Question: We want to grow roses here in Manoa, fragrant ones with no use of chemicals or pesticides. Is this doable? — Mrs. N. Kimura
Answer: We have old-fashioned kamaaina varieties that do well in Hawaii and need no pesticides. If you walk around Manoa (and many Hawaii neighborhoods), you will see good gardeners growing all kinds of roses without pesticides. You can talk to these gardeners, learn from them and maybe share some cuttings.
Roses are easy to grow from cuttings, and we have many varieties that thrive, bloom well in winter and are fragrant.
Some favorite varieties are lokelani (dark- and light-pink petals on the same flower); red lokelani, actually a China damask rose with soft petals, burgundy and lovely perfume; Cecile Brunner, with clusters of tiny pink flowers; and Madeira or Queen Emma rose, a pink, cottage-rose type with a spicy fragrance.
Madeira roses bloom well when we have a "real Hawaiian winter," like this year, when it’s cold, it rains and we have mixed Kona and variable winds. Mine have been blooming profusely since November.
The Madeira rose was brought to Hawaii island by a woman from its namesake town in Portugal in about 1900. She grew it and shared it as good gardeners do. The woman gave a cutting to the mother-in-law of May Moir, my hanai tutu and gardener mentor who grew this lovely Portuguese rose in every garden she lived in, from Manoa to Nuuanu.
Moir gave me a cutting in 1980. I’ve grown the cuttings in all the places I’ve lived: Makiki, Wahiawa and now Palolo. I keep sharing it, too. My friend Erin Lee, who lives up in chilly Waimea on Hawaii island, has lovely full-blooming ones draping over her split-rail fence.
For cut flowers I do what my Auntie Grace Dixon of Wahiawa teaches: Cut them as a bud, soak in a deep bucket of water (May Moir’s "deep water soak" technique for all cut flowers) as you trim them with a sharp, clean pair of pruners. Trim down to the third set of leaves if the roses are growing vigorously. Arrange them in a vase and re-cut the ends from underwater. (This takes some skill and, again, sharp pruners). Layer the buds and then the more open flowers in a vase.
To grow roses, add high-quality, locally produced organics, homemade mulch and cinder to your soil to improve drainage. Taking time to build up fertile, well-drained soil with leaf-litter organic matter will help you grow healthy roses as well as food, native Hawaiian and garden plants. Use leaves from your own trees to make mulch. Lychee, mango and monkeypod are some of my favorite leaves for soil improvement.
Chinese rose beetles are the main pest that attacks the leaves of roses and other plants. The pesticide-free control method is to illuminate the roses at dusk when the beetles come out to feed on the young leaves of your plants. You can also go out with a flashlight and a cup of soapy water to wash the beetles off the plants and squish them.
Plant roses under a street light or shine a porch light on them. My mom and I have been trying solar lights to protect her plants, and this is working out well.
Some rose growers spray them with fungicides. I don’t because fungicides can be toxic and persistent in the environment (expensive, too). Finicky nonadapted roses can succumb to leaf and flower fungi. To prevent this, I don’t spray water on the leaves; I water at the base.
This and using tough, proven, older varieties mean no need for chemical fungicides.
Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidib@hawaii.rr.com.
