A Calliandra Spring

Elaeagnus philippinensis the Lingaro Berry

Well the days are starting to get longer, and even here in Hawaii you can tell the seasons are changing. It doesn't seem like it but things do slow down here, it's just a little harder to notice. The rain we had in November and December (30") was substantial and really made a difference compared to the last two winters. The plumerias lost all their leaves, and my Kigelia pinna or Sausage tree from Africa lost its leaves for 30 days, before putting out a giant flush of foliage. A few plants actually died, some succulents I brought over from San Diego, they lasted for over two years, but in that 6 weeks of rain they just rotted. It's always warm here, so roots rot more quickly than when they're cold and wet like California. Still others didn't seem to care, Agaves, some Aloes, Euphorbias, and members of the Crassula family are doing just fine. A lot of collectors here just keep their water sensitive plants under the eves of the house. I'm doing the survival of the fittest thing, at least until I have a greenhouse up, not to keep things warm, but dry. The trick here is finding plants that do well, but not too well. I also sold off a bunch of plants I grew from seed from when I first moved here. I really don't have the room for all of them in my one acre garden, but I'm also getting more particular, a bunch were fruit trees that are perfectly good and edible, but not my favorites, and here we are talking about a lot of fruit. I sold off the Achras zapota (Manikara zapota) the Sapodilla Fruit, Chrysophyllum oliviforme the Star Apple or Satin Leaf, Murraya koenigii the Curry Plant, Nephelium lappaceum or Rambutan, Pouteria sapote the Mamey Sapote and Syzygium malaccence the Malay Rose Apple. I'm keeping what I really like to eat, the Averrhoa carambola or star fruit, avocados, mango, citrus, papayas, bananas, passion fruit, Lychee 'Kaimana', Pinapple, Elaeagnus philippinensis the Lingaro Berry my favorite (I've got some really nice 3" available for mailorder - Vintage Green Farms ), Purple Dragon fruit or Hylocerus costaricensis  and strangely I'm still trying a low chill apple 'Golden Dorset' and my favorite plum 'Hollywood' a hundred year old low chill hybrid popularized by my late mentor Sinjen. I've got some starts of those for sale on line as well. I'm even growing alpine strawberries and they are doing really well. Some stuff is still on the fence, like Dovyalis abyssinica x hedecarpa called the tropical apricot, and it really does taste like an apricot plum hybrid, the fruit are small, but the tree is pretty so I think it's worth a shot. It roots from cuttings okay, but I've learned it's salt sensitive in the potting up stage, oh it's always the little tricks.
Most exciting for me is growing all the different Calliandras that I used to grow in San Diego, but that totally rock here. This Calliandra inaequilatera 'Alba' from Bolivia is a great winter bloomer here, one of the few ways I can tell the season.  But, it's the hybrids that I had never seen before that blew me away. When I first moved here I bought what I thought was a Calliandra surinamensis,  from Rozettes Nursery so when it bloomed red I was so surprised, but happily. The local Calliandra surinamensis has a smaller flowers and sort of a weepy habit, I'm glad a brought the California form with me, it has a much bigger flower and better upright habit. 

Calliandra inaequilatera 'Alba'                              

It turns out that John the owner has had this hybrid for more than 20 years. I think it's a hybrid of Calliandra i. x C. surinamensis. It blooms a lot and I'm a fan, the flowers are a little smaller but it blooms well all year, heavier in the winter. Then I was driving around above Hilo and saw a white form of Calliandra surinamenis, I snagged some cuttings, and now I've got that one too. It's a weepy plant with smaller flowers, but I really like the habit and form of the blooms. I was on the Kona side and found a smaller Calliandra with shiny leaves for sale off course it had no label, because almost nothing here has a name on it. I did some some research and while the flowers looks just like C. surinamensis, the plant has a strong lateral habit, and cycles in and out of a really hard bloom. It's a species called Calliandra schultzei, it might be a good pick for small gardens or bonsai. It makes lots of upright seedpods, and prunes really well. Another species I like is Calliandra tergemina var. emarginata, it's compact to about 5', and blooms all year, unlike Calliandra inaequilatera which only blooms in the winter. I've propagated all of them and have them for sale, I want people to try them so I can find out the cold hardiness. That's the one thing I can't do here, just too mild. It's still kind of weird not worrying about cold or drought. Even this picture of Calliandra inaequilatera with Euphorbia cotonifolia wouldn't be possible in California because the Euphorbia would be dormant, it just goes a little off here.

