Ti is the quintessential Hawaiian plant, and it's enjoying a renaissance of popularity.

It is said to bring good luck. Foodies love it for the flavor and moisture it imparts to food. The deep-starchy-rooted "survivor" plant has helped Polynesians and South East Asians survive times of famine.

Also known as ki and la'i in Hawai'i, ti is such a great plant for the garden; for an instant hostess gift that will keep on growing; for color in the garden — all kinds of things.

The other day, I was admiring our ti garden at the Hale Koa Hotel's lu'au garden. Expert gardener Maggie Bilermo does such a good job of arranging, planting and displaying them to the best advantage.

Ti plants comes in so many variations of leaf size, shape, form and color. They are tough, clean, less thirsty than other plants and have few pests or garden problems.

The bright green, deep red, white, pink, orange and other cheerful color combinations of ti leaves can look like flowers even in the shade (most real flowering plants need maximum sunlight to bloom with vigor). They also look great in even our deepest winter gloom.

At the Hale Koa, tourists and families on R&R admire the ti garden and ask how to grow them on the Mainland. Local folks attending a wedding, anniversary or keiki lu'au take family photos in front of the ti. One nice Hawaiian lady, a retired city recreation specialist and champion lei maker, who was planning a party in the garden told me, "Wow, with all these colorful ti, I hardly need to do any extra decorating in here!'

My neighbor does an attractive Christmas-light display, and I told her how much I enjoyed it before I drove to work at 0-dark-30 on a winter morning. She put colored lights in the kupukupu fern, red lights in the bamboo and pretty white ones in a tricolor ti with fat, twisty leaves.

"Say, the next time you trim that ti, can I have a piece, Sally?" "Sure," she replied, "in fact there's one back here that needs to go."

So she shared this beautiful stalk of ti with me. I've stuck it in a vase for now, decorated with red chili pepper lights next to the Norfolk pine. SOOO Martha Stewart — with Palolo Valley modifications!

Best of all, after enjoying the ti stalk in a vase for a week or so, we can plant it in the garden and share it in the future.

During the Honolulu Marathon, I cut tall, classic green ti for a display we did for Kapi'olani Park at the Convention Center. My friends Mike and Alethea helped set up the arrangement of Buddha-belly bamboo, tall red and pink ginger and the big-leaved, momona-hula-dancer style ti stalks.

"After we break down the booth and arrangement, take this home and propagate it, OK?" I told Mike and Alethea. They just moved into a new place with few plants, and every garden needs a green ti.

We need ti for luck, to make laulau, to wrap and bake that special moi or 'opakapaka, to make pu'olo for a special lei or gift presentations, to make raincoats and even sandals. Hula dancers need ti to make their swaying skirts.

A cool, clean ti leaf dipped in ice water and laid on your fevered brow, or over your tired eyes, is a remedy for a fever, headache or too much wild hau'oli.

One thing that makes ti a great xeriscaping (low-water needs) plant is its deep, starchy roots. Even if you cut it down, it will resprout. In days of old, Hawaiians used massive ki plants to mark ahupua'a boundaries. The ti will sprout and the truth will come out.

European sailors fermented the ti starch in metal pots and "made some rather fine brandy." Later 'okolehao, a very potent spirit, was made. It got some people through Prohibition.

Most of us grow ti, or Cordyline, which is in the lily family Liliaceae, from the stalks. Poke them into a pot or the ground, or lay them down sideways like you do for sugar cane, and half bury the stalk. Water daily. Little shoots will come up from the horizontal piece.

Sometimes ti will flower, and you can admire the flower stalk filled with tiny six-petaled lily-like blossoms. Plant breeders and ti fanciers cross-pollinate the flowers, wait for the berries to form and then plant the tiny seeds. This is how we get all those nice new varieties.

The secret to growing them in other places is to water with pure water that has no fluoride or chlorine in it. Ti is sensitive to these chemicals, just as we are. In places where these toxins are added to the water, use rain or well water, bottled water or pour tap water in a bucket and stir it occasionally for a week or so, let the chemicals dissipate and then water the precious ti plants.

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