x - Hawaii Chapter, American Rhododendron Society

Favorite Things -- Garden Related
by Jane Adams
We all have our favorites…especially when it comes to gardening! Tools, fertilizers, herbicides, weeders, pruners,
loppers, mowers, weed whackers, chain saws, potting media, pots…you name it, we’ve all got an opinion on it.
The true mark of something being a favorite is when you replace it when worn out with the identical item!
I’ll include a few of our favorites here, and welcome you to send your favorites my way to include in a follow-up
article. We can all learn some new tricks! We’ll start with one from each of the categories I came up with for this
issue. If at all possible we will not be naming any brands, just talking about features.
Tools: hand powered
Weeders
Favorite here has to be the tool that is about a foot long, made of a short steel rod with a broader end with a
v-shaped notch. The length of the shaft gives you good leverage on hard-to-pull weeds without making a
huge scar in the planting media.
Tools: powered
Chippers
In the case of chippers, you really have to know the scope of what you expect it to work for. With clearing
about 3 acres of guava, paperbark and other invasive species, we first went through one of the Home Depot
Yardmaster ones. It just wasn’t up to the task, and after about 2 years of use it was simply worn out. If all
you need to do is a few branches and normal yard waste, it would be an excellent choice. Mitch Mitchell
uses such a chipper on his hapu’u fern to create great mulch for his vireyas. Since we had a much more
very heavy clearing to do, we ended up with a DR chipper that can handle up to 5” diameter logs.
Expensive, but definitely can handle the task better for us and much more efficiently. Of course, that meant
we had to get the sharpening stones for the large single blade in the chipper, and learn how to sharpen it!
Remember that you can also take your yard waste to the transfer station for disposal. In the case of palm
fronds and bamboo, which will dull the blades, that’s what we do.
Chemicals:
Pesticides
I’ve got to say that we use very few pesticides out in the garden. Often the key to pest control is to keep
plants healthy and vibrantly growing. In the greenhouse, it’s important to not use the very same thing over
and over so that pests get immune to it. A greenhouse is an unnatural environment, so we’ve had to deal
with some things over the years.
Mealy bugs -- most affective control is a Q-tip and alcohol. It’s also pretty non-toxic. Those bugs are very
hard to control on rhododendrons, and the best practice is a weekly sweep for it. There are systemics that
work on eradication, but again, they need to be re-applied regularly (check directions!) to really be
effective.
Aphids outside: First you have to control the ants that milk them for their honeydew, and treat the tree or
shrub for aphids with something like a systemic such as Orthene for ornamental plants or Malathion for
non-fruiting trees. We use a variety of methods to keep ants at bay. Talstar P is good, but Jamie at Plant It
Hawai’i also recommended the grocery store ant baiting stations. Always be careful with pesticides.
Websites:
Hawai’i Chapter:
Vireya.net:
American Rhododendron Society:
Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden:
Newsletter -- Viveya Vine:
Newsletter -- Vireya Venture:
Newsletter -- Viva Vireya:
www.hawaiivireyaars.org
www.vireya.net
www.rhododendron.org
www.rhodygarden.org
www.rhodygarden.org
www.vireya.net
www.hawaiivireyaars.org
Have you got some favorite sites that aren’t list Send them to me (jane@whitecloudnursery.com) and I’ll
add them to next months newsletter.
Viva Vireya Page 4 August 2012