Creation of my Hawaiian Garden - Horizon View Hilo

[Hilo Jason]

More front yard plantings...

Dypsis Sp?  (This is going to be a monster Dypsis.  Bill Austin has posted pics of his here on Palm Talk and it's very impressive)

1 gallon Iriartea Deltoidea:

1 gallon Dypsis Bejoufa.  After seeing how big these get here, I gave this one a lot of room, right in the middle of the front yard.  One day this will be one of the main attractions of the front yard.  Simply incredible and huge palms! Now I just need to wait...

1 gallon Dypsis Nauseosa:

More to come soon.  I've got to get outside and work in the yard a bit and take advantage of fact that it's not raining! 

[knell]

Jason, you are doing it so right in so many ways! Showstopper species with a landscaping eye, thanks for the timeline and progress photos. Well on its way to being a mind boggling half acre jungle.

[Hilo Jason]

13 hours ago, knell said:

Jason, you are doing it so right in so many ways! Showstopper species with a landscaping eye, thanks for the timeline and progress photos. Well on its way to being a mind boggling half acre jungle.

Thanks Mike!  Stop by anytime! 

[Hilo Jason]

More shopping, picked up a couple of Dypsis Lastelliana from Bill Austin to plant along our road leading up to our driveway.  So interesting that when these are juvenile, the leaves shoot out almost parallel with the ground, then as they mature they become very upright. 

In the ground.  The Dypsis Nauseosa I mentioned earlier is centered and behind these 2. 

Both of these Dypsis Lastelliana have the mealy bug type markings on them.  

[Hilo Jason]

Picked up a couple of real nice Carpoxylon Macrospermum from Jeff and Suchin @ Floribunda:

In the ground lining our road, with Mercy showing offer her best Vanna White impression.  The clumping palm behind these is one of two Ptychosperma Macarthurii that was here when we bought the home that we decided to keep.  

Looking the other way now and you can also see a row of palms planted that will one day give us some nice privacy from the main road.  This row of palms consists of: 6 - Pinanga Coronata, 2 - Areca Vestiaria Red and 2 - Dypsis Lanceolata.  It's interesting to note that the D. Lanceolata came from seed from a tree at Floribunda that Suchin calls a "Robust Lanceolata" as it's a bit thicker and not quite as tall as other Lanceolatas.  I'm hoping these palms keep those same traits. 

And a closer view of this row of palms out front that will one day provide a nice screen / privacy hedge.  

 

[Hilo Jason]

Panoramic view of the front yard / street with these new plantings:

[Hilo Jason]

Some more front yard plantings.  Trying my best to allow a good amount of space in between these plantings as I know these can become big palms.  But it feels a bit funny now when they are small and spaced out 12 - 15 feet apart! 

Dypsis Sp? 

Dypsis Betefaka / Blue Decipiens

Dypsis Sp Dark Mealy Bug:

And a wider view of the Dark Mealy Bug and Rocky checking out the mystery Dypsis Sp?

[GottmitAlex]

24 minutes ago, Hilo Jason said:

Some more front yard plantings.  Trying my best to allow a good amount of space in between these plantings as I know these can become big palms.  But it feels a bit funny now when they are small and spaced out 12 - 15 feet apart! 

Dypsis Sp? 

Dypsis Betefaka / Blue Decipiens

Dypsis Sp Dark Mealy Bug:

And a wider view of the Dark Mealy Bug and Rocky checking out the mystery Dypsis Sp?

Spectacular, Jason! 

You guys hit a home run with that plot.

Keep 'em coming!

 

[Hilo Jason]

Thanks Alex.  We feel the same way.  Couldn't be happier here with this home, garden and island life overall. 

 

[Hilo Jason]

More front yard plantings...

Dypsis Leucomalla:

Cyrtostachys Renda, but with an orange crownshaft instead of red.  