Calliandra inaequilatera with Euphorbia cotonifolia

Calliandra surinamensis 'California'

Calliandra surinamensis 'Red Form'

Calliandra schultzei

Calliandra tergemina var. emarginata

Calliandra surinamensis 'California'

 Calliandra surinamensis 'White Form'

Plants, plants, plants

Just finished up the second semester of my plant tissue culture class at the U of H Hilo, learning so much, but time consuming as well. Also been really busy setting up the new web store and learning the ins and outs of shipping plants. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but like everything else there's a learning curve. Growing plants is easy, it's all the other stuff that's the effort. Just had my first inspection since building all the tables and it's all good on that front. I'm looking forward to a good spring.

Cuphea ignea 'Alba'

Been propagating a lot to get ready, but I don't have as much space as I would like. Local sales take care of the overflow of plants, but the locals aren't really all that gung-ho about horticulture. It's so easy to grow plants here, that the concept of spending money on plants is foreign here, people just get cuttings from friends and neighbors. You just plunk the cuttings in the ground & they grow. In fact that's what I call most of the landscape design here, plunking. People get new plants and just plunk them anywhere, basically no design at all, even putting in a path seems like an advanced step here. The other thing I had to get used to is just that there are way fewer people here. I'm used to a city of three million, this whole island has only has 170,000, that's a big difference & even then only 80,000 on this side. The people I do sell plants to are super nice though, there's a lot of retired people, who like to garden. They don't always have a lot of money, but they really like gardening. Mostly, I love hearing the stories about their life experiences, people here come from everywhere. So many perspectives.

Costus 'Rainbow'

I'm always finding new selections, like this white cuphea (above), a local guy said it just came up from seed after a hard cut back. And I'm always finding out new stuff about plants I already grow, like this Costus ginger. I was talking to Sean up at the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Garden  and he was telling me the flowers on all costus gingers are edible. This one to the right is lemony with a little spicy kick to it. I grew it just for the pretty variegated leaves. The flowers on galanga ginger (used in Thai cooking) are small, white, and hotttttt. Luckily costus can be grown from cuttings, because I can't sell any plants that are grown by division that have been grown in the ground here. The issue is the possiblity of nematodes. California, Arizona, Texas and Louisiana have strict importation rules, it's all about the citrus industry. If I want to sell plants from division they have to be grown from seed first, or purchased from another certified nursery, or grown from tissue culture. Apparently the cinder that a lot of grower use here can have nematodes, unless it's heat sterilized first. We just use coco peat (coir) and perlite, so we can ship anywhere.

Tupidanthus calyptratus variegata

I've been starting to do more airlayering. I've known how to do it my whole life, but it's very easy here because of the mild temperatures. These Tupidanthus airlayer had tons of roots after just 3 months. They were too big for mail order, so I potted them into 2 gallons. I think I'll take new airlayers of the small branches that grow off of these, I think I can get them small enough to be easy to ship. 

Papaya 'Aussie red'

Variegated Banana

I've been learning a lot about tropical fruits too. Pineapples, bananas and papaya, as well as mamey sapote, rambuton, mango, brazilian cherry, jaboticaba, starfuit, tropical apricot, lychee and so many more love it here. I used to try to grow papaya in San Diego, but not well, here they are weeds. I've grown the most popular types, rainbow and strawberry here, but I've also been trying some other selections, like this dwarf Australian variety from 4 seed I ordered. The large fruit is very round, orange flesh and sweet. I like it mostly for the size of the plant, papayas just get really tall here after a year and the fruit is really hard to pick. This one is easy. I'm also growing a giant Thai type, that has fruit that can get up to 8 lbs each, it's popular for green papya salad because of the size, but if you let it get ripe it's delicious. I got some seeds of a variety called watermelon as well, don't know if it's different than the giant thai, so I'll just grow them out and compare and contrast. The early research I did said papayas were male and female, but all the ones I grew got fruit, female right, but no males defies basic genectics. After doing some more research I found out that they can also be hemaphrodidic and males can also produce fruit, but usually it's smaller. The genectics on these can get really complicated. Still learning about pineapples, they are even more complicated. As far as bananas, my favorite so far is Musa 'Ae Ae' the variegated, not only is the plant stunning, the fruit is really great, sweet, slightly acid and great size. 

