Being in Hawaii always brings memories of my dad. Many memories, unfortunately are of his sickness, the cancer that took his life. But there are many good memories, as well, found in old photo albums, recollections of Grandma, and a Vanilla Plant.
Growing up, Dad and Mom always had some sort of garden. Of course, I never paid too much attention to who planted and weeded and watered. I guess they both did. In retirement, Dad took a class on the Vanilla Plant at the Lyons Arboretum. Here they started a slip of the plant and learned how to care for it. It seems that the Vanilla Plant is high maintenance, requiring frequent fertilization to maintain its health. Also, because the wasp that pollinated the Vanilla Flower is not found in Hawaii, the Vanilla Plant must be pollinated by hand. Dad never did get to see the Vanilla Flower, as this is the first year it has blossomed, but Mom has continued to care for the plant, reading Dad's notes and making calls to the Arboretum. Mom and I have been carefully pollinating the new flowers every morning. The Vanilla Flower opens in morning and only has one day of life before it withers and falls. After downloading pictures from the internet and tweaking our technique a bit, we now have the beginnings of Vanilla Beans! It has been a fun experience and I am anxious to watch these Beans develop (although I think they have a nine month growing period). We have a few more days of buds left to pollinate and every morning, I think of Dad and thank God for the wonderful man that he was.
