Here we go again - creating Pepe'ekeo Palm Paradise

[Hilo Jason]

The year long process of building our home is complete (still painting though)!  This was a huge job for me as I was doing this all as an Owner Builder.
 

The garden was neglected as I managed workers, dug trenches, installed water lines and anything else that needed to be done.  We moved in on July 3 and I’m just now getting back to planting in the garden. 
 

Suubi agrees that waking up to this view just doesn’t feel real!  I installed stainless cable railings and love how they turned out. Still need to paint the deck, hopefully next week. 

Morning garden walks have been incredible and it’s a treat to experience this garden in the early morning

[Hilo Jason]

A few new plantings from the past couple of days, Yellow Latan:

 

Chrysalidocarpus Malcomberi:

2 Carpoxylon Macrospermum:

and in the same planter as the Carpoxylon, there are 2 Chrysalidocarpus Pembana to the left. 

My Pinanga Coronata hedge is filling in nicely but I want another layer of privacy from the neighbor house so the Pembana should take care of that. 

[Hilo Jason]

And here are some random garden updates from this evening:

 

Chrysalidocarpus Hovomantsina hybrid flowering:

[Hilo Jason]

Chrysalidocarpus Sp Ambanja on right and C. ifanadianae on left, this is the pathway into the Madagascar planter:

 

sunset:

entrance into the New Cal planter through 2 Kentiopsis Pyriformis:

and the other side of the new Cal planter, chambeyronia Houailou:

[Hilo Jason]

3 Clinostigma Samonense outline this planter, with several pritchardia also in there, just hard to see as they are struggling and slow growing 

 

3 Clinostigma Ponapense with a Samoan dwarf coconut

plenty of palms on deck, waiting to be planted as I find the time. Fresh load of mulch ready to go too. Not enough hours in the day. 

stay posted for more updates, thanks for looking! 

[happypalms]

Paradise absolutely beautiful 🌱

[Tracy]

4 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

The year long process of building our home is complete (still painting though)!  This was a huge job for me as I was doing this all as an Owner Builder.
 

The garden was neglected as I managed workers, dug trenches, installed water lines and anything else that needed to be done.  We moved in on July 3 and I’m just now getting back to planting in the garden. 
 

Suubi agrees that waking up to this view just doesn’t feel real!  I installed stainless cable railings and love how they turned out. Still need to paint the deck, hopefully next week. 

Morning garden walks have been incredible and it’s a treat to experience this garden in the early morning

You are reaping the rewards of all that hard work of getting the permits, the design work and actual construction of your beautiful home.  Congratulations Jason!  We are enjoying the photos.  You are creating an incentive to plan another Big Island trip to see the changes in person. 

[Rob123]

This is my favorite thread on Palm Talk and I have always enjoyed the updates on both properties. I love your Madagascar and New Cal collections!

[deezpalms]

You did such a great job with everything. I also have a Madagascan section and a New Caledonian section but no where near the size of your garden 

[flplantguy]

What i would do to be there with a garden. Plants are my life, especially the types that grow there, and a place there is my dream. The garden looks amazing too of course!

[Hilo Jason]

While the below pictures don’t look like much now, I have hopes that this newly planted Tahina Specatbilis will be one of the gems of the garden soon. 
 

A quick backstory on this palm. Jeff at Floribunda gave this plant to me when we bought this property about 3.5 years ago. It was the very last one he had, I believe from the original seed batch years ago.  It was languishing in a 5 gallon pot and had no sign of new growth as the spear had just pulled out. He gave it to me with hopes that it would recover. 
 

Since I had no idea where to plant it and wanted to wait til the house was finished, it remained in a pot until this past week. Over the past 3+ years it actually appeared to die off 3 different times!  Although it recovered from its original spear pull, it eventually stopped growing. I  carefully removed it from the pot, only to find an entire new growth point (a “doinker”) growing out about 180 degrees from the previous growth. I carefully replanted it in a larger pot, added new soil and fertilizer and it recovered for about a year. Then it happened again!  In total this happened 3 times, all while I was trying to finish construction and envision a future home in the ground for this prized palm. 
 

Right before planting it, we went through a  dry spell here without rain and I noticed sunburn on the Tahina, for the first time ever. I was worried that after all these years it was just going to dry out and die. I quickly soaked the pot with water and decided then that I needed to get this palm in the ground. 
 

Besides being the first palm I planted after moving into the house, it is also sentimental as it was planted on the day that we had to put down one of our dogs. So it is planted in memory of our sweet Gracie and in celebration of completing construction on the new house. 
 

 

Planted in memory of the sweetest dog we’ve ever had, Gracie.  The picture below is the day before she went on to meet up with Rocky, who we lost earlier this year. She loved slowly exploring the new garden. 

 

Rocky and Gracie

 

 

[flplantguy]

Thats a lot riding on that (for now) little palm! It looks good in the photo and im sure Jeff gave it to you for a reason.  Grow little Tahina! 

[WaianaeCrider]

On 7/22/2024 at 10:54 PM, Hilo Jason said:

3 Clinostigma Samonense outline this planter, with several pritchardia also in there, just hard to see as they are struggling and slow growing 

 

3 Clinostigma Ponapense with a Samoan dwarf coconut

plenty of palms on deck, waiting to be planted as I find the time. Fresh load of mulch ready to go too. Not enough hours in the day. 

stay posted for more updates, thanks for looking! 

On O`ahu they telling us NOT TO MULCH as the CRB love to lay eggs in mulch.  Even been found in bags of mulch from big box stores where they ate a hole in the plastic bag to lay the eggs.

