Creation of my Hawaiian Garden - Horizon View Hilo

[Palm Tree Jim]

Well done my friend!

[Hilo Jason]

43 minutes ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Well done my friend!

Thanks Jim!  

[Firepalm]

Loved your garden in Fallbrook, but I think this one will be even better.  Impressed with how much you have accomplished already.  Good work dude!

[Dave-Vero]

Amazing being able to fetch palms from Floribunda.  Not that we don't have some great nurseries in Florida.  

The growth rates you'll get should be 'way ahead of Florida, with its pauses for dry and cold.  Not to mention our soil problems.  

The remake of the property looks very smart.  Obviously a huge mess to get rid of a lot of stuff (the disposed-of fan palm looked vaguely like a Livistona), but in your climate, no reason to put up with less than totally desirable stuff.  

It would be interesting to see someone try a garden of dry Cuban palms over on the Kona side.  Coccothrinax and such.  I don't know whether Hawaii has suitable climates for the giant Copernicia species (baileyana, fallaensis, and gigas).

 

[Hilo Jason]

13 hours ago, Firepalm said:

Loved your garden in Fallbrook, but I think this one will be even better.  Impressed with how much you have accomplished already.  Good work dude!

Thank you!  I appreciate that. It's been very enjoyable to work on this garden. 

[Hilo Jason]

10 hours ago, Dave-Vero said:

Amazing being able to fetch palms from Floribunda.  Not that we don't have some great nurseries in Florida.  

The growth rates you'll get should be 'way ahead of Florida, with its pauses for dry and cold.  Not to mention our soil problems.  

The remake of the property looks very smart.  Obviously a huge mess to get rid of a lot of stuff (the disposed-of fan palm looked vaguely like a Livistona), but in your climate, no reason to put up with less than totally desirable stuff.  

It would be interesting to see someone try a garden of dry Cuban palms over on the Kona side.  Coccothrinax and such.  I don't know whether Hawaii has suitable climates for the giant Copernicia species (baileyana, fallaensis, and gigas).

 

Very true about nurseries in Florida being great.  Jeff Searle has amazing plants as well as Redlands and so many others that I had the privilege to visit years back.  

I am very eager to start seeing more growth happening here, although I have already seen a bit. But with this being the first year I know everything needs to get roots down. And this was a wetter than average year which means less sun too. I believe we are at about 250" of rain in the 11 months we've been here! Compared to the annual average of about 140". So lots of grey days that I'm sure slows down growth. 

I agree that it would be interesting to see a garden of Cuban palms here. I would think they could do great on the Kona side. I wish I had more space here and I would try some but I'm already at about capacity with what I can do. At least as far as big palms go. I'll be filling in a lot of small shade species in a few years I'm sure. I'm excited to get to that point and learn more about all the smaller palms that I'm not as familiar with now. 

[Dave-Vero]

Cuba's climate is like south Florida, only more so.  They really dry out in winter, as does much of the rest of the Caribbean.  The coast of Queensland seems a reasonable climate analog.  

Searle's done wonders for south Florida gardens, especially at a time when we're tending to lose specialty growers.  BTW, I realize the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden doesn't emphasize palms, but the lack of  labeling was annoying.  Otherwise a fine showcase of the more or less worldwide wet tropical garden flora.  

[knell]

On 8/30/2018, 8:47:51, Dave-Vero said:

Amazing being able to fetch palms from Floribunda.  Not that we don't have some great nurseries in Florida.  

The growth rates you'll get should be 'way ahead of Florida, with its pauses for dry and cold.  Not to mention our soil problems.  

The remake of the property looks very smart.  Obviously a huge mess to get rid of a lot of stuff (the disposed-of fan palm looked vaguely like a Livistona), but in your climate, no reason to put up with less than totally desirable stuff.  

It would be interesting to see someone try a garden of dry Cuban palms over on the Kona side.  Coccothrinax and such.  I don't know whether Hawaii has suitable climates for the giant Copernicia species (baileyana, fallaensis, and gigas).

 

you can grow fallaensis and bailey fairly easily on the wet side of the Big Island, so i’m guessing they would be spectacular on the Kona side. 