Cestrum 'Goldspire'

The garden here is also filling in nicely, the fragrance at night with all the Brugmansias (Angels Trumpet) blooming is wonderful. I've also been enjoying the fragrance of a new hybrid night blooming jasmine called Cestrum 'Goldspire'. It has the same strong smell of night blooming jasmine, but with a pretty yellow color and a better habit, it's compact habit is a big plus. So far it only blooms once a year, in the early winter, but I'm hoping it blooms more once it's mature. In any case a really good plant. 

It's finally starting to rain here, since the begining of November we've gotten over 16" this month. The garden looks amazing, a little wet, but this is a rain forest after all. I love to show it off. My 78 year old mom and her husband were just out here and loved it. It really is crazy how fast things grow here. Right now some good friends from Vista CA are here, and they couldn't believe how mature it is. Still I was at a new friends house the other day and Glen's 25 year old garden dwarfed mine, with mature trees and epiphites everywhere, it  just makes me look forward to future.

Been a while

Apparently my perfectionism gets in the way of my blogging. Uploading photos takes a while and it annoys me. So I figured just start writing and if I get around to it I'll upload pictures. Well, it's been since January, so let me catch you up. I started college again after a 30 year gap, just one class, but still a big deal. I'm taking a class on plant tissue culture, the micro-propagation of plants in test tubes. It was great fun, but did take a lot of time, got an 'A', but two more classes to go to get a certification from the college. It's the first time I've lived in a city where there's a 4 year university with a degree in horticulture, San Diego has none. Just recently went over my transcripts with my adviser, still good from 1982, and everything went through, and it looks like it will take about 3 full time semesters to graduate and get a B.S. I'm considering full time school and doing it, but it is costly, way more than in 1983. Still I'd like to do it for me. Drugs and alcohol really did a number on me back then, (even so had a 3.9 and was on the dean's list), but I've been clean and sober since 1987, so it does kind of feel like a circle that would be nice to complete. I know it won't make a difference in my pay or even knowledge really, 30 plus years of experience goes a long way. I feel like I could teach a lot of these courses, and maybe I will after I graduate.
I also turned 50 in March, and that strangely was a bigger deal than I was expecting. Fifty just doesn't fit with my brain, I guess I just had a different idea of what fifty would be, but given the unconventional choices I've made in my life, where else would I be.
Sadly my oldest dog (only 9) Thai died very suddenly a week before my birthday, he had a run in with one of the very poisonous buffo or cane toads common here in Hawaii, it happened overnight, and there's no 24 hr vet on this side of the island. The symptoms weren't very clear at first and by the time it progressed it was too late. I held him in my arms all night but his heart stopped 3 hours before the vet opened the next day. Andy and I felt very helpless, and I was mad with myself for not realizing just how toxic the toads were, I'm now an expert. The poison can be fatal for animals 20 lbs and under, and rat terriers are particularly sensitive. If there had been a vet available, I think we might have saved him, but I just don't know. We buried him out in the garden under a special tree. I still think of him everyday and miss him a lot, he was a really good dog. Tallow, the rat terrier left, is surprising better as a solo dog, he had lots of attention issues and now he's the center of attention and completely spoiled. Having his unconditional love made this much easier for us to get through. It's really made me aware of just how fragile life is, and how we should always make the most out of every day.
Basically we've both been working a lot, Andy with two part time jobs, and me landscaping and selling plants. This spring I didn't propagate much, I was so busy working and going to school, then this summer I really made an effort to get the certified mail order nursery going. It was a lot of work and cost, I had to clear an area, grade it, top dress it with lots and lots of base material, like 32 tons worth. Then, I built the tables, a separate mist area and potting area, all conforming to the regulations required by the state of Hawaii. No plants can be in the area for the initial inspection. We got our inspection, passed, but now had to grow the plants to sell. With very specific guidelines, I am doing just that, many many plants.
So the next thing was to get the website up and running. I have three, one for me with my name, my old one www.tompiergrossi.com, my landscape one www.kalolilandscape.com and the nursery www.vintagegreenfarms.com. So this summer I taught myself Dreamweaver a web design program, to learn how to do this myself, my friend Kurt did my old site. I finally got www.tompiergrossi.com up and running with my new content, it's very simple but is a good start. It basically acts as a pointer to the other sites, and I'll eventually add more to it, I just uploaded a list of all the plants we're growing here, over 1,000 taxa.
The landscape site I did on the mac with iweb, I also had to learn that, I really like that site, it has lots of info and pictures of jobs. Now I'm working on the store, adding plants to the availability, time consuming but exciting because this I really want to work. The basic site for Vintage Green Farms was done on the mac, but I'm going to build a new one with dreamweaver, it will work better for what I want to do. The store itself is in shopify, an online template program, they deal with the shopping cart and all that stuff I don't want to deal with. I want to focus on plants of course. I'll add a link from the VGF site soon, when I have more plants uploaded.
I've added another farmers market to my schedule, so now in addition to selling plants at the Maku'u Farmers Market on Sundays, I'm doing the Waimea Town Market on Sundays, it's quite a drive, an hour and a half, but the people are great, and they buy a lot of plants. It also feels good to be cool for a change, it's at 2,500 ft, although it's also really windy.
I'm still getting used to being warm all the time, but it is great for the plants. Andy ordered some different salvia seeds to try, most have done well, a few definitely don't like the heat, but that's how you learn. I'm more surprised by the number of non-tropical plant that are growing great here.

