Another New Palm Garden in East Hawaii

[mike in kurtistown]

Nice growing, Rick. In March 2013, I planted two B. fenestralis next to my house, about 10 feet apart. Some time later, I made a visit to the Piercys, who have a very mature palm garden. When I saw the size of their B. fenestralis,  alarm bells went off in my brain. I dug up the one that was 3 feet away from my boundary fence and replanted it in a then-open field several hundred feet away from the house. Today, both palms are monsters like yours.

The Windy site on the internet is also predicting a deluge and very windy early next week, almost like a tropical storm. But I see no evidence of the cause either.

Edited March 6, 2021 by mike in kurtistown
added last sentence

[Hilo Jason]

Keep these posts coming Rick!  I’m loving this thread. Thanks for all the time and detail you put into it. 

Nice to hear you got a lot of work done in the yard before this wet week we are kicking off. I’m really curious what the rainfall total for this current storm ends up being. Looks to be very heavy rain later today and off and on through at least Wednesday. 

[Rick Kelley]

First, an update on the rain. We ended up getting about as much as was forecast, so it has been very wet, but so far not record breaking. For the first 14 days of March, my backyard gauge has collected 25” of rain. If this pace continues, and the 10-day forecast looks pretty wet, this month could be my wettest in 8+ years. My place is a mud pit. I was able to sneak in a few hours of mowing this afternoon, but the place still looks like an overgrown, abandoned property. Because of their steep mountains, the other islands made national news last week with dangerous flooding. We probably got more rain, but the terrain here is almost flat, so the runoff never picks up much speed. Walking up the flanks of Kilauea is mostly like walking up a wheelchair ramp. Plus, down in Puna most of the rain just disappears into the cracks in the lava, so there isn’t much runoff to start with.

Now to palms. My last post on planting Beccariophoenix as a substitute for coconuts made me think I should at least mention coconuts growing in East Hawaii. Mainland PT folks seem unnaturally obsessed with growing coconuts. What gives? 

While the local group of palm enthusiasts consists overwhelmingly of friendly, outgoing, welcoming folk, there is one dirty little secret that is seldom spoken of aloud. Most of us have become insufferable palm snobs. When the most incredible selection of wonderful and rare palms is easily accessible from speciality nurseries, why would anyone waste precious garden space on a coconut? Or an areca palm (Dypsis lutescens), or Alexander palm (Archontophoenix alexandrae)? Even the wonderful foxtails (Wodyetia bifurcata) have been so overplanted here that most HIPS members avoid them. This handful of scorned species has become overplanted because they are the only ones commonly offered at farmers markets and garden centers. More importantly, they have simple names. The general public would probably love to grow other species if they 1) knew that they existed and 2) could pronounce and/or spell the Latin names. HIPS is on a mission to spread the word on better garden choices, but it is a tall mountain to climb.

When I bought my property, the previous owner had planted about a dozen palms along the driveway and around the house. Predictably, these were coconuts, Alexanders, areca, and a sad triangle palm (Dypsis decaryi). Triangle palms can be seen in East Hawaii, but it is really too wet for them. They thrive in dry Kona. Mine rotted and toppled over shortly after I arrived. I have cut down almost all the coconuts. The previous owner apparently thought these would flourish if planted right next to the house or directly under the electric line. Here is a crowded cluster about eight coconuts that has been granted a pardon.

The taller palm on the right is an Alexander, which I must admit is a very handsome tree. I like them. Good thing because they are rapidly becoming weeds in Hawaii. Cardinals love to eat the red skin covering the seeds. Birds don’t just drop the peeled seeds under the parent tree, but fly off with them. For some odd reason, they especially like to deposit the seeds in pots, so I have to be careful to check if invaders have sprouted in my pots of palm seedlings. The story goes that long ago the state forestry office used helicopters to spread Alexander seeds along the Hamakua Coast’s steep gulches for erosion control. Not sure if that is true, but there are now millions of Alexanders up there. Probably more than in its native Australian habitat. I think the gulches look great. 

My coconuts are growing is busted up bedrock, not cinder. They seem to be doing ok. They recently started flowering. I don't know how long it takes the nuts to mature, but they are about a foot long now. Many locals see coconuts sprouting on beaches and assume their roots can dive into any material. This results in many coconuts set on solid lava with the expectation that a forest will soon appear. This is most obvious near the southern end of the island near Kalapana. Beginning in the mid 1980s, a 30 year-long lava eruption buried many beautiful beaches near Kalapana while extending the island another mile out into the ocean. A particularly popular and beautiful black sand beach covered with a forest of tall coconut palms was destroyed. Local residents have been carrying coconuts out onto the barren new lava fields in the hopes of recreating a palm forest. The original palms were growing in sand, not solid lava. I’m not sure if the hundreds of new seedlings will find enough cracks in the rock to establish viable root systems. Another experiment in extreme gardening. It seems to be very slow going.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brad52]

Rick I was glad to see your info on the triangle palms, I see them all over my area and they generally look unattractive to me so I had been wondering what the fuss was, it sounds like conditions are not conducive to them looking their best.  And while I'm at it, the foxtail palms here also generally look pale and hungry...