Jason: your garden is already drool worthy... great taste and a lot of elbow grease has paid off nicely already! Just amazing, you are living the dream properly.

Edited September 2, 2018 by knell

[Dave-Vero]

If fallaenis and baileyana grow well on the wet side, they're worth the wait for trunks.  Copernicia gigas lives in coastal areas where there has to be occasional saltwater flooding and salinity, so it might possibly be a bit odd.  Not quite a mangrove palm, but close.  Baileyana of course is spectacular as a youngster.  I'm lucky that a neighbor recently planted one.

 

[Cindy Adair]

Your almost one year old Hilo garden is amazing and makes even my biggest newly planted palms look like mere seedlings! 

It is inspirational to see what some of mine might grow into someday, thanks!

It looks like your Dypsis mananjarensis is in good sun (for Hilo) and doing well so that helps me too.

I do plan to get to the Big Island in the next year and would love a garden visit....

[Hilo Jason]

On 9/1/2018, 6:41:41, knell said:

you can grow fallaensis and bailey fairly easily on the wet side of the Big Island, so i’m guessing they would be spectacular on the Kona side. 

Jason: your garden is already drool worthy... great taste and a lot of elbow grease has paid off nicely already! Just amazing, you are living the dream properly.

Thanks Mike!  You'll have to stop by sometime to check it out in person. 

[Hilo Jason]

On 9/2/2018, 7:25:57, Cindy Adair said:

Your almost one year old Hilo garden is amazing and makes even my biggest newly planted palms look like mere seedlings! 

It is inspirational to see what some of mine might grow into someday, thanks!

It looks like your Dypsis mananjarensis is in good sun (for Hilo) and doing well so that helps me too.

I do plan to get to the Big Island in the next year and would love a garden visit....

Wow, thanks Cindy.  It's been a lot of fun and I'm very fortunate to have Bill Austin and Jeff Marcus close by, both supplying big, perfectly grown plants for me to start out with.  I can't take much credit since they've done all the work up to this point!  

As for the Dypsis Mananjarensis, they seem to do great in the "Full sun" here, which isn't really ever full sun since Hilo is usually cloudy for at least part of the day.  

You are more than welcome to visit whenever you make it to the Big Island.  It would be great to have you here.  

[Cindy Adair]

1 hour ago, Hilo Jason said:

Wow, thanks Cindy.  It's been a lot of fun and I'm very fortunate to have Bill Austin and Jeff Marcus close by, both supplying big, perfectly grown plants for me to start out with.  I can't take much credit since they've done all the work up to this point!  

As for the Dypsis Mananjarensis, they seem to do great in the "Full sun" here, which isn't really ever full sun since Hilo is usually cloudy for at least part of the day.  

You are more than welcome to visit whenever you make it to the Big Island.  It would be great to have you here.  

Thanks for the information and offer to let me visit!

[palmfriend]

Hi,

I am repeating myself but it is just great to see how your garden is coming into shape! 

And all those breathtaking plants!

It seems, as you mentioned, that the most of your palms took the planting very well - 

an update in two, three years will probably be jaw dropping...  

Please keep us posted,

best regards from Okinawa

Lars

 

[Hilo Jason]

On 9/3/2018, 8:54:39, palmfriend said:

Hi,

I am repeating myself but it is just great to see how your garden is coming into shape! 

And all those breathtaking plants!

It seems, as you mentioned, that the most of your palms took the planting very well - 

an update in two, three years will probably be jaw dropping...  

Please keep us posted,

best regards from Okinawa

Lars

 

Thank you Lars!  

[Hilo Jason]

Unfortunately I had a spear pull and a lot of rot on this soon to be giant Dypsis Sp.  I gave it a good push and the enter base snapped right off, so it wasn't going to have a chance of recovery if I would have just left it alone.  Here's the declining palm:

The good news is that I had bought a palm as Dypsis Tsaravoasira and planted it out in my back yard.  It has grown quickly and I believe it to be the same palm as this palm that just died.  It was going to be way too big for where it was planted in the back so I moved it to this area in the front yard. 

Here's what I bought as dypsis tsaravoasira that I believe to be the same, this is in the backyard pre-digging:

Dug up.  Due to there being a lot of rock in this area and hearing some snapping roots, I was a bit worried about moving it. 