On the left is a 1 gallon Burretiokentia Grandiflora and to the right of that, along that rockwall is Areca Vestiaria Red.  The fried palm behind the burretiokentia is a Calyptrocalyx that is now recovering (I hope).  I'm trying to plant a solid row of palms along this rock wall to give privacy one day from the neighbor house.  So you might see some other palms in this area that.  I've put in several 4" and 1 gallon clumping Pinangas, etc...  It will be thick one day! 

Areca Vestiaria Orange as seen through a couple of Archontophoenix Alexandrae trunks.  This one is planted high because I hit solid rock when digging down.  So I used some rocks to create a wall around it and back filled it in.  

[Hilo Jason]

1 gallon Dypsis Ovobontsira:

And another wide view of part of the front yard.  Two Dypsis Lastelliana in the foreground and the other palms listed previously behind them.  This gives a good view of the spacing I am trying to keep in between all of these palms.  Meanwhile working with what is already here like the fruit trees, palms, etc....  

[Hilo Jason]

Back to the planter in front of the house.  I added in some more Ti plants and a couple palms.  In the back is a Dypsis Psammophila.  Areca Catechu front in the middle and Areca Macrocalyx on the far right. 

Different angle:

And around the corner, this section is in front of our guest apartment downstairs.  The clumping palm in the foreground is Pinanga Adangensis.  On the left of that with the orange crownshaft is Pinanga Caesia. The large clumping palm with red seed on it is our other Ptychosperma Macarthurii that was here already.  

Closer view of Pinanga Caesia with a couple of small 4" Pinanga Caesia planted below it so it will be a nice triple one day.  

Also planted a Pinanga Philippinensis in this section.  I really like the blue-ish colored crownshaft on these.  As you can see, I really enjoy Pinanga palms and am excited to be growing a lot of them here. 

[knell]

you will thank yourself later for spacing the palms out, and they will reward you as well for the forethought! 

also the robust form of lanceolata is very apparent from 1gal stage onward - much more suited for landscaping in my opinion, just slightly messy

[tinman10101]

thank you for this thread jason.  quite possibly one of the best reads on palmtalk currently that i will certainly follow for a long long time.  we all patiently wait as your beautiful palm oasis matures and take as much pleasure (virtually and visually) in seeing all your hard work pay off.  cheers to you

tin

[5150cycad]

Man I can’t believe how much you have gotten done in such a short period of time. Your place is looking great and gets better every day. One of my favorite threads on the forum. Keep up all the hard work as it sure is paying off. 

[Tracy]

17 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

Both of these Dypsis Lastelliana have the mealy bug type markings on them.  

What a transformation Jason!  Sounds like you have been working full time at this between the tear out, cleanup, hauling, digging and planting.  I can appreciate your enthusiasm, as it is contagious.  You have brought many smiles with this thread.  Someday I hope to visit and see your garden along with many others on the Big Island.  What is amazing is the size of so many of the plants you have acquired.  Also the species you can now grow that you never could have back in Fallbrook.  Not only will I be looking forward to see what else you plant, but to see the progression as well.  Thanks for sharing it all!

[Matt in OC]

Just incredible. More proof that you guys in Hawaii are playing on a completely different field from the rest of us. Enjoy!

[Palm Tree Jim]

On 5/21/2018, 2:07:22, Hilo Jason said:

Thanks for the posts everyone! 

Monover - It really is a dream come true in many ways, not just for the plants but also for the laid back island lifestyle that I enjoy thoroughly. 

jimmyt - Yeah, the view here is what attracted us, and the fact that I can plant almost as much as I like without blocking the view.  It's the perfect set up for us.  More pics to come soon.  Keep an eye on this thread! 

Jim - only took me 8 months to finally start this thread, hopefully you can make it out in person soon!

ChrisJordan - Thanks

quaman - Most everything I've shown so far that I bought from Jeff would all be too big to ship.  And most of the stuff I'm buying from Floribunda is not certified to ship as it's not grown on the benches there, but outside on the ground.  Once stuff gets too big to ship, it gets potted up and sold to those of us who are lucky enough to live out here.  It feels too good to be true and I smile the entire time on my 25 minute drive home from Floribunda.

