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Hawaii and Home

© Howard Deutch

    I must be perverse. Kay thinks so and this article will prove it. Here it is almost summer, when outdoor gardening is again possible, and I have an article supposedly on Hawaii. Although the accompanying Hawaiian photos were taken in February and should have been published during the winter ( we had more than 187 inches of snow this past season, = 4.75 meters  ) we may now look at the Hawaiian blooms when our own flowers are almost upon us.

    

 

    Most of the flowering things I spotted in the islands were and are still unknown to me. That does little to dampen my appreciation of them. Or my envy in being unable to grow them back home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Bougainvillea was one of the few I thought I could identify. 

    The lushness of tropical growth is all the more powerful when a frigid winter grips the old homestead. The transportation from a bleak landscape to a riot of green and flowers is almost overwhelming. The reverse, when coming home, is most depressing.

  

   Wouldn't it be nice to have this just around the corner from home. What I have instead is a state park rife with deer. In the spring my recycled shrubs cover the ground.

 

 

 Obviously I did not get caught by any wild wave. Or any wild wahine, much to my regret. Or more likely the latter would have been to my regret considering warnings I have had from Kay.

 

 

 

    Back home I must take solace in the seedlings awaiting early summer and their life outdoors. Here are some of them in anticipation of their freedom. 

    I take great pleasure in germinating my own plants. It is my participation in the very beginning of a flower. I have been in their life from the very start. Not having a greenhouse, I have converted a section of the basement into an indoor nursery. Fluorescent lights take the place of the sun. Considering the dearth of winter sunlight where I live, artificial light is almost a necessity. 

    Some seeds need bottom heat to germinate and I have a thermostatically controlled, heated shelf for this. Others need darkness and a quite cool temperature for germination. Dimorphotheca, African

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