And here it is in the front yard, in its new spot:

I marked the spear to check for new growth.  In 3 days it pushed 3", so according to the BS Man 3" rule, I'm thinking I'm in the clear! 

 

[Hilo Jason]

Since I now had an open spot in the backyard where I dug this out, I decided to plant this 1 gallon pelagodoxa henryana. 

The garden is always changing and I really enjoy that part of it.  I figure it's better to move these when they are still small and manageable.

[John hovancsek]

Great choice. I have been looking for one since I got to the big island. They are so hard to find 

[BS Man about Palms]

Looks like great changes.. and you KNOW that rule works...!  

[knell]

5 hours ago, John hovancsek said:

Great choice. I have been looking for one since I got to the big island. They are so hard to find 

i might know a guy 

[Tracy S]

Looks really good. Love the choices you are making!

 

[Hilo Jason]

A few more new additions to the garden.

Up first is a palm that was grown by Jeff and Suchin at Floribunda.  This palm came from seed off their own Dypsis Robusta.  Definitely a hyrbid of some sort as it's clearly not pure Robusta.  It's a pretty compact palm, but some of that could be due to the fact that it was in it's pot for awhile, and busting out of it's pot as you can see from this picture below.  Fronds are still tied up as I had just unloaded it at this point.  

Planted:

Another angle:

[Hilo Jason]

Up next was a Ptychosperma Sp. Woto Boto.  I can't find much online about this palm, so I'm looking forward to seeing what it turns into.  It has been a very fast grower in it's pot and had quickly outgrown the 2 gallon pot I put it in.  It's stayed solitary so far and has some nice white coloring on it.  anyone out there growing this palm? 

In it's new home in the back corner of our yard.  Growing in shade that it will grow up and out of soon. 

[Hilo Jason]

Now on to a few shade plantings.  I had picked up a few shade loving palms but wasn't sure where to put them yet.  We have a covered carport area that is shaded, so I figured that was a good place for these.  

Pinanga Sp Thai Mottled

Areca Oxycarpa

[Hilo Jason]

I also decided to move a palm in our front yard, before it got any bigger as I didn't want to risk losing it.  This is Masoala Madagascariensis and it's such a slow grower (even here) that I wanted to free up the place that it was planted for something that would get bigger and quicker (Probably Orania Trispatha).  

So here is the Masoala Madagascariensis in it's new home.  Seems like the move went well as I didn't hear any roots breaking.  

In the background are three of many Pinanga Coronata that I planted along the edge of our front yard to give us a privacy hedge from the main road.  These are now growing very quickly.  They were planted as 1 gallon plants less than a year ago (refer back to the beginning of this thread for pics) and they are now starting to get some trunk rings and even show signs of wanting to flower.  

[realarch]

Looking great Jason, the garden is coming along nicely.

Tim

[Hilo Jason]

That's about it for now.  I have several plants on deck to be planted soon, but I'm waiting for them to get a bit larger first.  Family is also visiting for a few weeks which means I won't have as much time in the garden.  

Thanks for looking. 

[Hilo Jason]

2 minutes ago, realarch said:

Looking great Jason, the garden is coming along nicely.

Tim

Thanks Tim! 

[Hilo Jason]

Not a lot of planting happening these days, so thought I would post some growth comparison pictures as some palms are really starting to show some nice growth.  

If you go back to the early part of this thread, you'll see this row of Pinanga Coronata were some of the first palms planted with hopes of providing a privacy screen from the road.  It's working!  

Pinanga Coronata - 1 year in the ground.  Before:

One Year later:

Rocky for Scale (and good looks):

[Hilo Jason]

Heterospathe Barfodii 

planted Dec. 2017

Amazing what 11 months and some fertilizer can do:

[Hilo Jason]

Driveway planter, loaded with palms and ti plants.  Tallest 2 palms in the middle, back row, are Areca Macrocalyx.  Palms on far left are Bentickia Condapanna.

December 2017

November 2018, 11 months later:

Close up on one of the Bentickia Condapannas:

And another one:

[realarch]

You get an A+ Jason, that's a good looking palm.