Chris - thanks! You spent a lot of time in my Fallbrook garden, hopefully you can make it out this way as well. 

Tim - It's a privilege to be your neighbor and I'm so thankful that anytime I stop by your place I come home with plants!  Thank you!  Your place was a huge inspiration for me before we moved here since we are so close, at the same elevation and have similar sized lots.  Once I saw what you were able to do in a short amount of time, I started packing my bags!

Colin - Thanks for the kind words.  I am a bit impatient as I'm waiting to really see the growth but I know this first year will be a time of everything getting rooted into the ground before I see much happening above ground.  I just want to see that rapid Hawaiian growth kick in already!  And yeah, buying plants from Bill is amazing.  Very well grown and cared for. And yes, having Tim as a neighbor is great and I get to peak over at his jungle every morning after dropping my daughter off at school.

Of course I plan to visit!

[Matt in OC]

21 hours ago, knell said:

you will thank yourself later for spacing the palms out, and they will reward you as well for the forethought! 

also the robust form of lanceolata is very apparent from 1gal stage onward - much more suited for landscaping in my opinion, just slightly messy

Is this robust lanceolata one of the two previously discussed here? One has a new peach leaf but I can’t remember the other discernible traits. Thanks!

[ChrisA]

How exciting!  That’s going to look so beautiful. Certainly a dream come true. I’ll have to also live vicariously through your beautiful post!  Thanks for sharing the transformation of your yard with us!

[Hilo Jason]

22 hours ago, tinman10101 said:

thank you for this thread jason.  quite possibly one of the best reads on palmtalk currently that i will certainly follow for a long long time.  we all patiently wait as your beautiful palm oasis matures and take as much pleasure (virtually and visually) in seeing all your hard work pay off.  cheers to you

tin

Wow, thanks for the compliments.  I've learned so much over the years on Palm Talk and I'm always happy when I can contribute to the forum in some way.  

Many more pictures still to come to get caught up with present day plantings.  What's posted now is September - December of 2017.  Quite a bit more has been planted in the the past 5 months!  

I'm slowly working on going through the pictures and will keep posting as I have the time.  

 

[Hilo Jason]

19 hours ago, 5150cycad said:

Man I can’t believe how much you have gotten done in such a short period of time. Your place is looking great and gets better every day. One of my favorite threads on the forum. Keep up all the hard work as it sure is paying off. 

Thank you, I really appreciate it!  I'm just thankful that my back and body has allowed me to put in the work.  I'm 39 years old but feel like I have the back of an 89 year old sometimes!  But I can say that the constant temperature here and lack of cold has really helped my back pain overall.  Another benefit of moving here! 

 

[Hilo Jason]

11 hours ago, Matt in OC said:

Just incredible. More proof that you guys in Hawaii are playing on a completely different field from the rest of us. Enjoy!

Believe me, I know all about that first hand after developing my Fallbrook garden.  I never really thought living here would be a reality, but I'm sure loving it.  And I'm loving the fact that I no longer have to plant everything in gopher cages, or worry about irrigation!  Those 2 things alone really gives me a lot more time to plant things.  I always thought it took more time preparing and setting up a planting in California than actually doing the planting.  

Of course there are some exceptions here.  I spent over an hour a couple of days ago here just trying to get a big rock out of the ground!  I didn't have that problem in California, but I love the fact that I can then use that rock somewhere in the landscape here! 

 

[Hilo Jason]

2 hours ago, Matt in OC said:

Is this robust lanceolata one of the two previously discussed here? One has a new peach leaf but I can’t remember the other discernible traits. Thanks!

Yeah, and it does seem to open a peach colored new leaf.  I will try to get a picture of a big one when I am at Floribunda next, or maybe Knell can post one for us to see.  

[Hilo Jason]

Up next are some more new purchases which got planted within 1-2 days of coming home with me.  

First up is this 15 gallon Dypsis Robusta.  My wife is checking it out and wondering if I'm nuts with how many palms I buy out here! 

