The Opinionated Gardener

A Calliandra Spring

2012-02-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

Elaeagnus philippinensis the Lingaro Berry

Well the days are starting to get longer, and even here in Hawaii you can tell the seasons are changing. It doesn't seem like it but things do slow down here, it's just a little harder to notice. The rain we had in November and December (30") was substantial and really made a difference compared to the last two winters. The plumerias lost all their leaves, and my Kigelia pinna or Sausage tree from Africa lost its leaves for 30 days, before putting out a giant flush of foliage. A few plants actually died, some succulents I brought over from San Diego, they lasted for over two years, but in that 6 weeks of rain they just rotted. It's always warm here, so roots rot more quickly than when they're cold and wet like California. Still others didn't seem to care, Agaves, some Aloes, Euphorbias, and members of the Crassula family are doing just fine. A lot of collectors here just keep their water sensitive plants under the eves of the house. I'm doing the survival of the fittest thing, at least until I have a greenhouse up, not to keep things warm, but dry. The trick here is finding plants that do well, but not too well. I also sold off a bunch of plants I grew from seed from when I first moved here. I really don't have the room for all of them in my one acre garden, but I'm also getting more particular, a bunch were fruit trees that are perfectly good and edible, but not my favorites, and here we are talking about a lot of fruit. I sold off the Achras zapota (Manikara zapota) the Sapodilla Fruit, Chrysophyllum oliviforme the Star Apple or Satin Leaf, Murraya koenigii the Curry Plant, Nephelium lappaceum or Rambutan, Pouteria sapote the Mamey Sapote and Syzygium malaccence the Malay Rose Apple. I'm keeping what I really like to eat, the Averrhoa carambola or star fruit, avocados, mango, citrus, papayas, bananas, passion fruit, Lychee 'Kaimana', Pinapple, Elaeagnus philippinensis the Lingaro Berry my favorite (I've got some really nice 3" available for mailorder - Vintage Green Farms ), Purple Dragon fruit or Hylocerus costaricensis and strangely I'm still trying a low chill apple 'Golden Dorset' and my favorite plum 'Hollywood' a hundred year old low chill hybrid popularized by my late mentor Sinjen. I've got some starts of those for sale on line as well. I'm even growing alpine strawberries and they are doing really well. Some stuff is still on the fence, like Dovyalis abyssinica x hedecarpa called the tropical apricot, and it really does taste like an apricot plum hybrid, the fruit are small, but the tree is pretty so I think it's worth a shot. It roots from cuttings okay, but I've learned it's salt sensitive in the potting up stage, oh it's always the little tricks.
Most exciting for me is growing all the different Calliandras that I used to grow in San Diego, but that totally rock here. This Calliandra inaequilatera 'Alba' from Bolivia is a great winter bloomer here, one of the few ways I can tell the season. But, it's the hybrids that I had never seen before that blew me away. When I first moved here I bought what I thought was a Calliandra surinamensis, from Rozettes Nursery so when it bloomed red I was so surprised, but happily. The local Calliandra surinamensis has a smaller flowers and sort of a weepy habit, I'm glad a brought the California form with me, it has a much bigger flower and better upright habit.

Calliandra inaequilatera 'Alba'

It turns out that John the owner has had this hybrid for more than 20 years. I think it's a hybrid of Calliandra i. x C. surinamensis. It blooms a lot and I'm a fan, the flowers are a little smaller but it blooms well all year, heavier in the winter. Then I was driving around above Hilo and saw a white form of Calliandra surinamenis, I snagged some cuttings, and now I've got that one too. It's a weepy plant with smaller flowers, but I really like the habit and form of the blooms. I was on the Kona side and found a smaller Calliandra with shiny leaves for sale off course it had no label, because almost nothing here has a name on it. I did some some research and while the flowers looks just like C. surinamensis, the plant has a strong lateral habit, and cycles in and out of a really hard bloom. It's a species called Calliandra schultzei, it might be a good pick for small gardens or bonsai. It makes lots of upright seedpods, and prunes really well. Another species I like is Calliandra tergemina var. emarginata, it's compact to about 5', and blooms all year, unlike Calliandra inaequilatera which only blooms in the winter. I've propagated all of them and have them for sale, I want people to try them so I can find out the cold hardiness. That's the one thing I can't do here, just too mild. It's still kind of weird not worrying about cold or drought. Even this picture of Calliandra inaequilatera with Euphorbia cotonifolia wouldn't be possible in California because the Euphorbia would be dormant, it just goes a little off here.

Calliandra inaequilatera with Euphorbia cotonifolia

Calliandra surinamensis 'California'

Calliandra surinamensis 'Red Form'

Calliandra schultzei

Calliandra tergemina var. emarginata

Calliandra surinamensis 'California'

Calliandra surinamensis 'White Form'

Plants, plants, plants

2011-12-10T19:20:00.001-08:00

Just finished up the second semester of my plant tissue culture class at the U of H Hilo, learning so much, but time consuming as well. Also been really busy setting up the new web store and learning the ins and outs of shipping plants. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but like everything else there's a learning curve. Growing plants is easy, it's all the other stuff that's the effort. Just had my first inspection since building all the tables and it's all good on that front. I'm looking forward to a good spring.

