By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Yellow popcorn orchids have been attached to a giant
shade tree in Mary Foster's garden more than 20 years.
"Little surprises," says Mary Foster, "are what make a garden interesting." Foster is talking about specially designed spaces within a garden that create small "rooms," each somewhat different from each other. An area may focus on a view or a shade tree or a mass planting or a small pond. Her garden, at the top of Maunalani Heights, is one of four private gardens that will be open to the public on June 6. Stop and smell
the surprisesThe event is "Honolulu Open Day," sponsored by the Garden Conservancy to help fund their preservation projects. It is part of a nationwide program begun three years ago to introduce to the gardening public some of the country's best private gardens. There is a $4 admission at each Oahu garden, two of which are in Honolulu and two in Kaneohe.
Foster describes her garden as "a wandering place."
"There are spaces at the top from which you can see the blue Pacific Ocean. Or you can look down the easy formality of a turquoise swimming pool and a surrounding lawn bordered by olive trees bearing orchids." There is a rock garden planted with bromeliads, a hedge of ginger, a koi pond and a wealth of ideas for your own backyard.
"This was a rocky hillside when we moved in in 1962," Foster said. "The garden was an ugly space bordered with hollow tile walls. I wanted color and a tropical mix of planting. Because we're on a hillside, the garden is on at least five levels. The idea is to intrigue the person walking through, to come around a corner and find something unexpected. It can take me an hour to walk through here as I think, 'How can I make it softer or more dynamic or create a prettier picture?' I want people who return to the garden to say, 'I didn't see that the last time.' "
The Foster family calls the area "Malia's Garden," named for the resortwear company started many years ago by Mary and Bill Foster, for which Mary designed the clothes. "Land-scaping is just another form of design," she explained. "Shapes and colors and textures are what it's about, whether it's a sun dress or planting on a rock wall."
There are a lot of rock walls in the garden, used to retain the soil on the hillside. Handmade rock walls are handsome in themselves, but provide a lot of dull gray background. "Then one day I was driving up to Lyon Arboretum, and on the way I noticed a wall by somebody's driveway. They had stuck bromeliads in the cracks between the rocks and it looked wonderful."
Gardening being about borrowing good ideas, Foster went home and planted small bromeliads in the cracks of her rock wall. Bromeliads are among the least demanding of all plants, so they dug in and now provide splashes of color on the wall.Many of the bromeliads were keiki of a long narrow planting under the ginger hedge that marks the lower property line. Those came from a Christmas wreath given to Foster several years ago, and were dismantled and planted by her to cover the leggy stalks of the ginger. They are placed so that they get full sun for half a day to keep their color.
One of the most spectacular spots in the garden is a spray of yellow popcorn orchids, about 6 feet in diameter, growing in the crotch of a tree.
"It took 20 years to get to that size, but I only started about three years ago putting orchids in the other trees," she said. Now, almost every tree on the property has orchids (anchored with old pantyhose) growing among its branches.
Foster's garden was recently film-ed by a crew from the Garden Channel on cable television, to be shown on a program in August.
The other Honolulu garden to be open on June 6 is Ainahau, a property developed 75 years ago. Nuuanu Stream flows through the ground, as does an auwai that is one of seven such irrigation ditches that have flowed through the valley since the early 1800s. They are vestiges of the extensive wetland taro cultivation on which the Hawaiians of that time depended.
King Kamehameha the Great grew taro in Nuuanu using a similar irrigation system. Clearing the auwai of weeds to keep it running is an endless job for the homeowners who have these functioning little streams in their gardens. Ainahau also has a collection of tropical plants and beautiful old trees where staghorn ferns grow among the branches.
The other two open gardens are near each other on Kaneohe Bay Drive. One, on the shore of the bay, was originally a fishpond which was filled in years ago. The garden features such tropical plants as banana, lychee, guava, palm, ginger and ti.
On a nearby hillside is the fourth garden, planted in adobe clay. Every hole for every tree or shrub was dug with an o'o, the traditional Hawaiian digging stick. The result is a harmonious garden of bromeliads, ferns and a variety of tropical plants.
In all cases, the gardens will be open for visitors to explore, but not the houses. Owners and guides will answer questions abut the landscapes.
Honolulu Open Day
Date: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 6
Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!
Send queries along with name and phone number to:
Evergreen by Lois Taylor, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Or send e-mail to features@starbulletin.com.
Please be sure to include a phone number.
Evergreen by Lois Taylor is a regular Friday feature of the
Honolulu Star-Bulletin. © 1998 All rights reserved.