Happy New Year

Native Tree Fern - Hapuu

Okay, now it's really been too long. I know it's January, but it was 82 degrees today, sunny and then it started raining at 3:30. Got about half an inch. Still not enough though, we are having a drought here, only half the rainfall we normally get, only 45" last year, normally 90". We live off catchment (water off the roof, we catch in a 10,000 gal tank), as of today it was down to a foot (full is 7'). 10,000 gals should be a lot, but the trouble is you need the water when it doesn't rain, a bit of a glitch in the system. A big thanks to my neighbor, a retired Hilo agriculture professor, who has a well and lets us use it to fill it up. I'm going to have to fill this week, so far maybe 5 times since we moved in.

It's surprising how fast the cinder soil (10-30 yds deliveries to date) here drys out, three days and new stuff wilts. At least now most of the plants are pretty well established and can last between rains. The mulch (100 yds) we put out has really helped, the garden has really grown.

I'm beginning to tell the seasons here. The plumerias go kind of dormant in the winter, but even now I still have a few blooming. Some winter blooming salvias do only bloom in the winter, like S. wagneriana, but others like S. mexicana 'Russel's Form' bloom all year. Still waiting to see if the Hollywood plum I brought will flowers and bloom, (still has most of it's leaves). I bought a Golden Dorset Apple (low chill) here, still waiting on that one as well. The Figs (Ventura and Panache) have done well and fruited, even thought they are still in the 5gals cans. Vegetables and annuals are odd though and seem to grow whenever, but the poppies (Papavar somniferum) just wont live. Most things thrive, but a few have difficulties. I'm not sure if it's the pH (we are way acid at 5.5) or what. Nutrition leaches almost instantly. I've started using Nutricote 100 day slow release in the nursery pots, and that stuff is magic in this climate, no burning and the plants jump, but it costs $75 for a 50lb. In the ground we've been using triple sixteen ($22 for a 50lb) and a great slow release from Japan called Complehumis, an organic based 8-8-8 with molasses as a coating, about a buck a pound, that I really like. Down side, the wild pigs here apparently love it, luckily our garden has a hog fence. Hogs out, dogs in.

Still learning here, but the Japanese garden I'm landscaping is really coming along.
Trying to get some of my work known on the island, for the web site & stuff. Check out the new site

www.kalolilandscape.com

Path in the Japanese Garden

Covillea racemosa

I'm really enjoying landscaping and growing plants here, but I do need to start making more money, I think I may have underestimated what it would be like to have to start over from scratch. Still though glad we made the move. I'm more relaxed here, the other day I actually found myself driving below the speed limit (common here). Andy and I are both working pretty much full time and have enough money to get by, but just not enough to get ahead, and that's without a mortgage. The nursery is coming along, but with no money to move it forward, new base material (to level), tables, shade and such, the process has been slow. To outsiders I'm sure it looks like we are moving fast here, but to me, painfully slow.

We have started to makes more friends here, and that feels really good. People here are really nice. Quite a few are like us, new transplants. I'm meeting a lot of people at the farmers market on Sundays, and Andy meets tons of people at Paradise Plants up in town where he works.

Variegated Banana 'Ae Ae'

So far I've harvested two crops of bananas, which grow super good here, duh. The trouble is you get too many, I sold the extra variegated ones at the farmers market. They have a sweet, lightly apricot flesh and holds on to the acid even as the peel browns. I also got a nice bunch of dwarf apple bananas,my favorite, most of those got frozen for smoothies. Those were quick, less than a year from planting. Still waiting for pineapples, those take two years they tell me.


