By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Volunteers donated time last Saturday to help
beautify a Sand Island medial strip.
SEVERAL years ago there was a move to change the name of Sand Island to Rainbow Island, but nothing came of it. Like putting a hair ribbon on a hog, it didn't address the basic problem. Sand Island is an industrial area, flat and dry and barren, and changing the name wouldn't improve the real estate. Bringing glory to
Sand Island roadA beautification project plants
Golden Glory on the medial stripBut then along came Scenic Hawaii, a five-year-old community organization associated with Scenic America, dedicated to protecting scenic views. In the case of Sand Island, they haven't as much saved a scenic view as begun to create one.
Starting at Nimitz Highway with the intention of continuing as far as the drawbridge, the medial strips on Sand Island Access Road are being landscaped. The project began last Saturday when a volunteer crew installed 16,000 Golden Glory plants, a groundcover in the peanut family that is nature's answer to Astroturf.
According to people who propagate Golden Glory, you can walk on it, you can drive over it, and automobile exhaust merely urges it on to better things. And it flowers in a profusion of school-bus yellow blossoms day in and day out.
The groundcover was planted on the medial strip closest to Nimitz Highway, near Kilgo's, the first of several strips on the road.
Betty Crocker, who in this case doesn't crank out cake mixes, but is a real person and a founder of Scenic Hawaii, explained the logistics. The state owns the highway, the beautification project is a city function so the city provided the ground cover and the shade trees, and the volunteers are a story all their own.
The mayor was off Oahu on a campaign trip with the governor, but was represented by a muddy-kneed contingent of department heads. They had arrived at 8:30 and were digging and planting along with volunteers from Scenic Hawaii and a service group of students from Farrington High School. The kids were part of the Leo program of the Lions Club, that works with students on community projects. Chuck Ehrhorn, a landscape architect and chairman of the project, brought along some of his co-workers.
Every single one of them, from Stan Oka who heads the Mayor's Beautification Committee, and Malcolm Tom, the budget director, to the tiniest high school freshman girl, worked long and hard, and it was a very hot and muggy morning. When a nameless representative of the state arrived in white golf shorts and an immaculate pastel shirt, too late for the planting but in time for the ceremony and the sandwiches, the sweaty volunteers didn't have much to say to him. He actually looked embarrassed.
The city had built up the medial strip with topsoil to about two feet above the level of the roadway for drainage and to give the roots of the plants and trees somewhere to go. A selection of monkeypods and shower trees had already been planted, bare of leaves, eventually to provide shade.
Crocker explained that Scenic Hawaii's share of the funding came largely from a donation by 96-year-old Claudia Stearns, a former resident who now lives in Idaho. She has been a longtime supporter of community beautification efforts.
Scenic Hawaii with the city and the state has also recently planted 22 monkeypod trees on the medial strip of Ala Moana between Atkinson Drive and Piikoi Street.
Asked how they choose their projects, Crocker explained that visibility is important -- they look for well-traveled areas seen by many people -- and they look for an area where they can make a difference.
Already, Sand Island Access Road looks a whole lot better and when the planting is completed and the shade trees leaf out, maybe it will deserve to be called Rainbow Island.
Tropical flowers -- anthuriums, ginger, bird of paradise, heliconia and the rest -- are gorgeous growing in the garden, but it takes skill to arrange these big, stiff flowers into a graceful arrangement for your home. Space critical in floral arrangement
At 10 a.m. Wednesday, Althea Higham of South Africa, where they have many of the same flowers, will give a lecture demonstration at the Academy of Arts theater. The event is sponsored by the Garden Club of Honolulu and is open to the public.
Higham, like many artists, insists that rhythm and space are vital to the composition of any work, and particularly a flower arrangement. Rhythm refers to the repetition of flower shapes and proportions within the arrangement, and space, she says is the critical element. It is the empty areas within the solid form of the arrangement that give it shape.
Higham travels around the world teaching floral arrangement, and is known for her work with tropical flowers.
The 90-minute class is $7 for Honolulu Academy of Arts members and $8 for all others. For information, call 532-8700.
Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!
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