The theme this year is “planting ideas,” and visiting the gardens and checking out all the great plants that local nurseries have to offer will inspire and help you in your own garden, whether it’s large, small, a lanai or even a community vegetable garden.
And remember, because Foster Botanical Garden is run by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, it’s your garden! Thanks to the generosity and foresight of Mary Mikahala Robinson Foster, and the many great plant people who came before and after her, this garden truly belongs to all of us.
Sign up in person for the popular classes, first com, first served. The sale starts at 9 a.m., and Friends of Honolulu Botanical Gardens members can enter at 8:30 a.m. You can sign up ahead by calling 537-1708, or you can join the Friends that morning and get early entry to the garden and to check out the amazing plants for sale.
Volunteers are always welcome there, and you can learn a lot by being a docent or other kind of volunteer. You can join the Friends of Honolulu Botanical Gardens, which supports not just Foster Garden, but all five of our city botanic gardens (Liliuokalani, Ho‘omaluhia, Koko Crater and Wahiawa). My own career in the fabulous Hawaiian plant world started off as a volunteer at Foster Botanical Garden, and I still see something new and wonderful every time I go to the gardens.
Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.
