10 Steps for Stripping Down in the Garden

This is the briefest guide to simple living, but it’s a place to start if clearing the clutter, reducing the load and building community is what you’re after. Perhaps the most personal way to make it simple is join the fun on World Naked Gardening Day – yes it’s a real thing. (Maybe it's just me, but barefoot spade work doesn't sound too appealing, likewise running a rototiller or trimming the blackberry canes,) 

But, here's the truth: For more than a decade, people around the world have been dropping their socks and everything else on the first Saturday in May – in 2017 it’s May 6 – and heading to the garden in their birthday suits to plant, weed, prune and frolic in the buff.

WNGD observers say there’s plenty of friction, dissatisfaction and fear to go around these days. Resisting these forces takes courage and tenacity, the naked gardeners say. And, they claim one way to find strength for the long haul is to strip away the things that weigh us down and live lighter and brighter – unclothed – as nature intended.

SEASONAL INTERCHANGE

by Michael Aitken

In Winter, when the trees are bare,
We mortals don our winter wear.
In Spring, when trees begin to dress,
We mortals then start wearing less,
Until, for some, with Summer's heat
The role reversal is complete.

Whether or not naked bathing is appealing, here are 10 simple steps you, your family, friends and neighbors can take to use less energy, become more mindful about choices, and build stronger bonds within your family and your community. 

1.              Build community. Relationships are the foundation of resilient communities. Get to know your neighbors by organizing a potluck, sharing something, or simply stopping by to say hello.

2.             Grow some of your own food. You can start simple by growing in containers on a patio or windowsill or renting a plot in a community garden. Or, if you have access to land, start a garden or go all out with a permablitz, a way of bringing the community together and turning a suburban house into an urban homestead... in a single day.

3.             Share and repair. Two simple and rewarding ways to reduce consumption and save money are by sharing things you don’t use all the time (vacuum, car, tools, etc.) with friends and neighbors, and by repairing items when they break instead of buying new ones. The New Dream Community Action Kit is all about sharing: everything from starting a tool library to organizing a solar cooperative, from holding a clothing swap to launching a time bank.

4.             Minimize waste by buying fresh and bulk foods to avoid extra packaging, and start composting organic waste.

5.             Help keep wealth in your community. Buy local when possible, and consider switching to a local bank or credit union.

6.             Reduce home energy use and save money by hanging a clothesline or conducting a home energy efficiency audit.

7.             Conserve water. Fix the leaks, take shorter showers, sheet mulch your lawn, and install a greywater or rainwater harvesting system.

8.            Green your ride. Walk or get a bicycle, learn how to use public transport, or redesign your routine to minimize your drive.

9.             Build inner resilience. Cultivate meaningful relationships, practice mindfulness or spend time in nature. The Japanese call it “forest bathing,” a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. http://www.shinrin-yoku.org/shinrin-yoku.html

10.          Join a Transition town or community resilience initiative near you, and start transforming your community!

Here is the "Simple Living Manifesto" http://zenhabits.net/simple-living-manifesto-72-ideas-to-simplify-your-life/

Information about World Naked Gardening Day is online at: http://www.wngd.org/

Table-top Diplomacy & American Style

If the White House is supposed to be, among other things, a showcase for American hospitality, then it would seem food and flowers produced in America would be at the heart of every party. That didn't appear to be the case last week at the Governors Ball.

Call me picky, but I'm a Californian and prickly as an artichoke when it comes to where table grapes are produced in February in the U.S. Likewise, cut flowers and foliage in the varieties showcased on the nation's dinner table for U.S. governors. The varieties I see didn't grow in winter snow and rain. Most likely the table-top decor highlighted at the new administration's first major social occasion came straight off a plane from South America.

Sec. of State Rex Tillerson at the White House Governors Ball
in February. The table-top decor featured imported
table grapes and flowers. 

Truth is, regardless of the season, there's always food and flowers grown in the U.S. worthy of gracing the most important occasions, as well as the humblest family gatherings -- domestic fruit, flowers and greenery abound.