Starting to show off the white coloring and red fuzz that is so great on these:

And a few more.  The tallest palm is a very overgrown 5 gallon Heterospathe Barfodii.  There's also a Dictyocaryum Lamarckianum and the smallest palm is a 1 gallon Dypsis Pilulifera.  

A closer look to see the blue coloring starting to show on the Dictyocaryum Lamarckianum

[Hilo Jason]

12 hours ago, Tracy said:

What a transformation Jason!  Sounds like you have been working full time at this between the tear out, cleanup, hauling, digging and planting.  I can appreciate your enthusiasm, as it is contagious.  You have brought many smiles with this thread.  Someday I hope to visit and see your garden along with many others on the Big Island.  What is amazing is the size of so many of the plants you have acquired.  Also the species you can now grow that you never could have back in Fallbrook.  Not only will I be looking forward to see what else you plant, but to see the progression as well.  Thanks for sharing it all!

Thanks Tracy!  I'm always happy to bring some smiles and interest to palms! I hope you can visit someday, that would be great.  It really is amazing to be able to start off with some nice sized plants here.  I honestly wasn't sure if I would be able to at first since I didn't know if I would be trying to dig in solid rock or not.  Thankfully I ended up having a good amount of soil to work with, so when I discovered that I started buying more of the larger sized plants.  

And as far as the species I can grow here, tell me about it!  At first I wasn't really buying anything that I did grow in Fallbrook because I wanted to only grow more tropical stuff, but I've slowly started making exceptions with some palms that you will see posted soon.

[Hilo Jason]

And here they are in the ground...

Dypsis Robusta:

Looking from the street this time, the Dypsis Robusta is planted in between, and set back, from the two Carpoxylon Macrospermum.  The idea is to make this Robusta a focal point of the front yard. 

Dictyocaryum lamarckianum:

Heterospathe Barfodii, a bit yellow from being in a 5 gallon pot, but it has already greened up nicely since planting.  (progress pics to come after I catch up with planting pics)

Dypsis Pilulifera:

 

Looks like that's all I have time to post tonight.  Enjoy, and I hope everyone is having a great weekend! 

 

[Chatta]

Wow!!! Amazing work. Cute pupper too

[QUINNPALMS]

Finally got a chance to check out your thread Jason! WOW! looking so good !!  

[GottmitAlex]

Jason when and if you can, please get in touch with Bill Merrill in Puna. He mentioned to me he wishes to reacquaint himself with the palm world, however his friend who knows a lot about Arecaceae species, I don't know who he is, lost his home and palms last week do to the lava, err, sulphur in.the air.

He's 1600ft above sea level in Puna. If by chance you can coordinate a meet/chat his YouTube channel is greengardenguy1  (kinda talks like John Wayne, sometimes)

https://youtu.be/jJM6Ba5zq-M

Edited June 7, 2018 by GottmitAlex

[GottmitAlex]

Can't edit my post. If opportune. Not a fire drill or anything of that nature.

 

[Hilo Jason]

Ok, time to get back at it here.  So far, almost all of the planting has been in the front part of our property here which is between our home and the main road.  It was my goal to get a lot of palms planted out in front first so they could get rooted and start growing, getting us some privacy a bit quicker.  But now that there is quite a bit planted, it's time to work on the back yard.  

A couple of panoramic shots first to show the back yard now that trees are cleared, the never ending piles of greenwaste has either been hauled or mulched, and mulch is starting to make its way around the yard, slowly but surely, one wheelbarrow at a time. 

And from the back corner, looking towards the house.

[Hilo Jason]

Up first was this small planter area.  The stump you see in the middle was some sort of fan palm, I'm honestly not sure what type it was.  It wasn't a Pritchardia of any type.  It had some thorns but was not a washingtonia.  Regardless of what it was, it was taking up way too much space so it had to go! 

And in this picture below I am standing on the stump, looking down.  There were some pineapple plants all clumped together which is all I saved in this area, and spaced them out a bit with the new plantings that would come in this area.  I have since learned that these are White Pineapples and they are just about ready now as I type this.  

