Does anyone know of any garden societies

[emorata]

I've heard of the bamboo society, orchid society and the vireya organization....does anyone participate or heard of any other interesting plant groups that are already on the island.

mahalo,

noel

[allensylves]

Noel,
There is the Hawaii Island Palm Society. For membership info: Grace Kissell 963-6707 gr@hawaii.rr.com

There is also the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers. I do not have the contact info available, but I think Richard Johnson (Onomea Orchard?) is the president and I expect he is in the phone book.

Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP

[allensylves]

While looking for bee information for Beachboy I found the contact info for the HI Tropical Fruit Growers: Lily Armstrong 966-6444 admin@hawaiitropicalfruitgrowers.org
Their website with membership info is:
http://www.hawaiitropicalfruitgrowers.or.../join.html

Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP

[missydog1]

from what I hear of the Palm society, those are some serious Palm fanatics!
These aren't societies, but if any of you get up to North Kohala ever, Peter Palm's nursery is amazing. Mostly by appointment.

Peter and Susan of Quindembo Bamboo are wonderful people too.
www.bamboonursery.com
If you like to talk and see bamboo, pay them a visit.

There's the Kona Outdoor Circle. They do plant sales/benefits. Obviously, they are a bit far away, but still a society.

[Hotzcatz]

We have a garden club in our neighborhood. So far our entire membership can fit in one car, but we have fun anyway.

[Mitzi M]

Great topic! I'm especially interested in native plants. I've looked for native plant groups and found one on Maui but none here. I know that there are native plant kinds of things going on with Amy Greenwell and some with the Kona Outdoor Circle. I think it would be great to get together with folks interested in native plants closer to Puna. Anyone game?

Aloha,

Mitzi

Uluhe Design
Restoration Based Landscape Design for Hawai'i
uluhedesign@yahoo.com

[leilaniguy]

Carey, by any chance do you mean "pandanus", screwpine or lauhala? Any piece of woody stem should root fairly easily.



Edited by - leilaniguy on 05/13/2007 23:15:50

[Les C]

A friend of mine in HPP has and untoothed hala (aka screw pine, pandanus) in her yard. FWIW, she says that the leaves are not as good for weaving as the type with the toothed leaves.

Kerin Lilleeng-Rosenberger's book explains how to propogate from seed; cuttings are covered in general in the front of the book. Permacopia Book I says that you can take a 1 - 2' piece of stem with 2/3rds of the leaves removed and plant it directly. Heidi Bornhorst's book mentions both methods.

[Les C]

Might you have 'ie'ie, Freycinetia arborea, in the same family as hala, Pandanus tectorius? It's more like a vine than a tree, and it's much smaller than hala. According to K. Lilleeng-Rosenberger's book, it has ringed stems about 1-2" around. It has shorter, untoothed, long, pointy leaves, only a little over a foot long. I've on seen it in rainforests but it appears that it's range includes mesic habitats. (In case anyone didn't already know, humic = very wet, e.g., rainforest; mesic = moderately wet, i.e., between humic and xeric; xeric = dry, e.g. Ka'u Desert.) It's a neat native plant which is becoming somewhat endangered.

Pics here
http://www.hear.org/starr/hiplants/image...rborea.htm
You can see a fruiting/flowering cluster at the end of the clumps.

and
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/FACULTY/CAR...b_5179.jpg

Edited by - Les C on 05/14/2007 10:44:51

[Mitzi M]

Wow, that would be cool to have 'ie'ie on your land. Good call, Les! In checking this out, I just learned that both plants are closely related. I think one distinguishing feature of hala would be wider leaves, and conspicuous prop roots at the bottom of the trunk (they look like a skirt around the main trunk.) 'Ie'ie can have aerial roots at intervals all along the woody stems, but they are much thinner and not woody. You can propagate cuttings with enough of these roots attached (according to the Rosenberger bible):>. You will probably find 'ie'ie growing in shade and some soil, whereas hala prefers sun and can do with very little soil. Hala is really only common in lower coastal places. And, while lower Puna is part of 'ie'ie's historic range, it seems to be more common higher up. Hope this helps, but I guess a picture is really is worth a thousand words...

Uluhe Design
Restoration Based Landscape Design for Hawai'i
uluhedesign@yahoo.com