The Californian Table Grape Commission notes the state's farmers have been cultivating grapes for two centuries and offers this brief history: 

"Grapes have been around a long, long time.  In fact, the first grape varieties might date as far back as 6000 B.C.

But for California, the fresh grape boom hit in 1839 when a former trapper from Kentucky, William Wolfskill, planted the state’s first table grape vineyard in the Mexican colonial pueblo now known as Los Angeles.  An agricultural entrepreneur, Wolfskill was the first farmer to ship fresh grapes to Northern California.  R.B. Blowers expanded the idea and sent the first 22-pound box of California grapes to Chicago via the new transcontinental railroad in 1869.

The gold rush may have ended, but the grape rush continues.  Today, over 99 percent of grapes commercially grown in the United States come from California.  With over 85 varieties grown, California grapes come in three colors – green, red and black – and are available May through January.  

During the 2015-16 season, California's table grape growers harvested their third largest crop ever, sending 110.5 million boxes of grapes to more than 55 countries around the world, and setting a new record for crop value at $1.83 billion."

Photo By MEG PEROTTI

The commission's website offers creative ways to decorate table tops with grapes at http://www.tablegrape.com/DecoratewithGrapes.php

So, if the intent of the new administration is to make "America Great -- Again," starting at ground level makes sense by using the products actually produced in America. There has long been complaint by U.S. flower growers that in international trade deals low tariffs on flower imports have put them at an extreme disadvantage. Perhaps in negotiations, flowers have been seen as a minor sacrifice to good trade deals. But for hardworking Americans who make a living producing them, it's about economic survival -- jobs, innovation and growth.

Flower farmers have been fighting back, however, emphasizing the importance of their products through the "American Grown Movement." In recent years growers around the U.S. have been hosting "Farm to Vase" dinners in their greenhouses and on their farms, featuring locally grown food by top local chefs and floral arrangements by leading designers. Pre-dinner, floral design professionals offer guests workshops on arrangement techniques, as well as tours and entertainment. The dinners have all been sell-outs The list of dinner dates and locations is online at: http://www.americangrownflowers.org/

Campaign organizers say the American Grown Flowers brand symbolizes a unified and diverse coalition of U.S. flower farms representing small and large entities across the country. Together, they want to give consumers confidence in the source of their flowers and assure them that the bouquets and bunches they purchase come from a domestic flower farm. 

W

ith less than a month to go until the first stop on the 2017 American Grown Field to Vase Dinner Tour, F2V announced the lineup of the all-star floral designers who will lend their talents to the tablescapes and other floral designs at each of the upcoming seven dinner tour locations.

Photo courtesy of F2V. Design by Carly Cylinder of Flour LA, Inc.
and author of  “The Flower Chef: A Modern Guide to Do-It-Yourself Floral Arrangements” (named to Best Books of 2016), 

All the F2V designers are acclaimed in the floral design community and organizers say consumers have seen their work in magazines, on television shows, at celebrity weddings and all over social media. The Field to Vase Dinner Tours offer a chance to experience their work first-hand.

Sorry, couldn't resist these floral purse and shoes by Francoise Weeks of European Floral Design, 

John Jay Chapman (born March 2, 1862, New York, died November 4, 1933) was an American poet, dramatist, and critic who attacked the get-rich-quick morality of the post-Civil War “Gilded Age” in political action and in his writings. Ancestors on both sides of his family had distinguished themselves in antislavery and other causes, and he sought to continue that tradition among the upper middle classes, whose integrity he felt had been eroded by the upsurge of big business. He wrote:

"If you are to reach masses of people in this world, you must do it by a sign language. Whether your vehicle be commerce, literature, or politics, you can do nothing but raise signals, and make motions to the people." 

Food and flowers are the signs and symbols of  style, culture, art, prosperity, dignity, humility and diplomatic acumen.

If we are to make America gracious again, it's best to start from the ground up, embracing American grown food and flowers to showcase our nation's regional diversity and seasonal bounty!