We lost our roommate Jeff, he baled in the Oct. while owing us over 4,000 dollars. Just left one day with no notice & left all his stuff. We called the police and after a few days went though his room looking for clues, only to find a straightened up disaster zone, including large Tupperware containers full of dirty dishes. Who lives like that? He finally emailed & made arrangements to pick up his shit. Good riddence. I am so tired of sober AA people using us, just broken people. He said he pay us back, but I guess we will have to wait and see. So no more helping people (at least in AA)



I like living alone (with just Andy), but a roomate would really help with the bills. We also talked about setting the room up as a vaction room rental, but we'll figure it out.

I've also been working on other projects, like these benches that convert into a picnic table. Making tufa pots, since pots are so expensive here. I did put up a new 400 sq ft shade house, which is really helped with propagation.


A few friends have visited, Cliff & Dae from Arizona & my bother David and his boyfriend Robbie from California. More expected - tom

David, Andy, Tom

One full year in hawaii

Well, I know I've been bad about posting, but in my defense, I've been busy working, which is a good thing. The Japanese garden in Hilo (15 miles north) I've been restoring is really coming along and looking good. I do a whole post on it soon. I'm up there 4 days a week now, plus doing the farmers market on Sundays at Maku'u (2 miles south of Kea'au) and all the specialty sales on the big island.

Calliandra surinamensis hybrid

Our garden had definitely grown a ton since we began planting in September. It's amazing how fast things grow when there is no winter slowdown, or droughts or Santa Annas to desiccate things. Above is the entry bed, the second we planted. The large shrub behind the Zamia furfuracea is a Calliandra surinamensis hybrid with red flowers (instead of pink). I will be propagating it for sale in the spring of 2011 on line.



To the right is some Areca vestiaria (Red Leaf Form) which so far have been slow, but everything else has grown really fast. The front garden has just now really got its roots in the ground and begun to grow.

Brugmansia 'Velvet Rose'

Brugmansia 'Snowbank'

The Brugmansias or Angel's trumpets have been the fastest, started as rooted 4" plants and most are about almost 6' tall after 6 months. My favorite is 'Velvet Rose', probably the best pink I've seen. Brugmansia 'Apricot' is massive, 'Snowbank' is a dwarf but has a great variegation. Its late right now and the smell in the living room is really nice.

Brunmansia 'Apricot'

For me the layout of the front garden was the most exciting part, because I could finally see the space in 3-D and not just on the page. I have a naturalistic circuitous path system with different sized circular beds punctuating the garden for a little geometry. One is a patio, another a turf bed with variegated St. Augustine grass. (Stenotaphrum secudatum 'Variegatum')

I still want to top the paths and the patio with a crushed blue stone, for some reason they call it sand here. Real sand is apparently expensive to ship in. They use the blue stuff in concrete. The long term plans for the patio are to cover it with a bamboo arbor inspired by a cool design I saw at a San Francisco flower show years ago.

Schizolobium parahyba

The curving paths are an old Sin Jen trick to create a sense of mystery and expansion in the garden. The large tree to the left of the path is one of three Schizolobium parahyba, or Brazilian tree fern, which is not a fern at all. Andy ordered the seed (4) of which 3 spouted and are now over 7' tall. They can get up to 100' tall with buttressed roots with enough soil, we have no soil so I'm hoping they will stay smaller, but still provide a tall canopy.

My brother David and his partner Robbie came to visit last month, they're some of the few to see the our new place, and it was Davids first trip to Hawaii. We did the whole tourist thing.

We went up 4,000' to see the Kilauea crater, we also went back later that evening to hike the smaller Kilauea Iki and back up to the caldera to see the inner glow at night. It's one of the only national parks to be open 24 hours.

David & Robbie

Mauna Kea

We also went up to to top of Mauna Kea at almost 14,000 feet. It is quite a drive, man but the view was so great. Clear as anything, I could see Hilo and my neighborhood to the south east, and the pick is a shot of Maui, just a hundred miles off the north west coast the Big Island, the peak is Mount Haleakala at 10,000'.

We also hiked down to Waipio Valley, a mile down a one to one slope. About 20 minutes to get down and about an hour to get up (a painful hour). It's got 1000' water falls at the back, wild horses and old taro farms, it's real old Hawaii.

Waipio Valley

The sunset was a night on the Koan side, just like a postcard. But dry as a bone over there, give the rainy side anytime.

Polyscias 'Golden Prince'

After being here a year I've spent a little time reflecting on my time here. We have really been busy just getting settled, I think it may take another year at least. First we got our living situation settled, then started to try and find work, not easy, the local economy is really bad. I started growing plants, a first just to build up an inventory and get a handle on how to propagate plants here.