Mandatory Rocky picture below.  But you can see the planter behind him now cleaned out a bit and starting to come together.  Also, quite a bit of potted palms on his right, waiting to get in the ground!

[Hilo Jason]

I just realized I didn't take pictures of this planter from the same angle, once it was planted, so these will have to do.  This picture below is to the right of the old palm stump, which is just out of this photo.  To the right of the stump (I don't have a good picture) are some very small palms for now, so as they grow, they will show up on this thread.  

But here in this picture on the far right is Ptychococcus paradoxus, then working to the left are 2 - Hydriastele Beguinii - Obi Island Form, behind those is a Hydriastele Cylindrocarpa, Hydriastele Drainsfieldii and then 2 - Areca Macrocalyx.  

Looking at this same planter from a different angle:

I must admit that I was very unfamiliar with Hydriastele before moving to Hawaii since I don't think they would survive in California, you never see them there.  These are stunning palms and I'm exciting to be growing several here now! 

And now stepping back and down a bit further, you can see how this planter above is now connecting into this lower planter.  The three palms planted in a group in the foreground are Pinanga Maculata.

 

[Hilo Jason]

A few more wider shots of this planter area that leads down a bit into the backyard.  When we bought this place, this was solid brush, ginger plants, weeds, etc...  I couldn't get anywhere into this area so I cleared it all and then saw that we were working with a sloped area which I was excited about as I envisioned pathways leading around this area, around the avocado trees that had just received a major pruning! 

As in the front yard, rocks that I found in the yard or dug up became planter walls.

I had uncovered some big pieces of concrete in the front yard that had all been piled up with rocks and broken up asphalt.  So I am starting to haul those into that back yard now to re-use them in the yard as steps and stepping stones.

Another shot of some of the concrete pieces below.  

 

[Hilo Jason]

If you keep going down from this area, you can see where the pruned Avocado trees are in relation to this part of the yard:

And from the lower part of the yard, looking back up:

This picture below shows the idea of stairs and a pathway coming to life in this area that was just brush and weeds originally:

[Hilo Jason]

The morning light showing off the progress.  The stairs and pathway now lead to the grass below.  Lava rocks line the path, re-used concrete pieces are the stepping stones and black cinder will be used for the inside of the pathway around the stepping stones.  

Palms are starting to go in now as well.  On the left is Dypsis Sp Ambanja (the heeled one) and on the right is Dypsis Ovobontsira.  There are a couple of other dypsis in here as well as 2 - Dypsis Saintelucei on the right of the pathway.

And this is up above looking down the other way to show that the pathway goes around the avocados on that side as well.  

And it then comes out below like this: 

Lots of potted palms are stored in this area, waiting for their chance to be planted:

And the Green Anoles seem to love this part of the yard.  They do seem a bit territorial and they seem to let the Day Geckos have other parts of the yard.  Interesting relationships in the garden!

 

[Hilo Jason]

It's good to stop digging and hauling rocks around every once in a while so you can actually enjoy the view and see what's happening around you!  

Ok, but gotta keep working...

[Hilo Jason]

I wanted the perfect palm to be planted where this pathway met up with the grass.  I decided to go with one of my favorites - Dypsis Hovomantsina.  And this 15 gallon was ready to go! 

Happily planted and stretching it's roots out a bit:

[Hilo Jason]

And then directly across from the Dypsis Hovomantsina, I planted this 15 gallon Cyphophoenix Nucele:

And not too far away from the Dypsis Hovomantsina, I planted this mystery and soon to be huge Dypsis.  Bill Austin has a thread here with pictures of this thing in his yard.  It's looking like it will be a Prestoniana on steroids!  I'm very happy to have one of these in both my front yard and back yard? 

Wider view of the Dypsis Sp? on the left and then a Kentiopsis Pyriformis on the right.  Most of the bananas in the background will eventually come out, but for now at least they give some privacy while we wait for the palms to grow.  

And here's a different view showing a bit more of this part of the yard as it's starting to fill in.