PUULOA — Ann Milne invited me to her property five years ago to discuss revitalizing her tropical garden. We both knew it had the potential to be lovely, but when I revisited it recently, I was dazzled by its beauty.
She and I worked on it for a few years. Since then, the plants have matured, the waterfall, streams and ponds are flowing gracefully through the space and it looks great. Ann credits her two gardeners, Steve Breed and Grace Laird with making continual improvements and keeping it looking gorgeous.
Though Ann says she has gardened all her life, she also insists that she never really gardened well. She grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, where the growing season is short but she was able to grow vegetables in the summer. Then she met a guy with a green thumb. Her husband, Bill, was an avid gardener who had an incredibly productive garden in Madison. It was through working with him that she caught the gardening bug.
They spent some of their summers on a 10-acre forested Wisconsin resort they owned where they put in a garden of veggies and herbs. In 1990, they decided to look for something in Hawaii so they could retire in a milder climate. Their first house here was on 2 acres in Captain Cook.
“When we got here in 1990, we were like kids in a candy store, creating a plant playpen filled with every tropical plant we could find,” Ann recalled. “We essentially traded pines for palms.”
Though they moved to a new home in Puuloa 10 years later, Ann said that the Captain Cook property is an absolute jungle, today.
The Puuloa house is on a smaller lot but has the added feature of a tropical garden that covers about a third of the property. The garden includes a waterfall and four streams, all with stone lined beds that run throughout the space into several small ponds and a larger fish pond. Though the garden was installed by the previous owners and had been somewhat neglected, Ann was determined to bring it back to its full glory. After her husband died, Ann needed a project and set about creating a beautiful spot at her paradise home.
She and her gardeners spent many hours cleaning up the ponds and getting the streams flowing. Then she decided to cut back a lot of the original greenery and replace it with more colorful plants. She now has torch and shell gingers as well as sexy pink heliconias offering height while shrubs like the pagoda flower and a lovely red graftophyllum fill in the lower story. Walking iris, moss rose and the dramatic dracaena star of India also grace the garden. Bromeliads and agave line the streams and palms as well as mimosa trees offer some shade. The shaded upslope is planted in mondo grass with a colorful duranta golden dewdrop and poinsettia filling in a few sunny spots.
“Pruning ability is more valuable than having a green thumb here,” she said of her discovery during all the work.
Her healthy plants were growing well, but she sought out workshops and help from the UH Extension Service and other classes to learn ways to control them as well as their competitors and predators. At that time, Kona Outdoor Circle had a vibrant education program. Ann started attending their classes and gradually became more involved with the organization. She became a Master Gardener and served on the KOC Board as Beautification Chair. Through KOC she participated in many community beautification projects as well as their annual plant sale, Pua Plantasia. Ann sorely misses the education and beautification programs that Kona Outdoor Circle is no longer offering.
Though Ann is still very passionate about gardening, she is also a woman with a diversity of related interests. She became a member of the Kona Orchid Society and loves attending the meetings and growing beautiful orchids. As a gourmet cook, Ann finds it important to use fresh herbs and has devoted one side of her house near the entrance to her kitchen to growing a variety of herbs. Thai cuisine is one of her favorites so she likes to have Thai basil and Thai ginger (galangal) close at hand.
She also grows a variety of citrus trees on her property and makes lots of dishes with the fruit beyond freezing large quantities of juice. She freezes lemon slices and drops them into glasses or pitchers of water for a refreshing drink after a few hours in the garden. She often uses her lemons to make Greek lemon soup as well as Moroccan preserved lemons. Both of these Middle Eastern recipes are among her favorites.
Another somewhat related passion of Ann’s is quilting. She says her quilting ideas are definitely inspired by the beauty she finds in nature. As a self-identified “fabric-aholic” she is always trying to find fabric that mimics the vibrant colors she sees all around her. Her designs are often influenced by natural forms as well. She shared one of her favorite quilts with me: a lovely tribute to the Gingko tree done in subtle toned block shapes.
Ann also finds time to fit a few golf games a week into her busy schedule. She remarked that one of her favorite things about her early morning forays to the Makalei course is the beauty she witnesses.
“I love driving on the upper road to Makalai at dawn and watching the sun come over Hualalai,” she said. “It’s a great reminder of the incredible beauty of this place I call home.”
Ever the beautification advocate, she loves seeing efforts made by individuals and community groups to beautify their surroundings. At home, she thoroughly enjoys the beauty her tropical garden offers.
“I have always lived near water, be it lakes or rivers or the ocean,” she opined. “My tropical garden with its soothing water feature makes me feel right at home.”
Though she devotes four hours a week to working collaboratively with her gardeners, Steve and Grace, she admits most of the time she spends in her tropical garden, she is admiring it with her feet up. She really enjoys watching the plants grow, the waters flow and her koi fish named “Piglet” search for food.
“We have created a space that is truly relaxing and delightful,” she said.
Though Ann sees gardening as both humbling and gratifying, it is her fond hope that others can find such satisfaction and beauty in their own gardens as well as out in the community.
Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant living on a farm in Honaunau.