Rhododendron 'Gardenia Odyssey'

I've also begun to see what the locals want to buy, a sad note there, the populous here is not much brighter than Southern California in that regard. Not very adventurous, which is really unfortunate given what grows here.

Musa 'Ae Ae' leaves

 They don't give plants much value, as they prefer free cuttings from their neighbor. Blooming orchids are only $3 dollars at the farmers market. I'm growing plants in 3.5" pots, getting ready for mail order, the locals want bigger plants in bloom for a cheap price. So I'm making adjustments.

Musa 'Ae Ae' fruit

After getting 12 tables set up with plants, I dropped in at the Ag. Department to set up an inspection to get certified, only to find out they need to inspect empty tables first, before anything is propagated. So all my work so far has to be sold locally, or a least not to CA, TX, LA or AZ. I can ship to other states if I get an individual inspections. So I'm re-grouping and preparing to ship my newly propagated (as in after nursery certification) plants for Spring of 2011. Even so, we do well at big event sales in Hilo, Waimea and we are even selling at an event in Kona in a few weeks.

We are just now getting fruit on Bananas we bought when we first moved here, this Musa 'Ae Ae' is the coolest with variegated leaves and fruit.

Still haven't met a lot of friends here to hang out with yet. It's hard to get used to a new place after basically my entire adult life in CA. But I do see all my old friends in my new garden, like my Hedychium f. 'Bill Byron'.





Until next time, here's a rainbow from down at Kalapana, 10 miles south of us, as the lava started flowing again into the ocean. The blueish green house on the right is about 50' from 2000 F lava.

Well its been fun getting the front yard planted, still waiting for mulch, the chipper is on the Kona side. The mulch will really add the definition to the garden's edges. Finished the lower patio yesterday.

Some of the combos have been great, I love this coleus and plectranthus contrast. Gotta go to work -later

l

New Plantings in the front yard

Planted the a big chunk of the front garden today with Andy, so glad I shipped over the tractor, went through at least 10 yds of cinder soil

The pic is a before shot, I'll post some afters soon.

For those who like to know, here's what we planted today:

Acalypha amentacea ssp. wilkesiana 'Loco'
Acalypha wilkesiana 'Ceylon Red'
Acalypha wilkesiana marginata (California Form)
Acalypha wilkesiana marginata (Puna Form)
Aechmea pectinata
Averrhoa carambola 'Kajang'
Averrhoa carambola B-10
Beccariophoenix madagascariensis
Blechnum chilaensis
Bromeliad sp. (from Kartuz)
Brugmansia  ‘Snowbank’
Brugmansia 'Compulsive Collector'
Brunfelsia floribunda
Chambreyonia macrocarpa
Codiaeum 'Yellow Rams Horn'
Cordyline terminalis ‘Flaming Pink Red’
Cordyline terminalis 'Hawaiian Flag' (H Eunice)
Cordyline terminalis 'Katryn' (Katherine)
Cordyline terminalis 'Lilinoe'
Cordyline terminalis 'Princess Kyla Mini'
Cordyline terminalis 'Princess Kyla'
Cordyline terminalis 'Robin Red Breast'
Costus malortienus
Elaeagnus philippinensis
Etlingera elatior 'Siam Rose'
Gardenia brighamii (Hawaii native)
Gardenia jasminoides 'Glazerii’
Hedychium auranticum (Apricot)
Hedychium flavum (Bill Byron selection)
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Blueberry Thrill'
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Romeo'
Hibiscus schizopetalus x  'El Capitola Peachy'
Iresine ‘Party Time’ (Alternanthera)
Jacaranda mimosifolia  ‘Midnight’
Manihut ensculenta variegata
Metrosideros kermadecensis ‘Gala’
Metrosideros polymorpha 'Orange'
Plectranthus sp. Blue Yonder'
Plumeria rubra 'Donald Angus'
Plumeria rubra 'Sunset'
Plumeria rubra 'Yellow Shell'
Posoqueria latifolia
Saccharum officinarum 'Purple'
Salvia 'Wendy's Wish'
Sesbania punicea (Daubentonia)
Strelitzia reginae 'Goldcrest' ( Mandela’s Gold)
Synsepalum dulcificum
Tabebuia impetiginosa (T. ipe) Dark Pink Form
Theobroma cacao (Where chocolate comes from)
Thunbergia erecta 'Alba'
Trachelospermum jasminoides variegata
Veitchia arecina
Vitex trifoliata variegata
Zingiber zerumbet cv. 'Variegated'