Cuphea ignea 'Alba'

Been propagating a lot to get ready, but I don't have as much space as I would like. Local sales take care of the overflow of plants, but the locals aren't really all that gung-ho about horticulture. It's so easy to grow plants here, that the concept of spending money on plants is foreign here, people just get cuttings from friends and neighbors. You just plunk the cuttings in the ground & they grow. In fact that's what I call most of the landscape design here, plunking. People get new plants and just plunk them anywhere, basically no design at all, even putting in a path seems like an advanced step here. The other thing I had to get used to is just that there are way fewer people here. I'm used to a city of three million, this whole island has only has 170,000, that's a big difference & even then only 80,000 on this side. The people I do sell plants to are super nice though, there's a lot of retired people, who like to garden. They don't always have a lot of money, but they really like gardening. Mostly, I love hearing the stories about their life experiences, people here come from everywhere. So many perspectives.

Costus 'Rainbow'

I'm always finding new selections, like this white cuphea (above), a local guy said it just came up from seed after a hard cut back. And I'm always finding out new stuff about plants I already grow, like this Costus ginger. I was talking to Sean up at the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Garden and he was telling me the flowers on all costus gingers are edible. This one to the right is lemony with a little spicy kick to it. I grew it just for the pretty variegated leaves. The flowers on galanga ginger (used in Thai cooking) are small, white, and hotttttt. Luckily costus can be grown from cuttings, because I can't sell any plants that are grown by division that have been grown in the ground here. The issue is the possiblity of nematodes. California, Arizona, Texas and Louisiana have strict importation rules, it's all about the citrus industry. If I want to sell plants from division they have to be grown from seed first, or purchased from another certified nursery, or grown from tissue culture. Apparently the cinder that a lot of grower use here can have nematodes, unless it's heat sterilized first. We just use coco peat (coir) and perlite, so we can ship anywhere.

Tupidanthus calyptratus variegata

I've been starting to do more airlayering. I've known how to do it my whole life, but it's very easy here because of the mild temperatures. These Tupidanthus airlayer had tons of roots after just 3 months. They were too big for mail order, so I potted them into 2 gallons. I think I'll take new airlayers of the small branches that grow off of these, I think I can get them small enough to be easy to ship.

Papaya 'Aussie red'

Variegated Banana

I've been learning a lot about tropical fruits too. Pineapples, bananas and papaya, as well as mamey sapote, rambuton, mango, brazilian cherry, jaboticaba, starfuit, tropical apricot, lychee and so many more love it here. I used to try to grow papaya in San Diego, but not well, here they are weeds. I've grown the most popular types, rainbow and strawberry here, but I've also been trying some other selections, like this dwarf Australian variety from 4 seed I ordered. The large fruit is very round, orange flesh and sweet. I like it mostly for the size of the plant, papayas just get really tall here after a year and the fruit is really hard to pick. This one is easy. I'm also growing a giant Thai type, that has fruit that can get up to 8 lbs each, it's popular for green papya salad because of the size, but if you let it get ripe it's delicious. I got some seeds of a variety called watermelon as well, don't know if it's different than the giant thai, so I'll just grow them out and compare and contrast. The early research I did said papayas were male and female, but all the ones I grew got fruit, female right, but no males defies basic genectics. After doing some more research I found out that they can also be hemaphrodidic and males can also produce fruit, but usually it's smaller. The genectics on these can get really complicated. Still learning about pineapples, they are even more complicated. As far as bananas, my favorite so far is Musa 'Ae Ae' the variegated, not only is the plant stunning, the fruit is really great, sweet, slightly acid and great size.

Cestrum 'Goldspire'

The garden here is also filling in nicely, the fragrance at night with all the Brugmansias (Angels Trumpet) blooming is wonderful. I've also been enjoying the fragrance of a new hybrid night blooming jasmine called Cestrum 'Goldspire'. It has the same strong smell of night blooming jasmine, but with a pretty yellow color and a better habit, it's compact habit is a big plus. So far it only blooms once a year, in the early winter, but I'm hoping it blooms more once it's mature. In any case a really good plant.

It's finally starting to rain here, since the begining of November we've gotten over 16" this month. The garden looks amazing, a little wet, but this is a rain forest after all. I love to show it off. My 78 year old mom and her husband were just out here and loved it. It really is crazy how fast things grow here. Right now some good friends from Vista CA are here, and they couldn't believe how mature it is. Still I was at a new friends house the other day and Glen's 25 year old garden dwarfed mine, with mature trees and epiphites everywhere, it just makes me look forward to future. Here's a great shot of Andy, with his new short hair, from the Volcano the other day. Later.