Thoughts? Comments? Share? Thanks for visiting the garden.

Zen of Barometric Pressure

Just lost power for an hour in Sacramento/Natomas and spent time on my cell checking the weather. Got curious about what barometric pressure actually means. Barometers were used in the old days to forecast weather, long before there were satellites and computers and all kinds of sensors.

U.S. Weather Service says barometric pressure in my area is currently at 29.22 and falling. Lowest pressure ever recorded in Sacramento was 28.95 on Jan. 27, 1916. So, things are getting pretty funky low-down around here.

Science.com says barometric pressure rarely increases or decreases more than 1 inch of mercury above or below the 30-inch mark unless weather conditions are extreme -- or will be in a couple of days.

Weather experts say pressure readings are most useful for forecasting weather during the next 12 to 24 hours -- as in telling us what's about to happen. In general, a falling barometer indicates the approach of a storm. Forecasts for Northern California call for a big storm Sunday night into Monday, which barometers seem to confirm. Just hope it's not too big.

If the mercury continues to fall, atmospheric scientists say the weather will worsen. When the mercury level is between 30.20 and 29.80 inches and dropping rapidly, (like it is now) expect precipitation. If the reading is less than 29.80 inches and still shooting down, expect, my words, to get walloped.

But not to worry, as of 2010, the lowest air pressure ever recorded for a hurricane was Gilbert in 1988. Its air pressure was just above 26 inches. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 hit a barometric pressure low of 27.92 over Atlantic City, New Jersey. Things could be worse and California water experts say we'll likely be able to ride out the next series of storms without further damage to Oroville Dam

“Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame.” ----The Buddha.

Birds, Bees and the Pleasures of Pollination

With warmer weather and spring bloom, pollinators – bees, wasps, moths, butterflies and birds – are busy in the garden. There are actually about 200,000 kinds of pollinators in the world, but probably far less than that actually visit our own backyards.

The work of these pollinators is to spread the sex around, pollen grains (male) are moved to the receptive female parts, the carpel or pistil, and then seeds are formed that renew plantings the next year, in the meantime pollinators provide tasty fruit and vegetables.

Flower colors and smells are the big attraction for pollinators. And if, like me, you’ve planted butterfly bushes specifically to attract Lepidoptera, (butterflies, just showing off) or if you have citrus, a honey-bee favorite, or stonefruit trees (I’ve got Bing cherry and apricot), then you may want to consult the new booklet from the Coalition For Urban/Rural Environmental Stewardship (CURES). It covers the steps to protect pollinators in the garden and on the farm, which has become especially important as more bees are affected with what is called “colony collapse disorder” meaning entire bee colonies are dying off.

Pesticides play a role in controlling insects, weeds, and diseases on farms and in urban landscapes and researchers continue to look for links between shrinking bee populations and environmental causes. Because areas treated for pests are often shared by pollinators, CURES reminds that using care with chemicals is more important than ever.

Blooming flowers on trees, shrubs, weeds and native vegetation all have allure for pollinators and many species visit multiple plant types for nectar and pollen throughout the growing season. In forested and other natural areas, they help in the production of fruits and seeds essential to the diets of wildlife, especially migratory and game birds.

Added to European honey bees, there are more than 4,000 bee species and various other pollinators in the United States. The CURES booklet provides guidelines to follow before treating an area with pesticides when pollinators are present.

By doing a quick read and following the simple guidelines, the valuable work of these busy garden helpers will continue to benefit your landscape. CURES advises gardeners and farmers to read and follow all pesticide label directions and precautions.

They recommend observing and understanding the habits of local pollinators. Follow good pesticide stewardship practices at all times. Cooperate and communicate with others in your neighborhood or growing area. Recognize unusual bee behavior from accidental exposure to pesticides. Check for specific county and local ordinances pertaining to pollinators, especially commercial beehive locations or designated preserves.

