While plants are in a white Narnia-like deep freeze on the East Coast, Hawai'i's winter gardens are in bloom. Here's where to see what.

As you leave Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden, at Anoi Road and Likelike Highway, look beyond the subdivision across the street to what looks like a bright white sea of snow. That's the snow creeper, Poranopsis paniculata, or Christmas vine, that's in bloom. This old-fashioned vining beauty, which also grows by Kapena Falls, is not common in Hawai'i gardens today. I saw it on an old "Hawaii Five-0" episode, featuring the Nu'uanu pagoda, filmed when the trees were much shorter; a vine grows there to this day. It's related to favorite vines like the wood rose, native beach vines pa'u o Hi'iaka and pohuehue, as well as beta carotene-rich foods such as 'uala or sweet potato and leafy green ung choy.

A gardenia in December? Sure — na'u, Gardenia brighamii, is blooming wonderfully. The Hawaiian endangered species is tough, floriferous and less of a pest magnet than the double Chinese gardenia. With the coming of each full moon, it sends out a bunch of buds at night. Thanks to local nursery growers this fragrant-flowered tree, has been propagated back from near extinction.

A few magnolias are in flower and their ripening seed pods are the main show, glowing pink in the evening light, and later stuffed with red fruit, amid the intricate seeds pods. The leaves are rusty velvet on the underside and shiny green gloss on top. Magnolias are the perfect street tree — they're small to medium size after many years of growth, are not a weedy pest and the roots do not aggressively lift the sidewalks. They thrive in Palolo Valley where they're the official street tree. Magnolia branches are used to decorate Washington Place.

Some early 'ohi'a lehua cultivars are in bloom and a variety of our state flower hibiscus mao hau hele, also surprised me with its early buds and blooms in golden pau hana yellow (it usually doesn't bloom until February).

The classic red poinsettias, Euphorbia pulcherrima, are wonderful as Christmas decor, but there also are lovely alternatives, such as the fragrant white poinsettia, Euphorbia leucocephala. The white poinsettia is easy to grow from large woody cuttings, just like the old-fashioned varieties of the more prevalent red poinsettia. This plant can grow in a pot but looks gorgeous in the ground in Hawai'i gardens. It has many names, including snow on the mountain, flor de nino, pascuita and puno puno. I have one about 4-feet tall at my entry gate, a gift from my garden-loving, tutu-down-the-street neighbor, Mrs. Toyoko Nishiki.

Poinsettias are among the easiest of potted flowering plants and will keep going after December. The key is watering and wind protection. Like orchids, they don't like "wet feet." At the sink, let water flow through the potting soil and drain. Return them to the decorative foil, or holiday liner. They usually need water only once or twice a week. Keep up the watering regime and they will grow for months. Protect them from strong wind, as the branches are fragile. You can trim to shape, or cut them back if they need it in the "A" months — August and April.

Another holiday alternative: The red or orange shrimp plant. Mine is from May Moir and her granddaughter Susanne Zola.

Finally, now is the time to trim your puakenikeni, to keep it in shape for lei making. Pluck off the orange fruits to promote blooming.

Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable-landscape consultant. Send questions to: Island Life, The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; or islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com. Letters may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.