Andy Maycen at Kilauea Volcano

Been a while

2011-08-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

Apparently my perfectionism gets in the way of my blogging. Uploading photos takes a while and it annoys me. So I figured just start writing and if I get around to it I'll upload pictures. Well, it's been since January, so let me catch you up. I started college again after a 30 year gap, just one class, but still a big deal. I'm taking a class on plant tissue culture, the micro-propagation of plants in test tubes. It was great fun, but did take a lot of time, got an 'A', but two more classes to go to get a certification from the college. It's the first time I've lived in a city where there's a 4 year university with a degree in horticulture, San Diego has none. Just recently went over my transcripts with my adviser, still good from 1982, and everything went through, and it looks like it will take about 3 full time semesters to graduate and get a B.S. I'm considering full time school and doing it, but it is costly, way more than in 1983. Still I'd like to do it for me. Drugs and alcohol really did a number on me back then, (even so had a 3.9 and was on the dean's list), but I've been clean and sober since 1987, so it does kind of feel like a circle that would be nice to complete. I know it won't make a difference in my pay or even knowledge really, 30 plus years of experience goes a long way. I feel like I could teach a lot of these courses, and maybe I will after I graduate.
I also turned 50 in March, and that strangely was a bigger deal than I was expecting. Fifty just doesn't fit with my brain, I guess I just had a different idea of what fifty would be, but given the unconventional choices I've made in my life, where else would I be.
Sadly my oldest dog (only 9) Thai died very suddenly a week before my birthday, he had a run in with one of the very poisonous buffo or cane toads common here in Hawaii, it happened overnight, and there's no 24 hr vet on this side of the island. The symptoms weren't very clear at first and by the time it progressed it was too late. I held him in my arms all night but his heart stopped 3 hours before the vet opened the next day. Andy and I felt very helpless, and I was mad with myself for not realizing just how toxic the toads were, I'm now an expert. The poison can be fatal for animals 20 lbs and under, and rat terriers are particularly sensitive. If there had been a vet available, I think we might have saved him, but I just don't know. We buried him out in the garden under a special tree. I still think of him everyday and miss him a lot, he was a really good dog. Tallow, the rat terrier left, is surprising better as a solo dog, he had lots of attention issues and now he's the center of attention and completely spoiled. Having his unconditional love made this much easier for us to get through. It's really made me aware of just how fragile life is, and how we should always make the most out of every day.
Basically we've both been working a lot, Andy with two part time jobs, and me landscaping and selling plants. This spring I didn't propagate much, I was so busy working and going to school, then this summer I really made an effort to get the certified mail order nursery going. It was a lot of work and cost, I had to clear an area, grade it, top dress it with lots and lots of base material, like 32 tons worth. Then, I built the tables, a separate mist area and potting area, all conforming to the regulations required by the state of Hawaii. No plants can be in the area for the initial inspection. We got our inspection, passed, but now had to grow the plants to sell. With very specific guidelines, I am doing just that, many many plants.
So the next thing was to get the website up and running. I have three, one for me with my name, my old one www.tompiergrossi.com, my landscape one www.kalolilandscape.com and the nursery www.vintagegreenfarms.com. So this summer I taught myself Dreamweaver a web design program, to learn how to do this myself, my friend Kurt did my old site. I finally got www.tompiergrossi.com up and running with my new content, it's very simple but is a good start. It basically acts as a pointer to the other sites, and I'll eventually add more to it, I just uploaded a list of all the plants we're growing here, over 1,000 taxa.
The landscape site I did on the mac with iweb, I also had to learn that, I really like that site, it has lots of info and pictures of jobs. Now I'm working on the store, adding plants to the availability, time consuming but exciting because this I really want to work. The basic site for Vintage Green Farms was done on the mac, but I'm going to build a new one with dreamweaver, it will work better for what I want to do. The store itself is in shopify, an online template program, they deal with the shopping cart and all that stuff I don't want to deal with. I want to focus on plants of course. I'll add a link from the VGF site soon, when I have more plants uploaded.
I've added another farmers market to my schedule, so now in addition to selling plants at the Maku'u Farmers Market on Sundays, I'm doing the Waimea Town Market on Sundays, it's quite a drive, an hour and a half, but the people are great, and they buy a lot of plants. It also feels good to be cool for a change, it's at 2,500 ft, although it's also really windy.
I'm still getting used to being warm all the time, but it is great for the plants. Andy ordered some different salvia seeds to try, most have done well, a few definitely don't like the heat, but that's how you learn. I'm more surprised by the number of non-tropical plant that are growing great here.

Happy New Year

2011-01-12T00:25:00.000-08:00

Native Tree Fern - Hapuu

Okay, now it's really been too long. I know it's January, but it was 82 degrees today, sunny and then it started raining at 3:30. Got about half an inch. Still not enough though, we are having a drought here, only half the rainfall we normally get, only 45" last year, normally 90". We live off catchment (water off the roof, we catch in a 10,000 gal tank), as of today it was down to a foot (full is 7'). 10,000 gals should be a lot, but the trouble is you need the water when it doesn't rain, a bit of a glitch in the system. A big thanks to my neighbor, a retired Hilo agriculture professor, who has a well and lets us use it to fill it up. I'm going to have to fill this week, so far maybe 5 times since we moved in.

It's surprising how fast the cinder soil (10-30 yds deliveries to date) here drys out, three days and new stuff wilts. At least now most of the plants are pretty well established and can last between rains. The mulch (100 yds) we put out has really helped, the garden has really grown.

I'm beginning to tell the seasons here. The plumerias go kind of dormant in the winter, but even now I still have a few blooming. Some winter blooming salvias do only bloom in the winter, like S. wagneriana, but others like S. mexicana 'Russel's Form' bloom all year. Still waiting to see if the Hollywood plum I brought will flowers and bloom, (still has most of it's leaves). I bought a Golden Dorset Apple (low chill) here, still waiting on that one as well. The Figs (Ventura and Panache) have done well and fruited, even thought they are still in the 5gals cans. Vegetables and annuals are odd though and seem to grow whenever, but the poppies (Papavar somniferum) just wont live. Most things thrive, but a few have difficulties. I'm not sure if it's the pH (we are way acid at 5.5) or what. Nutrition leaches almost instantly. I've started using Nutricote 100 day slow release in the nursery pots, and that stuff is magic in this climate, no burning and the plants jump, but it costs $75 for a 50lb. In the ground we've been using triple sixteen ($22 for a 50lb) and a great slow release from Japan called Complehumis, an organic based 8-8-8 with molasses as a coating, about a buck a pound, that I really like. Down side, the wild pigs here apparently love it, luckily our garden has a hog fence. Hogs out, dogs in.

