Hawaii Gardens: Rich rewards, experiences bloom from Lei Day volunteering

Since 1984, I have been a Lei Day volunteer at the mayor’s celebration at Kapiolani Park. It is such an amazing event and I’ve learned and seen so much over the years.

I was first asked to kokua with plant identification when I was working across the street at the Honolulu Zoo as the zoo’s horticulturist. I was reluctant to leave work, even for a few hours, as some of my landscape crew were on the kolohe (naughty) side.

However, I decided to volunteer after learning famed ethnobotanist Beatrice Krauss would also be a lei plant identifier — any time with her was a precious learning experience. As she got older, she would ask me to drive her to Lei Day. I relished the extra time to spend with someone so akamai and kind.

I told myself when Aunty Bea is pau, I will be pau too. But over the years I have realized what a gift it is to volunteer with this job.

We get to see all the contest lei as they are delivered at 7 a.m. They’re all so amazing and creative. I think of all the time and energy the lei makers take to grow, select and prep the plants and flowers. When crafting the lei, the makers must also consider timing, which is vital for freshness and for when flower buds will open.

One year there was a citywide strike and the contest was moved to the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort; they roped me into being a judge. Never again. To me, they are all winners. Identifying the flowers, ferns, nuts and lei fibers is challenging but way easier for me.

Silvery stunners

This year there were some stunners, particularly plants in the heliotrope family Boraginaceae with mixed silvery patterns.

One lei combined Native Hawaiian hinahina (the lei flower of Kahoolawe) with kipukai, an indigenous ­Hawaiian plant, and tahinu (or beach heliotrope), which is an import that looks and acts like a native coastal and xeric tree. This twisty silvery lei combo was so amazing!

After doing our volunteer ID job in the early morning, we sometimes get a chance to talk to the lei makers.

I spoke with an inspiring and creative young lei maker, Mary Moriarty Jones. I asked her where she collected all those lovely plants or if she grew them herself. She smiled and said she had her special garden places where these rare plants grow. We talked about them all being in the Boraginaceae plant family.

One characteristic to identify this family is that the flowers are arranged in a helicoid cyme. It twists to open like the fiddlehead of a fern, and the flowers bloom one by one along the curving floral stalk.

They also tend to have silvery hairs on their leaves. As a xeric adaptation to thrive in dry, salty climates, the leaf hairs reflect light and also trap moisture and conserve it for the plant as it respires.

Grow your own

To grow plants in Boraginaceae family, it’s good to understand where they came from and adapt your garden methods accordingly. They need well-drained soil and full sun. They are more difficult to grow in pots than in the ground, as they really need to spread their roots far and wide (not deep). They like daily watering to get established, and then less and less water as their roots spread and adapt.

As my former boss and mentor Masa Yamauchi would say, “Observe your plants closely and water only as needed.”

This is a skill we can all learn and cultivate — just as we can learn to grow our own rare and wonderful lei plants.

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