Besides that your place is FANTASTIC.

[Hilo Jason]

A few more plantings this past week and I put down about 120 pounds of fertilizer on the entire garden before Hurricane Hone passed by. We ended up with 7” of rain from that storm. 
 

Copernicia Baileyana (in a 15 gallon pot and then planted) 

Pritchardia Gordonii:

Attalea Funifera:

and last up is a Chrysalidocarpus hybrid, Pembana x ?  Leaflets are much too skinny to be put Pembana.  This has been fast in a pot and should be a rocket in the ground once established.

 

[Hilo Jason]

I have just finished creating this terraced planter (all by hand) which will be the next planting project. Some of the most cherished palms will go here as it’s next to the house where I can see them multiple times a day. 
This was just a sloped grass area that I knew I wanted to make a terraced area with rock walls. I ordered a 22 ton truck of rock and got to work with my shovel and back brace! I have mostly finished the rock work in this area but now need to move all the extra rock out to the next area I will be building another wall in. Once the rock is moved, I will plant this area out. 
 

Just getting started:

 

Now:

We have also just added a new family member, this is Raspberry (on the left) enjoying the pond created by Hurricane Hone. Suubi is happy to have a companion again. And Raspberry is happy to be out of the shelter. 

 

 

 

[SHEP]

Jason, I am sorry to hear about Rocky, it was my first thought when I opened today, where was your dog?  Thank you for all the efforts on posting.  Still love your travel ones.  Cecile

[Hilo Jason]

1 hour ago, SHEP said:

Jason, I am sorry to hear about Rocky, it was my first thought when I opened today, where was your dog?  Thank you for all the efforts on posting.  Still love your travel ones.  Cecile

thank you, it's such a huge loss that we feel everyday 

[tinman10101]

damn sorry for your loss Jason.  we are dog family too and only people with dogs know how much they mean to their owners each and everyday.  spectacular way to commemorate. hope it blows up and personify the love you had for rocky.  

tin

[Hilo Jason]

6 hours ago, tinman10101 said:

damn sorry for your loss Jason.  we are dog family too and only people with dogs know how much they mean to their owners each and everyday.  spectacular way to commemorate. hope it blows up and personify the love you had for rocky.  

tin

Thank you so much! 

[palmfriend]

Jason,

I am sorry for your loss and I hope your family does well! I never had a dog, but always other lovely

animals around - they become a part of the family and there is an almost unbearable sadness when they pass away...

Good to see that Suubi is happy and gets along well with her new friend.

 

best regards

Lars

 

PS: Thank you so much for always keeping us updated about your phantastic garden!

 

[Rick Kelley]

Only 7" from the storm? You must be in the rain shadow. Down in Puna I got 17" over Saturday and Sunday. Luckily, very little wind damage. Only two ohi`a came down.

Your new place looks great. You'll need to host another HIPS tour in the next few years. Once your Tahina gets established, you will be amazed how quickly it grows.

[Hilo Jason]

9 minutes ago, Rick Kelley said:

Only 7" from the storm? You must be in the rain shadow. Down in Puna I got 17" over Saturday and Sunday. Luckily, very little wind damage. Only two ohi`a came down.

Your new place looks great. You'll need to host another HIPS tour in the next few years. Once your Tahina gets established, you will be amazed how quickly it grows.

I was wondering how many trees had fallen in your garden. Winds were pretty strong here at times. 

[realarch]

Jason, that little Tahina has the will to live and luckily found a good home. Stand Back! Being from one of the first seed batches means it’s been around for a long time. Kudos on the house, BTW, Bob and I thought you did a great job with the design and oversight. 

Hey, I really liked Subie, what a sweet dog and we enjoyed the quick trip around your garden. Must have just missed the new addition, but in any case, very lucky animals.  

In regard to the last storm, we got a foot of rain and fortunately, very little damage. Nothing like a tropical storm to dislodge older fronds hung up in the canopy, a few loads to the green waste and it’s all back under control.

I’m sure we’ll see you soon.

Tim

[Hilo Jason]

A few pictures from this planter area that I worked on this weekend. This was the first area planted about 3 years ago. I thinned out a lot of the Ti plants so the palms could get more light and also cleared out a narrow trail so I could get closer and enjoy the Clinostigma Savoryanum and Bentickia that are planted in this area. 

 

all of the hard work is being done under the supervision of these 2:

 

[Hilo Jason]

On 2/19/2023 at 1:30 PM, Hilo Jason said:

(Alternating Clinostigma with various Pritchardia species.  The black pots show placement for more plantings)  Spacing is 30' apart for the Clinostigma and 15' between the Pritchardia)

The photo above shows the 2 dwarf coconuts (and a couple of Clinostigma Ponapense) planted and then some fruit trees going in behind them. 

Here’s and updated photo about 18 months after the above photo that really shows how fast Clinostigma Ponapense are!

 

(the small palm on the left in the new photo is a Clinostigma Harlandii that was not in the original photo above from 18 months ago. This palm has taken awhile to get going but seems like it’s finally growing better now).

And here’s another angle of the Ponapense with the newest addition to the family - Rocky 2:

[Hilo Jason]

A few more clinostigma photos:

Clinostigma Samoense:

and a trio of C. Savoryanum:

[Hilo Jason]

Oh, and just realized I never updated this thread with photos of the new concrete driveway. 
 

 

 

 

[Jadd Correia]

WOW! Loving the updates of your paradise! Thank you for sharing!