Still learning here, but the Japanese garden I'm landscaping is really coming along.
Trying to get some of my work known on the island, for the web site & stuff. Check out the new site

www.kalolilandscape.com

Path in the Japanese Garden

Covillea racemosa

I'm really enjoying landscaping and growing plants here, but I do need to start making more money, I think I may have underestimated what it would be like to have to start over from scratch. Still though glad we made the move. I'm more relaxed here, the other day I actually found myself driving below the speed limit (common here). Andy and I are both working pretty much full time and have enough money to get by, but just not enough to get ahead, and that's without a mortgage. The nursery is coming along, but with no money to move it forward, new base material (to level), tables, shade and such, the process has been slow. To outsiders I'm sure it looks like we are moving fast here, but to me, painfully slow.

We have started to makes more friends here, and that feels really good. People here are really nice. Quite a few are like us, new transplants. I'm meeting a lot of people at the farmers market on Sundays, and Andy meets tons of people at Paradise Plants up in town where he works.

Variegated Banana 'Ae Ae'

So far I've harvested two crops of bananas, which grow super good here, duh. The trouble is you get too many, I sold the extra variegated ones at the farmers market. They have a sweet, lightly apricot flesh and holds on to the acid even as the peel browns. I also got a nice bunch of dwarf apple bananas,my favorite, most of those got frozen for smoothies. Those were quick, less than a year from planting. Still waiting for pineapples, those take two years they tell me.

We lost our roommate Jeff, he baled in the Oct. while owing us over 4,000 dollars. Just left one day with no notice & left all his stuff. We called the police and after a few days went though his room looking for clues, only to find a straightened up disaster zone, including large Tupperware containers full of dirty dishes. Who lives like that? He finally emailed & made arrangements to pick up his shit. Good riddence. I am so tired of sober AA people using us, just broken people. He said he pay us back, but I guess we will have to wait and see. So no more helping people (at least in AA)

I like living alone (with just Andy), but a roomate would really help with the bills. We also talked about setting the room up as a vaction room rental, but we'll figure it out.

I've also been working on other projects, like these benches that convert into a picnic table. Making tufa pots, since pots are so expensive here. I did put up a new 400 sq ft shade house, which is really helped with propagation.

A few friends have visited, Cliff & Dae from Arizona & my bother David and his boyfriend Robbie from California. More expected - tom

David, Andy, Tom

One full year in hawaii

2010-08-15T02:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I know I've been bad about posting, but in my defense, I've been busy working, which is a good thing. The Japanese garden in Hilo (15 miles north) I've been restoring is really coming along and looking good. I do a whole post on it soon. I'm up there 4 days a week now, plus doing the farmers market on Sundays at Maku'u (2 miles south of Kea'au) and all the specialty sales on the big island.

Calliandra surinamensis hybrid

Our garden had definitely grown a ton since we began planting in September. It's amazing how fast things grow when there is no winter slowdown, or droughts or Santa Annas to desiccate things. Above is the entry bed, the second we planted. The large shrub behind the Zamia furfuracea is a Calliandra surinamensis hybrid with red flowers (instead of pink). I will be propagating it for sale in the spring of 2011 on line.

To the right is some Areca vestiaria (Red Leaf Form) which so far have been slow, but everything else has grown really fast. The front garden has just now really got its roots in the ground and begun to grow.

Brugmansia 'Velvet Rose'

Brugmansia 'Snowbank'

The Brugmansias or Angel's trumpets have been the fastest, started as rooted 4" plants and most are about almost 6' tall after 6 months. My favorite is 'Velvet Rose', probably the best pink I've seen. Brugmansia 'Apricot' is massive, 'Snowbank' is a dwarf but has a great variegation. Its late right now and the smell in the living room is really nice.

Brunmansia 'Apricot'

For me the layout of the front garden was the most exciting part, because I could finally see the space in 3-D and not just on the page. I have a naturalistic circuitous path system with different sized circular beds punctuating the garden for a little geometry. One is a patio, another a turf bed with variegated St. Augustine grass. (Stenotaphrum secudatum 'Variegatum')

I still want to top the paths and the patio with a crushed blue stone, for some reason they call it sand here. Real sand is apparently expensive to ship in. They use the blue stuff in concrete. The long term plans for the patio are to cover it with a bamboo arbor inspired by a cool design I saw at a San Francisco flower show years ago.

Schizolobium parahyba

The curving paths are an old Sin Jen trick to create a sense of mystery and expansion in the garden. The large tree to the left of the path is one of three Schizolobium parahyba, or Brazilian tree fern, which is not a fern at all. Andy ordered the seed (4) of which 3 spouted and are now over 7' tall. They can get up to 100' tall with buttressed roots with enough soil, we have no soil so I'm hoping they will stay smaller, but still provide a tall canopy.

My brother David and his partner Robbie came to visit last month, they're some of the few to see the our new place, and it was Davids first trip to Hawaii. We did the whole tourist thing.

We went up 4,000' to see the Kilauea crater, we also went back later that evening to hike the smaller Kilauea Iki and back up to the caldera to see the inner glow at night. It's one of the only national parks to be open 24 hours.

David & Robbie

Mauna Kea

We also went up to to top of Mauna Kea at almost 14,000 feet. It is quite a drive, man but the view was so great. Clear as anything, I could see Hilo and my neighborhood to the south east, and the pick is a shot of Maui, just a hundred miles off the north west coast the Big Island, the peak is Mount Haleakala at 10,000'.

We also hiked down to Waipio Valley, a mile down a one to one slope. About 20 minutes to get down and about an hour to get up (a painful hour). It's got 1000' water falls at the back, wild horses and old taro farms, it's real old Hawaii.

Waipio Valley

The sunset was a night on the Koan side, just like a postcard. But dry as a bone over there, give the rainy side anytime.