Chrysanthemums and viceroy butterfly 

The booklet Pollinators and Pesticide Stewardship" is available free online at www.curesworks.org/publications/pollinators.asp

Intensly

“Never use so in a sentence. It sounds too girlish.” (college English teacher going over

one of my essays). The Cambridge Dictionary of the English Language

explains so as an intensifier when we mean ‘to such a great extent.’

Personally, I’ve never written or said: “to such a great extent,” but hey, these people are so smart, I’m sure they know what they’re talking about. The Cambridge folks say so is a degree adverb that modifies adjectives and other adverbs—providing a splash of intense color, so to speak, a pretty girl wrapping a hot pink scarf around her neck, for example. So becoming.

So, it happened again – twice in the past few days. I already told Facebook friends about the first time—took a quick tea break at work, looked up to see a Swainson's hawk land on the security light above me. Just now, standing on my patio, a small hawk swooped across my garden, to perch on my navel orange tree. Went to see if it was a Swainson’s hawk, but it flew away before I could be sure.

Hawks are beautiful, vigilant birds, but why now, why twice? Why me? I live in the city, for heaven’s sake. I’ve got way more to think about than the hidden meaning of birds – like washing socks or clearing the rain gutters of all these blasted leaves. Where are my work gloves and the ladder?

So, besides being a visual gift, I still wonder if this unusual and repeated animal presence symbolizes anything? Seeking answers, I consult the modern-day Delphi oracles. I go online. Internet shaman and soothsayers offer this: Hawks are messengers from the spirit world. They call on us to be observant, to look closely at our surroundings. Life is sending signals, things are changing and hawks tell us to pay attention so we can navigate the shifts.

There is no end to online discussion about hawks as omen – from Judaism, Hinduism to Native American lore. Most conclude: “The hawk comes to you indicating that you are now awakening to your soul purpose, your reason for being here. Hawks can teach you how to fly high while keeping you connected to the ground.”

Here’s more to noodle my twisted brain, which only wants to think about chores and what I’ve forgotten: “As you rise to a higher level, your psychic energies are awakening and the hawk can help you to keep those senses in balance. Its message for you is to be open to hope and new ideas, to extend the vision of your life.”

So, sitting in my jammies talking to you after a big holiday, apple pie crumbs on my chest, I wonder about flying, about looking down on the world, seeing everything in exactly the right place – hearts and hands, holidays and hurricanes. Then I remember I’m in California. We don’t have hurricanes. Hell, it hasn’t rained here in nearly three years. Maybe I should clean the garden rain gauge, all this hawk talk could be a sign.

So, the Swainson's hawk (Buteo Swainsoni) was listed as a threatened species in 1983 by the California Fish and Game Commission. The listing was based on loss of habitat and decreased numbers across the state. Either their numbers are increasing now or I'm very lucky to have not only seen one or two in the past few days, but also to have spent a good quarter hour with one -- a young, light morph female.

What messages do I need to receive? What has escaped my notice? Why do these sightings repeat? 

So, God, I’m waiting, listening with so intensified attention.

Fun With Force

When days get shorter and leaves flitter on fall's velvet breaths, I start to think ahead to the holidays, to projects that carry on traditions intended to delight. One of those practices involves forcing flowers into bloom, contrary to their habit.

Forcing is the practice of fooling bulbs into thinking it's spring and time to bloom, even when it's as early as Christmas. I force spring-blooming bulbs for use in fairy gardens, for holiday table centerpieces and gift giving, as well as my own pleasure.

For fairy gardens, I plant narcissus bulbs just before Thanksgiving using a 16" moss-lined hanging basket. I start the bulbs outside in potting soil. When I'm ready to create the garden in the narcissus "forest," I bring the basket it and place on a flat tray. Normal in-door warmth will force the blooms in the "tree tops" in a matter of days.

I add miniature houses and animals from my collection. Yes, I have a collection of tiny figurines that I've gathered throughout my life. doesn't everyone? I change the "fairyland" each year. Children love to peer into the garden and I usually spirit an unexpected treat or tiny gift into the forest during the holidays.

