Treat your nose to fragrant flora at garden’s spring sale

Do you love gardenias? May is the month when they bloom most profusely here in our Hawaii gardens. How about paka­lana, pikake, Chinese banana magnolia, fragrant orchids like honohono and Shari baby (which smells like chocolate!), ginger, plumeria, pak lan, mei sui lan or kwai fah? The list goes on.

A "new" gardenia will be offered at the spring Foster Botanical Garden plant sale. It’s actually an old Chinese cultivar rediscovered by my friend and fellow fragrant-plant nut Erin Lee on Hawaii island. We call it the "Chinese grandmother’s gardenia," or "pake tutu kiele." It has a single set of petals like a tiare or our Native Hawaiian gardenia, the nau. It blooms white but turns to yellow and then gold in the span of a few days. It has a fabulous fragrance and is pretty pest-resistant.

Glenn Nii of Charles Nii Nursery in Hawaii Kai, famed for its old-fashioned grafted "dinner-plate" hybrid hibiscus, has been propagating and nurturing this special gardenia for a few years now. This will be the first offering to the public.

Many of us in Hawaii just love fragrant plants. We want to grow them in our gardens or give the gift of fragrance to our favorite gardener, auntie or tutu.

As Lee says, somewhat wistfully, missing the food and scents of Oahu, "Talk about fragrance. Our Chinese banana magnolia growing by the driveway smells like one of the mochi-like sweets that were sold at Shung Chong Yuen bakery in Chinatown."

Mark your calendar for Saturday and head over to Foster Botanical Garden for the annual plant sale, which is featuring fragrant plants this year. The sale is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with early admission at 8 a.m. for Friends of Hono­lulu Botanical Garden members.

Having helped with plant sales since I was 17 years old and having written this garden column since 1993, I know what people want: something that’s easy to grow and maintain and produces pretty, perfumed blossoms. I could write about gardenias every week, and people would still ask how to fertilize them, what that black stuff on the leaves is and how to get them to bloom more. (Full sun is key for flowering plants.)

Someone will always ask where they can find pikake, gardenia, kwai fah, paka­lana, golden plumeria and fragrant roses so sweet you want to eat them. Nursery growers have been nurturing those special fragrant plants for months now and will pre­sent them for you at the garden sale. Admission is free on this special day.

We will have plant doctors to help you grow your best garden, and some of the best nursery growers have been growing fragrant plants and other favorites for you for months.