Polyscias 'Golden Prince'

After being here a year I've spent a little time reflecting on my time here. We have really been busy just getting settled, I think it may take another year at least. First we got our living situation settled, then started to try and find work, not easy, the local economy is really bad. I started growing plants, a first just to build up an inventory and get a handle on how to propagate plants here.

Rhododendron 'Gardenia Odyssey'

I've also begun to see what the locals want to buy, a sad note there, the populous here is not much brighter than Southern California in that regard. Not very adventurous, which is really unfortunate given what grows here.

Musa 'Ae Ae' leaves

They don't give plants much value, as they prefer free cuttings from their neighbor. Blooming orchids are only $3 dollars at the farmers market. I'm growing plants in 3.5" pots, getting ready for mail order, the locals want bigger plants in bloom for a cheap price. So I'm making adjustments.

Musa 'Ae Ae' fruit

After getting 12 tables set up with plants, I dropped in at the Ag. Department to set up an inspection to get certified, only to find out they need to inspect empty tables first, before anything is propagated. So all my work so far has to be sold locally, or a least not to CA, TX, LA or AZ. I can ship to other states if I get an individual inspections. So I'm re-grouping and preparing to ship my newly propagated (as in after nursery certification) plants for Spring of 2011. Even so, we do well at big event sales in Hilo, Waimea and we are even selling at an event in Kona in a few weeks.

We are just now getting fruit on Bananas we bought when we first moved here, this Musa 'Ae Ae' is the coolest with variegated leaves and fruit.

Still haven't met a lot of friends here to hang out with yet. It's hard to get used to a new place after basically my entire adult life in CA. But I do see all my old friends in my new garden, like my Hedychium f. 'Bill Byron'.

Until next time, here's a rainbow from down at Kalapana, 10 miles south of us, as the lava started flowing again into the ocean. The blueish green house on the right is about 50' from 2000 F lava.

2010-05-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

Well its been fun getting the front yard planted, still waiting for mulch, the chipper is on the Kona side. The mulch will really add the definition to the garden's edges. Finished the lower patio yesterday.

Some of the combos have been great, I love this coleus and plectranthus contrast. Gotta go to work -later

New Plantings in the front yard

2010-05-09T00:31:00.000-07:00

Planted the a big chunk of the front garden today with Andy, so glad I shipped over the tractor, went through at least 10 yds of cinder soil

The pic is a before shot, I'll post some afters soon.

For those who like to know, here's what we planted today:

Acalypha amentacea ssp. wilkesiana 'Loco'
Acalypha wilkesiana 'Ceylon Red'
Acalypha wilkesiana marginata (California Form)
Acalypha wilkesiana marginata (Puna Form)
Aechmea pectinata
Averrhoa carambola 'Kajang'
Averrhoa carambola B-10
Beccariophoenix madagascariensis
Blechnum chilaensis
Bromeliad sp. (from Kartuz)
Brugmansia ‘Snowbank’
Brugmansia 'Compulsive Collector'
Brunfelsia floribunda
Chambreyonia macrocarpa
Codiaeum 'Yellow Rams Horn'
Cordyline terminalis ‘Flaming Pink Red’
Cordyline terminalis 'Hawaiian Flag' (H Eunice)
Cordyline terminalis 'Katryn' (Katherine)
Cordyline terminalis 'Lilinoe'
Cordyline terminalis 'Princess Kyla Mini'
Cordyline terminalis 'Princess Kyla'
Cordyline terminalis 'Robin Red Breast'
Costus malortienus
Elaeagnus philippinensis
Etlingera elatior 'Siam Rose'
Gardenia brighamii (Hawaii native)
Gardenia jasminoides 'Glazerii’
Hedychium auranticum (Apricot)
Hedychium flavum (Bill Byron selection)
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Blueberry Thrill'
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Romeo'
Hibiscus schizopetalus x 'El Capitola Peachy'
Iresine ‘Party Time’ (Alternanthera)
Jacaranda mimosifolia ‘Midnight’
Manihut ensculenta variegata
Metrosideros kermadecensis ‘Gala’
Metrosideros polymorpha 'Orange'
Plectranthus sp. Blue Yonder'
Plumeria rubra 'Donald Angus'
Plumeria rubra 'Sunset'
Plumeria rubra 'Yellow Shell'
Posoqueria latifolia
Saccharum officinarum 'Purple'
Salvia 'Wendy's Wish'
Sesbania punicea (Daubentonia)
Strelitzia reginae 'Goldcrest' ( Mandela’s Gold)
Synsepalum dulcificum
Tabebuia impetiginosa (T. ipe) Dark Pink Form
Theobroma cacao (Where chocolate comes from)
Thunbergia erecta 'Alba'
Trachelospermum jasminoides variegata
Veitchia arecina
Vitex trifoliata variegata
Zingiber zerumbet cv. 'Variegated'

Spring Catch Up

2010-05-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

The perennials are really filling in.

Well, it's been way to long since my last post. So here's a little, just to catch up. My ex-brother in-law Ray Salcedo, who now lives in South Korea, came to visit for a couple a weeks in Feb. We had a great time, this pic is a trip to the Kona side, a historical landmark 'The place of refuge'The garden continues to grow, it was very dry in Jan. & Feb. we had to water quite a bit & actually had to buy water (we only have catchment) a few times. Our next door neighbor Greg let me hook up an inch and a half hose to his well, so we now have all the water we need, if it doesn't rain. March started a more regular rain cycle, getting about a half inch a night, trust me, much appreciated.
We added some more new beds in front. After the scrub was removed, we built retaining walls and filled them with cinder soil. The plants seem to love it, but we do have to feed quite often as it doesn't hold much nutrient. I'm hoping the tick layer of mulch will decompose and provide a slow feed long term, and save the cost of fertilizer. Costly here.