Tim

[Hilo Jason]

This is Hydriastele sp. 'East Sepik'.  A bit harder to tell the growth difference as it's hard to get back in this corner now to take a picture and I have to stand up on top of a rock wall.

8 months in the ground.

And notice the Areca Vestiaria on the other side of my fence which I gifted to my neighbor :-)

[Hilo Jason]

It's a rainy day here in Hilo so I figured it was a good time to post some long overdue updates.  We've actually had a very dry start to 2019 with only about 4" of rain total for the year so far.  Lots of hand watering over the past few weeks, so today's rain is very welcomed! 

With the majority of my yard planted out, I've been looking for ways to enlarge existing planters and create some new ones.  Eliminating grass and creating more space for palms and companion plants.  

Here's a small project, before:

After, enlarged a bit: 

The small new palm in the middle is Dypsis Sp Metallic Ovobontsira.  On the far right is Areca Catechu (semi dwarf).  The open space in between will be used for more pineapples. 

Even at a young age, "Metallic Ovobontsira" shows the metallic tinge on the leaflets.  And already showing color on base of the palm.  Gotta love Dypsis! 

 

[Hilo Jason]

Up next was a much larger part of the front yard area that was grass, that I wanted to cover with mulch and create planter space.  There were already palms in this area, but the intent was always to somehow connect them so they looked planned out and not just random palms planted in a lawn.  

My 1988 Ford Ranger has been with me for all of my gardening adventures and has hauled an incredible amount of mulch, dirt and plants over the years.  It's still working hard here in Hilo! 

Spreading mulch....

Opposite angle...

Filled in, and rocks collected from other parts of the yard (and dug up) and used to create a small border...

Opposite angle...

Look at all that new planting space!  And less grass to have to mow! 

[Hilo Jason]

Thanks to some incredible neighbors, I was able to get a good amount of Ti clippings to fill in a lot of the space in this planter. 

And squeezed in some new palm plantings as well.  

The below palm is Dypsis Lafa or sometimes has been called Dwarf Saintelucei.  This was moved from another part of the yard into this spot. 

Ravenea Julietiae 

Dypsis Sp. Lafazamanga.  I have one in my backyard that has grown really fast and is a beautiful palm, so I figured I should have one in the front yard too.  

[Hilo Jason]

Taking a break from hauling mulch and creating new planters, I took some time in the back yard to work with existing planters and fill in some spots that needed more palms! 

First up (below) is Dypsis Sp. Ambanja.  This was originally planted too close to an Avocado tree.  As this palm grows, its looking like it will be a larger Dypsis so I wanted to give it some more space.  I'm hoping it survives the move.  

Picked up this Dypsis Prestoniana from Jerry Andersen in a 5 gallon pot.  I had a smaller one in the ground, but wanted another.  

And in place of where the Dypsis Sp Ambanja was planted, I put in this Basselinia Eriostachys (Fine Leaf)

And this is Pinanga Bicolana: 

[Hilo Jason]

The Hawaii Island Palm Society just had it's annual auction where I picked up this 2 gallon Dypsis Prestoniana.  I figured I didn't have one in the front yard yet, so might as well plant one! 

Planted in it's new home.  This is the spot that the Dypsis Lafa / Dwarf Saintelucei was in before. 

And on the left of the Prestoniana is what I believe to be a Prestoniana x Madagascariensis hybrid.  So I wanted to be able to watch and compare these as they grow.

[Hilo Jason]

 I needed to swap out a struggling palm (small Dypsis Nauseosa) with a palm I am very excited to be able to have in my garden.  

Here's the unhappy Dypsis Nauseosa. 

It had a spear rot issue when young and has taken awhile to recover.  I was able to get a large 15 gallon Nauseosa that is planted nearby this one, so I figured I would use this prime spot in the front for something else.  

This spot will now go to Attalea Funifera

In the ground:

I then brought in some more mulch to connect this area and make it a planter. 

And planted two of these Hydriastele Splendida to fill in some space eventually.

[Hilo Jason]

There's another large planter in the works now.  I'll post pictures once I'm able to take some and complete it a bit more.  I'm taking a break from hauling mulch for a few days!  For now, I'll leave you with this photo below.  Shortly after I finished these planters, we had some amazing rainbows on display.  

As always, thanks for looking.