My choices for this gentle art include narcissus, hyacinths and tulips. The bulbs will be available soon at most garden centers. By planning ahead, these delightful floral displays will last throughout the holidays. It's not a lot of work. Buy the bulbs in early October and put in the refrigerator. That's it. The rest is about timing.

Bulbs need to be chilled to keep them dormant until the time is right for planting. Put them in the vegetable crisper and mark the bag. But, what's the right time? Depends on how you want to use them to brighten dark spots during long winter nights. I plant narcissus about Thanksgiving.

Narcissus will bloom in about 6 weeks. With planning and two identical pots, it's possible to have blooming narcissus all through the holiday season. Tulips and hyacinth take 10 to 12 weeks, so it's important to start chilling now for holiday blossoms.

Forcing narcissus and hyacinth can be done in rock and water in non-draining pots for indoor blooms. I have special hour-glass shaped vases that keep the bulb's roots wet, but the bulb stays above the water. Ask about hyacinth or bulb vases at your garden center.

It's a tradition in Holland to line window sills with these vases and blooms to brighten neighborhoods during the winter. 

You'll find Yamagami Nursery's helpful  Bulb Forcing Guide  by clicking this link. Located in Cupertino in Silicon Valley, the nursery is a delight to visit any time of year. There's always something interesting going on there for gardeners. http://www.yamagamisnursery.com/ 

Mother Trees Feed the Future

Sometime ago a Santa Barbara avocado grower invited me to take a walk to what he called the “Mother Tree.” I’d heard the term, but didn’t really know what it meant. I gathered it referred to an old tree that had been grafted to create more trees and then, with more grafting, more trees, eventually resulting in an orchard.

But, the way the farmer asked, his shy offer to show me his Mother Tree, implied more than simply visiting a hearty tree with prolific off-spring.

He would have blustered at the suggestion it was something sacred, yet I couldn't help feeling he was taking me someplace special. We walked quietly in the early evening deep into the grove, scuffling leaves and stepping over sprinkler lines. He carried a long pole with a gripper on the end.

As dusk gathered, we stood at the base of strong tree with lush canopy and looked up. Although the grove had recently been picked, this tree had lots of fruit. The farmer hoisted his pole and plucked the huge fruit, handing each piece to me, explaining he saved the fruit from this tree for family and friends.

I stuffed my backpack, not realizing how much the fruit weighed until I tried to lift it. The farmer gave me a hand with the load. The fruit I brought home weighed a couple of pounds or more apiece and when ripe the flesh was smooth and creamy, flavored like nuts and honey.

The experience changed my way of thinking. Today when I buy avocados, I secretly know what I’m getting isn't the absolute ultimate best and I listen closely when someone talks about Mother Trees to find out more about them, hungering for fruit that comes straight from the source.

And, now I know the beauty and abundance of California’s millions of acres of groves and orchards are the product of strong, prolific mothers. But, although the tree where I first tasted Mother Fruit isn’t actually the oldest avocado tree in California or the original mother, I'm convinced it’s her oldest daughter.

The actual Mother Avocado Tree died in La Habra Heights in 2002. Every Hass Avocado in the world can trace its lineage to that tree. The tree's wood is currently stored in a Ventura nursery awaiting decision on a fitting commemoration of the original Hass Mother Tree.

Which brings me to the newly launched effort of the Felix Gillet Institute. This newly formed group aims to properly place Gillet, who was a Nevada City nurseryman in the mid-1800s, in the history of California and United States agriculture through research and education. The foundation said it’s goal is to educate farmers and gardeners about the many tree and plant species he introduced because they continue to provide valuable genetic material for modern propagation.

Amigo Bob Cantisano
Organic grower and Founder of FGI

Gillet brought cuttings from Europe for fruits, nuts, grapes, berries and ornamentals to the Sierra foothill’s during the Gold Rush period from the 1860′s until his death in 1908. These original plants have provided food and fiber that play a strong role today in American agriculture.