Really enjoying the Seashore paspalum turf, it always get comment when people see it.
We went to a great garden in Opihikao, this amazing palm, Attalea cohune is definitely on the list to put in the garden.

I promise to post more regularly, getting more settled here.

First winter? in Hawaii

2009-12-11T19:24:00.000-08:00

I'm having a blast growing so many plants that I've tried before and killed, like this variegated star jasmine, Trachelospermum j. 'Ogon Nishiki'. I think it just doesn't like cool nights below 50 degrees, well no problem here, it seldom gets below 65. This plant has already doubled in size in just a few months.This banana is a real stunner, Musa acuminata 'Siam Ruby' , not only is the foliage great, but it also produces great fruit. No winter cold to slow them down, they just keep growing.
This viney shrub is also one I've tried in So. Ca. with no luck. No worries Medinilla magnifica does great here. The berries that form later are blue as a bonus.
Andy & I recently got a chance to visit the Lundkvist Palm Garden, a really amazing tropical paradise in Leilani, just a few miles south of us. This palm garden is way more than just a collection of palms. Laid out geographically, it still is a beautifully designed garden. Started in the late 90's, Andy and I could not believe how mature it was. I know it gave me a lot of hope for my own garden, and inspired more than a few palms to add to my list, like this Dypsis sp. with a white trunk or this
orange crown shaft one called Dypsis sp. (orange crush)

After a quick two weeks back in San Diego to tie up some loose ends, I just got back to Hawaii. I had to ship my Kubota tractor over (not cheap) and my most valued plants that I had set aside. I shipped over almost 500 plants, the process was pretty easy actually. The only ones I had to get special permits for were the bromeliads and orchids. I know 500 sounds like a lot, but remember we had over 4000 taxa at our old house, so this was really only about 10%. In addition to those shipped, we have collected about another 500 here, like this beautiful Coleus 'Henna', so after 4 months we are right at about a thousand, not a bad start.Plants here are so cheap, and that goes for orchids as well, these dendrobiums we got at the local Macu'u farmers market for less than $3.00 ea. They are basically cheaper than pansys, we bring the home, have them in every room and have mounted them on every native Ohia tree (Metrosiderous polymorpha) we can reach.
I thought it wise to ship as many plants over as I could (nothing invasive), as I don't see me going over to the mainland for a while. I was shipping almost everyday I was there, 52 boxes in all. My friends Mary and Bill McBride were nice enough to put me up, and let me turn the back of there nursery into a shipping factory. I was great to have Andy at the other end to pick up the boxes and pot stuff up, as well as set cuttings.
The lanai is slowly getting closed in with this new bamboo fence and plant shelf, and trust me a sunny location out of the rain is important for a lot of plants as they get there new roots established, as well as many plants that just don't like being wet. I am getting so used to the rain and humidity now, I miss it when it doesn't rain. This week it hasn't rained in at least 5 days, a drought by Puna standards.
Oh, but all that rain makes the garden so green. I can't believe I have turf, after 20 plus years of telling people to remove it, but 100 inches a year is very different than Southern California's 8" a year. Andy told me we got 8" in one day while I was gone, now that's a lot of rain.
This picture is on Waipio Valley, just about one hour north of us, this really is a stunningly beautiful place.

A New Kind of Gardening

2009-11-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

Well, we are in the new house now for six weeks now and got our container about after one week in the house. The house is new (2009), but the one acre property is not developed at all. The first thing we did was pay for a hog fence across the back and down one side, the other side was already done. The front is open, but I plan to build a wall across with a small walk in gate and automatic (solar) drive though gate. The driveway is curved, and the house set back at an angle, so it leads to a lot of creativity. The dogs, Thai and Tallow our rat terriers arrived Sept. 28th, and were at home by the next day. They leave the local wild chickens alone, and for now seem to stay in the yard. The first purchase was some cindersoil, we got 30 yards delivered for about $700 bucks, or about $23/yard. So far I like it, it's heavy to move around, but holds enough moisture while maintaining good drainage. We are basically on rock (lava), and gardening here is filling in existing holes and planting, or building up on top of the lava, just like making raised beds. I plan on mulching as soon as I can find some, It's free at the landfill, but the chipper is only here part time. It's raw so will probably need to composted first, but trust me that doesn't take much time here. It has rained almost every night so far, although we are drier than when we were in Lalani. It's only rained a few days so far, today was one. Even then, the sun seems to come out at least a little every day. Some areas are over grown with Moluccan Albizia (Falcataria moluccana), a huge towering tree. It's nitrogen fixing, so it grows fast. Most people here don't like them, they are supposedly brittle and fast growing. We have a small one in the back, so I'll remove it, in ten years it could look like these.

But they are very cool to look at, these are at the lava tubes, piles of lava left after the trees that were in the middle got burned out.

Speaking of lava, when Dani's sister Dae and husband Cliff were here a few weeks ago we

walked out to to the spot where the lava flows into the ocean, it was really beautiful, and only about 10 miles from the house. Jeff is in the green shirt, Andy on the right end.

We've been making beds and planting, we got three 15 gal Ptycospermum elegans, Solitary Palms, for the front beds, plus some cool Mala

ysian Rhododendrons from this

local nursery 'White Cloud Nursery', they have over 200 varieties. They need perfect drainage so I picked up some clean

5/8's cinder for them, you can also use it to add air space to any potting mix, kinda like pumice or perlite. It cost about $20 buck a yard picked up.

