Tag Archives: Brugmansia

Kohala Ditch

The Kohala Ditch was built in the early 1900s to carry water from the wet slopes of Kohala Mountain, to the sometimes drought-prone sugar cane fields of Kohala. A series of tunnels, flumes and ditches channeled water through ridges and over gullies for a distance of 14 miles.

After the sugar cane industry folded, ditch water continued to be used by other agricultural activities. But this valuable resource was always beset by difficulties. The challenging landscape was prone to landslides and flooding. Flumes were washed away, tunnels blocked. Increasingly expensive and time-consuming repairs did not provide the same economic benefit they once did.

After one such event, a few years ago, the operator of the ditch said it would no longer be repaired and maintained.

The Kohala Ditch in North Kohala, Hawaii, overgrown with vegetation

The top photo shows a section of the ditch in 2016. The others show how it looks today, in places, overgrown with weeds and even trees. In some areas it’s more manicured by those living next to it. In the meantime, access to water is a considerable problem, especially as dry weather is increasingly common in the area.

The Kohala Ditch in North Kohala, Hawaii, is currently without water — An arrangement to control the flow and level of water in the ditch.

The current Governor of Hawaii knows this region well and money has been earmarked for finding a solution to the area’s water shortage, but when and how that happens is still very much in the pipeline!

For more information about the history of the Kohala Ditch, go to fluminkohala.com/the-kohala-ditch.

My tropical garden

A tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fabulous Florals.’ See more responses here. For this, I’m taking a short jaunt off the island to revisit the first tropical garden I planted. That was in Washington State. Now, I’m aware that Washington State isn’t in the tropics, but I like a challenge.

My goal was to create a garden of hardy tropical-looking plants, with colorful flowers and/or big, bountiful foliage. The first summer, I laid the foundations with three Windmill Palms and a wall of bamboo alongside one fence. Colorful canna lillies and big foliage gave an inkling of what was to come.

A canna lily in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington — Canna Lily-Tropicanna

Solanum laciniatum and Castor Bean-Carmencita Red in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington — Canna Lily-Tropicanna

The second summer was when the garden took off. Ground covers spread. Vines took off. Pots provided focal points.

The leaf of a Musa Basjoo banana in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), Asiatic Lily-Red orange, Phygelius x recturs ‘Cherry Ripe’ - Cape Fuchsia in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Tropical foliage in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Helianthemum ‘Bright Spot’ and Canna - Omega in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Plants in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Sedum lydium in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Sedum spath ‘Cape Blanco’ in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Honeysuckle-Gold Flame in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A cat sits next Eccremocarpus scaber – Chilean glory vine in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

And of course, there were those fabulous florals.

Hardy Lily-Stargazer in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Clianthus puniceus in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Sedum spurium ‘Fuldaglut’, Agastache ‘Apricot Sunrise’ in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A bee on a sunflower in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Phygelius x recturs ‘Cherry Ripe’ - Cape Fuchsia flowers in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Crocosmia masoniorum - Montbretia in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A yellow Asiatic Lily in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Brugmansia ‘Charles Grimaldi’ in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A red flower in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

Embothrium coccineum in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

One corner of the garden featured a Dicksonia Antarctica tree fern, which was soon joined by a Dicentra Scandens-Golden tears vine, Eccremocarpus scaber – Chilean glory vine, and a Clematis Armandii. There’s less than a month between the second and third photos in the gallery below, and the following summer the area was rampant with color and growth.

A Dicksonia Antarctica tree fern is planted in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

A Dicksonia Antarctica tree fern, Dicentra Scandens-Golden tears vine, Eccremocarpus scaber – Chilean glory vine, Clematis Armandii in a tropical garden in Port Townsend, Washington

But it is Washington State and there are winters and in the winter it can snow. The palms and bamboo bent low under the weight of the snow, but they survived. The tiki torch looked distinctly unhappy with the weather, possibly jealous of those lucky plants that were moved indoors for the winter.

Snow on a windmill palm during winter in Port Townsend, Washington

Snow on bamboo during winter in Port Townsend, Washington

Brugmansia

I grew a brugmansia at my old garden in Washington State. During the course of a summer, it grew to two or three feet high and bloomed. As I expected, the first serious dip in temperature reduced it to a sorry wilted remnant.

Here on the Big Island, such temperature dips aren’t a worry, so a brugmansia will grow to a very large shrub and carry its blooms a good while. This splendid specimen is growing next to the Kohala Ditch in North Kohala. The ditch was used to bring water from the Kohala Mountains to the sugar plantations. These days the water is mostly used for agricultural irrigation.

For more information about the history of the Kohala Ditch, go to fluminkohala.com/the-kohala-ditch.

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii

Tag Archives: Brugmansia

Kohala Ditch

My tropical garden

Brugmansia