Along with all of his many accomplishments, Gillet was a two term City Councilman of Nevada City, was responsible for creating Nevada City’s first water system, moved the City Hall to its present location, was a prime mover in the Workingman’s Party, was a founder of what is now the State of California Department of Food and Agriculture, and was a prolific author whose work appeared in numerous agricultural publications.

The Felix Gillet Institute is raising funds to collect the more than 100 original plant varieties imported by Gillet that are scattered throughout the Sierra foothills and plant them in a Mother Orchard on Heaven and Earth Farm on San Juan Ridge. All of the trees will be propagated from the Grandmothers, which were planted and treasured in the 1800s by miners and homesteaders, and are now feral and endangered in the wild.

This orchard will preserve the best of 19th century fruit and nuts for lifetimes to come. To support this horticultural preservation effort, contact the Felix Gillet Institute at http://felixgillet.org/?page_id=61 

Information about the fund raising effort is online at Barnraiser. https://www.barnraiser.us/projects/eureka-help-save-heirloom-fruit-nut-trees-of-california-s-gold-rush

Gravel Gardening Gains Ground

Flowers growing in rock wall of a church
From Blog: Let Beauty Be Your Constant Ideal

After years of watching me putter in the garden, my grown sons have taken to the soil, planting, like most men, vegetables. They turn up their trowels at the mention of flowers, like most men, and ask about good soil and practical results. Although I love flowers, I indulge their interest in efficiently producing food. They want to know, like most men, how to create the best growing medium with the least amount of effort. 

Apprentice gardeners
Mark & Mike Campbell
Van Veenendaal

Until now, my answer to creating good dirt has been this: Make it mooly. I explain, using a good Scottish word, that good growing soil needs to be soft and crumbles easily, but retains enough body to hold moisture. I tell them creating mooly garden soil takes years of painstaking work – troweling, shoveling, hoeing, raking – in short, tilling one’s arse off.

In commercial agricultural fields, it also takes years of tilling to get mooly soil using heavy equipment and field crews. But mooly soil is only part of the equation. Plants need water, an ingredient that has been in extremely short supply in California lately, this year being an epic drought. It has been so dry here that the wooden door frames in my house have shrunk and doors are out of true and don't properly latch anymore. 

So I got excited the other day when I learned a company in Virginia has found a way to grow and sustain vegetables, fruits and flowering plants using nothing more than gravel, sand and cotton based fabric. They say using gravel to grow crops is the most efficient method in history.

I’ll grant them the over-statement, ignoring the dry-land growing techniques used since the beginning of time and all the research and successful demonstrations of deficit crop irrigation. And that's not to mention the ancient art of bonsai, the sculpting of miniature trees grown in crushed rock, with bits of organic matter. See a feature story on "Bonsai: Shaping Nature's Narrative," explaining how these living artworks thrive in a growing medium of crushed rock and bits of bark. 

But, experts are calling geological agriculture is a new science defined as the study of using rocks to grow crops without soil and fertilizer. Commonly known as gravel gardening, they say this form of crop cultivation will bring significant sustainable agriculture benefits to populations around the world, predicting that a variety of industries will find value from gravel gardening, including home and community gardeners, real estate developers, commercial farmers, landscapers, restaurant owners, health care providers and international development organizations.

Promoted by To Soil Less, a family business founded in 2010, owner Richard Campbell (no relation) shares the growing body of information on gravel-based growing techniques and practices with the agriculture and gardening communities. Download a free how-to guide from the company's website.

Professor Arvazena Clardy Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Horticulture at Tennessee State University, has been researching the practicality of gravel gardening and calls Campbell’s techniques a  “significant step for plant sciences.”  She and 39 TSU agriculture students conducted a germination study of various crops using river pea gravel as the growing medium.

Their research conclusions can be found in Campbell’s guide Grown in Gravel: The Study of Geological Agriculture, available online from Amazon and at participating Ace Hardware locations. Combined, he says these studies begin to shape the academic building blocks of this new science.