We been getting lots of cool stuff at the local Mucuu Farmers Market on Sundays. I meet a guy who sells Cordyline terminalis cultivars (Ti). We went out to his place

& got a whole truck full.

We also ordered some sod, yes grass!, it's called seashore pasplaum, a really fine textured low grass that reminded me of hybrid bermuda, but it's soft. It supposed to be very salt to

lerant, and can even be watered with sea water. I'm hoping that it will put up with the dogs. I'll cut it with a reel type mower, push, very green.

We have a small front porch. So we added a grass walk to the steps, I'll probably add some custom stepping stones later. All in all it's coming along. I think it's going to look great. -tom

Aloha

2009-09-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted, but it has been an extremely crazy year. Andy and I finally sold the house in Vista at the beginning of July and had our last day on the property on July 23rd. We moved to Hawaii at the beginning of August. But, that last month in Vista was a wild one. We had developed an amazing garden over the last 10 years, and put a lot of work into it. It was kinda sad to say goodbye, but I've been told when you have a dream, to follow it, so we did. Hawaii has always been a popular vacation destination for us, and we considered retiring there. Andy and I started looking at some land to buy on the Big island for the future, and we quickly realized that prices had really come down over here, if we could sell the house back in California. After lowing the price considerably, to bring it in line with plunging values in the neighborhood (Ouch!), we finally sold to a great family, who really appreciate the garden, which made us very happy. They even took the chickens and goats.

So packing and making arrangements to move to an Island in the middle of the Pacific required some major planning. In less than 30 days we sold most of the furniture, what was left of the nursery, (after we had started it up again), packed a container for Hawaii & said good buy to friends. Their was a glitch with the dogs and they are staying with our good friend Dani up in Apple Valley until they can be shipped over the end of this Month (September 09). For us it's been hard not to have them around, but we'll be better settled in by then, and things will be stable.

We bought a brand new house about 10 blocks from the ocean in a community called Hawaiian Paradise Park, not far from Pahoa, a small town that looks the wild west in the tropics. It's about 15 miles south of Hilo, the largest city on this side of the island. Adjusting to a Hawaiian frame of reference has been interesting, they tell us that it's dry down where we bought, it only gets about 90" of rain a year. After having an average rainfall of 8" a year in San Diego, this may take some getting used to. The really wet places her

e can get up to 200" a year. The rental we have been

living is in Leilani, about another 5 miles south. We are farther inland here and get a lot of rain. It rains almost every night and things are very lush. The little house is tucked in the jungle just off the main road. The garden is surrounded by strawberry guava which has overtaken the native landscape to the point of being impenetrable. Moss covers

everything, and Hedychium gingers, Ti's and Heliconias are everywhere. It really is beautiful, even though we are basically camping

out, since most our belongings are being held until the escrow closes on the new house, which happens this week. Most of our time has been spent setting things up here, and having fun. Not to far from us are the Kapoho tide pools which offer excellent snorkeling, as well as a small black sand beach in Kehena which is as beautiful as can be. Large coconut trees, rocky cliffs and amazing clear blue water just cool enough to be refreshing, but not so warm as to be like bath water. We have already begun to amass quite a few plants. I'm still getting used to the fact that it is about 83 every day here and 70 at night. They tell me it gets cold here in the winter, the high

60's. There has never been a recorded frost here and the water quality is excellent. Paradise - I'll post again soon - tom

Michelias

2009-02-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

Well I gotta say, even though I don't like winter in general, I do like the progression of the garden as we approach spring. Just walking through the garden is a delight for the senses. The Michelia doltsopa has been in bloom for at least a month now, although it seems early. The smell is wonderful, the flowers so elegant. It's about 9 years old now, is 12' tall, conical in shape and I can see it from my kitchen window.

It's funny how so much of the winter garden can I enjoy from inside the house. I've always been very consience of views from the inside of the home. Even the night garden is so important. The front yard has great lighting and never fails to make me feel good.

I just got a few 1-gal Magnolia grandiflora that I'm going to use as rootstock to graft some michelias onto, I think I'll do an approch graft. That type of graft just splices to cuts together while they both are still connected to their own roots. I've had bad luck before using tradition grafting techniques, I'm told they do better in the summer in a humid greenhouse. I also picked up some 1-gal jacaranda to graft some of the dark purple form called 'Midnight' I have by the office, grafting in Febuary has worked before with that one.

The hybrid Michelia x Jack Foggi 'Allspice' is also just starting to bloom and the fragrace is amazinig, sweet with a hint of banana. Near it is a Lonicera fragrantisima also in bloom, not avery pretty plant, kind of gangly with dull foliage, but the super sweet frangrace always gets me.

The spring flowering trees haev also begun. My low chill cherry Prunus 'Pink Cloud' is almost in full bloom (non-fruiting) in a super showy light pink. Across the road from it, down by the aviaries, the Red Baron peach is in full bloom. That one has brillent double fuchsia pink flowers and also has great yellow peachs, definately a winner. And once again I can look down on both trees from the back deck.

Well that's it for now, I have to go weed the garden below the vegetable bed and mulch it. Too many weeds popping up! -tom

Evolution of drought tolerance

2009-01-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a while, but school is over. I've getting a good grasp of HTML, but java script looks like a nightmare. Anyway, the Verbena 'Little Ones' were patented, the label maker left that info off the tag. 2008 was kinda rough, still trying to sell my place here in Vista, one good thing did happen though Andy & I got married on Aug 9 th, after 13 years together. Still a new home in Hawaii would be sweet.

