When Things Line Up

Mean while back on Maui multiple forces were coming together to aid in the accomplishment of a major task that has been on my wish list for several years. I have long wanted to remove a hedge of my least favorite Heliconia. It is a tall and rangy solid orange upright bloomer with a medium tendency to spread.

To get rid of it you have to dig up all the rhizomes. This is pick and shovel work. The pile of rubbish that will result from this strenuous work will be mountainous and will need to be made to disappear. It is a task that is easy to put off for another day.

I neglected to take a before shot, but this hedge of H. bihai just down the fence line will give you an idea of what the job entails.















I was fortunate to have a lovely assistant for the week and hopefully for many weeks to come. A handsome, strong, hard working and very pleasant young man who originally hails from Tonga responded to an ad I placed for an assistant.

Together we removed the Heliconia hedge to reveal the neighbor's ohana unit. Ohana in Hawaiian means "Pays my Mortgage". A few stragglers that had escaped under the fence were all that was left between us. Sorry folks but this is the real Maui and Hawaii. Suburbia transcends location.















The long lost trade winds decided to blow in for the day and bring with them some cooler air and a few clouds to block the sun which had been cruel and relentless earlier in the week. The work of removing the Heliconia was going so well that I began to plant my new hedge while the removal process was still going on. The last of the Heliconia latispatha has been removed from the garden. Another patch was eliminated two years ago by a former lovely assistant, a handsome, strong, hard working and ultimate boyscout who originally hailed from Tahiti. It was replaced with better flowered tighter clumping varieties. I took this shot to remember it by. Conquered.



















My new hedge is a combination of a shorter small leafed variety of Polyscias quilfoylei and a golden colored Polyscias fruticosa for accent. This should make for a dense low to no maintenance largely pest free hedge in the 8 to 10 foot tall range that someone may appreciate when I no longer tend this garden. In nine months the chain link fence should be gone from my view and the neighbors ohana unit will disappear once again.

The plants all came from cuttings I rooted. The main hedge plant, the Polyscias quilfoylei starts were collected from the waterless foliage table arrangements at a social function at the community center. I kindly offered to help cleanup the arrangements after the event. One bag rubbish, one bag go stay with me.














It is nice to have one of those days where everything comes together seamlessly and a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is your reward at the end of the day. Or maybe having a lovely assistant to lighten the work load was what made me feel so tingly today.