The book  includes a 16-page gravel gardening gallery of the past year, along with the first geological agriculture glossary of terms, which introduces a variety of new terms to describe the process of rock-based crop production.

Campbell says gravel gardening benefits include:

1. No soil needed.

2. Less Watering.

3. No fertilizers.

4. Less Weeding.

5. Less Cost.

6. Sustainable.

7. Efficient Irrigation System.

8. Durable

          In the meantime, for sustainable gardening ideas using drought tolerant plants and native soils, check out the Poetic Plantings website. Marianne Simon founded the Southern California landscape design company, Poetic Plantings, with the vision of creating gardens that nurture the spirit and the earth. Many of her designs use native soils, rather than top soils and potting mixes. Take a look at her online portfolio of completed garden.

Monterey Pine growing in rock and gravel
 Photo: Gibhran Jimenez

Marianne Simon She founded her Landscape Design Company, Poetic Plantings, with the vision of creating gardens that would nurture the spirit and nourish the earth.

Planting a Frangipani Paradise

Plumeria or Frangipani

The first time I landed in Honolulu, it came to me on humid heat waves, a sweet fragrance wafting over and under the acrid smell of jet fuel, the smell of paradise, the promise of languid afternoons on shaded lanais and morning swims in luxuriously rolling surf, days surrounded by flowers and exotic birds. But, I did not know the name of this smell. It was faint, delicate, elusive.

Skeptic that I am, paradise seemed like a child’s dream. There are no places of infinite languor, all needs met without trying or asking. But the smell of frangipani came through the industrial smell of transportation and commerce, through the heat and hustle, through the grit, with a promise of luxury. It sweetly broke down my reservations.

I’ve been back to Hawaii many times since first smelling frangipani, or Plumeria. I’ve marveled at the flowering trees growing around white sand beaches, beside condos I’ve rented, along streets and parks and in public gardens. I see its beauty repeated in art and jewelry, its essence added to colognes and lotions.

I smell it and relax, fall in love, let go. Once I was so overcome with lust for the smell, I tapped the ATM at the Honolulu airport and bought dozens of leis to bring home, over-drawing my checking account and creating a financial mess to clean up when I got home. But I passed out leis to family and friends and saved some to ring my bed pillow. Such is my lust for this seductive smell.

The strength of this fragrance pulls me in every time I land in Honolulu and the strength of the aroma is thanks to the women who work in the airport’s lei stalls, women who for generations have laced the waxy, aromatic flowers into leis used to grace the necks of visitors with Aloha greetings as they arrive. The women have a long history of welcome that never fails to melt my starchy mainland resistance to the pleasures of the islands. Click the caption below for a feature on these Honolulu lei makers.

 

Lei stand, Honolulu International Airport

Courtesy: State of Hawaii Archive

I got a whiff of paradise again the other day, OK, just a hint, in a newsletter from the folks at Yamagami’s Nursery in Cupertino. They made this offer: “Import the fragrance of aloha into your garden by planting Plumerias. These fragrant sub-tropical beauties have come to symbolize the mellow vibes of the islands."

They say the woody shrub is easier to grow than you might think. A few precautions in the winter, as covered in Yamagami's FREE Plumeria Guide, are all that's needed. They offer some of the best colors and selections from California's leading Plumeria grower. Supply is limited.

 Plumeria (common name Frangipani) is a genus of flowering plants in the dogbane family. It contains seven or eight species of mainly deciduous shrubs and small trees. They are native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America as far south as Brazil, but can be grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions.

A word of caution, the plant is in the oleander family, a plant that can be toxic to horses. Check with nursery staff before planting around corrals. Also consider other plant choices for kennel and children's play areas.  

I’m afraid Plumeria won’t grow very well in the Sacramento Valley where I live, but those in humid, coastal areas can probably bring the promise of paradise to flower. The South Coast is especially well suited to grow plumeria. I hope you’ll consider planting some frangipani trees. Maybe the fragrance will find its way to my garden on a warm summer morning and awaken me to the promise of paradise.