We've been pruning roses and fruit trees for a couple of days now. People like those, so those stay, but I am doing a reduction in perennials that take too much work. So mostly for water and maintenance issues. The trees and shrubs are really the important to provide structure, the filler plants are more like the pillows on the couch. I actually like the garden better with less. It's funny how gardeners are always adding, not subtracting.

I stopped watering the perimeter gardens four months ago, kinda a Darwin design method. If the plant can't handle it, I cut it to the ground and compost it. I've been surprised by the result. Some so called droughty leptospermums and melaleuca bit it, but my English oak looks great. A few of the big (more tropical) Mexican salvias definitely didn't like it, but they weren't my favorites. I told Andy we needed to get down to the 100 best salvias, or less, call me crazy. Any that I liked I took cuttings of and am planting closer to the house.

Prepping for spring, potting up new seedlings and such, still need to make cuttings of natives, this is the best time of year. My recent efforts have been in a home made solar heat for the greenhouse, propane just too expensive. I'll let you know how that works out. It will be spring before you know it. I think a road trip to the Huntington or LA is in order.

The Camellias are starting to bloom, a hybrid called High Fragrance is just starting now. It's highly unusual but it has a great fragrance and a long bloom season. I love Camellias, they really help get me through the winter. There's just so much variety, if you've only seen the ones at Home Depot, you are really missing out, Nuccio's, just up the coast in Pasadena, has the best.

I'm propping quicker stuff right now, but I have potted up some rare Australian shrubs recently, just some seeds I have left over. Still doing the farmers market in Vista on Saturdays. That's where most of the plants are going right now, I can't seem to grow them fast enough, I think the mail order will have to wait till March when I have more plants. Til next -tom

Plant Patents

2008-09-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

Well today Andy brought home some Verbena bonariensis 'Little One', a new dwarf, sterile selection of the normally 5' tall annual (perennial here). The difference is that we 'own' the patent on this plant. I'm generally not a fan of patenting plants, I kinda believe in an open market system with free propagation of all the great stuff out there. Some of the best plants don't get propagated because of licensing rights. But I do realize that with many plants much research, time and effort goes into bringing a plant to market. Since I live in this world and not an ideal one, we went capitalistic. We found this dwarf Verbena in a seed batch we grew several years ago. It's a perfect plant with great proportion, so we decided to go forward with patenting it. We do have bills to pay after all. My concern was who was growing it, it had a 'Proven Selections' label (with no patent id #) with my name 'Little One'. If I find out they are paying patent rights, well then great, more money for me. (Trust me it's not that much). My concern is that in the past The Proven Winners/ Proven Selection people have been not so trustworthy, I've been told by other growers. They are excellent business people, focused on advertising, but they are very aggressive at acquiring new plants, sometimes 'stealing' peoples plants, renaming them and patenting them themselves. The bigger issue for me is I see lots of 'PW' plants in local nurseries, and even though they say what they grow is proven for any region, I see lots of plants, like Heucheras, that do not do well here at all. People then kill their plants and think that gardening is hard and then give up. I know the local growers choose the plants to grow, but we just need to do a better job of empowering people as new gardeners. I personally grow plants that love our climate, and that are easy to grow. And 'easy' doesn't mean boring, more next time. tom

2008-08-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

Today I was thinking about Hawaii. As a lot of you know, Andy and I have the house and nursery for sale and we are planning to move to HI. The real estate market is super slow, so we are here for the immediate future. I was walking through the front garden and I was really feeling that tropical vibe; the sun was back lighting the palms and I felt totally okay with whatever the future holds. I love our garden, we've been here for nine years now and the garden is really coming into it's own. We finished the pond in the front yard last fall, which was just a big hole in the ground for over two years, (as Andy reminded me often). For me, it meant everything, it sets the whole mood for the space. The sound alone is amazing and of course the dragonflies and birds it brings in are great. I love looking at the fish and even the greenish patina forming on the sides. I know some people like that sterile, chlorinated look, but I wouldn't have it any other way. What I didn't count on was the incredible reflections on the garden structures and ever the ceiling in my living room. What a great bonus! So even though we are not in Hawaii, I feel that I've created my little bit of paradise here. I've changed my entire life this year, and while the uncertainty of our future is disconcerting, I find it very exciting. The fact the I get to live in this great house (that we just finished remodeling) and this amazing garden is just such a joy. My time is so different right now. I'm so used to working six or seven days a week. Not having a regular staff has really freed me up to do a lot of things I've wanted to do; like create this blog. For example, I started taking a 'html' class yesterday. It's so cool to be able to step out of my comfort zone and stretch myself. This is really new for me, so hang in there while I'm getting used to this. Sharing what I've learned (so freely from my mentors) with the others is what I think this journey is all about. I hope to get into some specific plants and topics, so stay tuned. tom

A new day

2008-07-24T17:29:00.001-07:00

Been in Southern California for almost 25 years, growing, or at least trying to grow, everything I could get my hands. I'm a self confessed plant addict, and can never seem to get enough. I'm a landscaper and wholesale grower. But, things are changing here, and I've realized we have to change too. So I'm putting together a website to promote good information on horticulture and maybe sell some plants as well. Knowledgeable sales people are hard to find in local nurseries, and good landscapers are even harder to find. People who are good gardeners here are few. I think everyone is busy, and it's easy to find cheap labor, what we call mow and blow. It's too bad, because I have found this to be one of the best places to grow an amazingly diverse variety of plants in the same location. So I'm going to try to reach out to other horticulturists to talk about all thing horticulture. As my blog title says, I am an opinionated gardener, but I am very open to other points of view, and have even been known to change my mind on occasion, granted those are few. I love tropicals, drought tolerants, natives, woodsy, Asian, okay I like everything, that's the point. More to come