[cobra2326]

I'd have Coconuts in Hawaii for one reason: the fruit! 

[Rick Kelley]

After that diversion to dis coconuts, I’ll continue on with Madagascar palms. This time I’ll zero in on interesting crownshafts. Some of these species will grow into very tall palms where, sadly, the most attractive feature will disappear into the clouds. First up is a widely grown species, Dypsis robusta. This was another casualty of my poor care of potted palms. Our heavy rain means that generally it is not necessary to water potted plants. So I completely forget about them. But on those rare occasions when we go a couple of weeks between showers, this neglect can be fatal. This D. robusta only sat around in a pot for a few months before I planted it, but during that time it almost died. It sulked for over a year after going in the ground. The first new frond it pushed up was horribly deformed and stunted. Five years later it is doing fine and showing some nice color.

 

I didn’t know much about Dypsis prestoniana when I got it as a one-gallon baby with only one small frond. After seeing how fast it is growing after only three years, I now understand how big it will get. I certainly didn’t expect all the pink color around the crownshaft. This earns bonus points.

[Rick Kelley]

Lots of people are growing Dypsis mananjarensis, formerly known informally as ‘mealy bug’. I’ve already posted a photo of this guy, so here I’ll just zoom in on the white markings covering the petiole and crownshaft. The markings fade away as individual leaves age and I think the trait will be lost entirely as the tree gets larger. It’s fun while it lasts. This guy is growing pretty quickly, so maybe it won’t be too long before it changes appearance completely and develops a striking white crownshaft.

 

Finally, here is Dypsis leptocheilos, with the well-earned nickname ‘teddy bear’. I don’t often walk past this guy in the garden, but now that it is starting to get a bit of size, the fuzzy crownshaft calls out to be petted each time I visit. Again, enjoy while you can before the crown disappears into the canopy. Photos on Palmpedia indicate that the trunk will become white, but mine is not yet old enough to show that.

[Rick Kelley]

Continuing on with more Dypsis, let’s focus on a species that was the topic of a recent tragic PT post from Modesto, California. 

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/63814-modesto-dypsis-decipiens-formerly-know-as/

With great effort, a tall Dypsis decipiens was moved from Modesto to Sacramento in May 2020, but later died in its new home. Several others commiserated with their own stories of how difficult this species can be. I got a couple of small potted D. decipiens from the Lundkvist nursery liquidation soon after I arrive here in 2012. Of course, I had no idea what it was. I have subsequently learned that D. decipiens are grown in many East Hawaii gardens, but would almost certainly be happier on the dry Kona side. Or maybe Southern California. The species is native to arid regions of Madagascar and probably hates our constant rain. But they are still alive after eight years. My poor specimens get the double whammy of growing in shade. When I planted them in 2013 the area was quite sunny, but nearby tree ferns and palms have shot up snatching all the light. They’re still years away from developing trunks. The twin growing points provide a bit of interest, but overall, I don’t expect to live long enough to see these do anything. This should provide some solace to mainland growers. Not every palm is a rocket in Hawaii.

Most palm gardens have a mystery Dypsis. Here’s one that might be related to decipiens. This was the first palm I purchased at a 2012 HIPS tour of Jerry Anderson’s property in Leilani Estates. It was a one gallon plant labelled Dypsis hovitro, which meant nothing to me at the time since I didn’t know anything about palms. I haven’t been able to find any palm with that name at Palmpedia, Kew Gardens, or on Google. Visitors to the garden have opined that it might be related to D. sp. betefaka. Others suggest it is now known as the ‘blue decipiens’. It does have the slightest blue cast if you squint just right, but it only has a solitary trunk.

It is as slow as D. decipiens, but is gradually picking up speed. After six years in the ground, the new growing spear is about eight feet tall. The arrangement of the leaflets is a bit odd. They are packed tightly together towards the distal tips of the fronds, but widely and irregularly spaced at the proximal base of the frond.

Distal ends of fronds.

Base of fronds.

 

On a recent visit to Floribunda, Jeff Marcus showed me a massive unnamed Dypsis that he thought could be the same thing, but his is decades older. If this turns out to be true, I’ll be very lucky because Jeff’s much larger tree is a show-stopper. I only wish I had planted mine 30 years ago. 

[Rick Kelley]

Just a quick weather update: March set a record for rain with 33” (excluding August 2018 when we had an epic wet hurricane). For 2021 I’m over 76” of rain. Recall that a typical year is around 140”, so this is more than twice the normal pace of rain. If you ever wonder why species that struggle in your garden grow like rockets here, the rain is one big reason.

This entry will look at some armored palms. Some just have token soft bristles, but a few are armed with sharp, deadly spines. I’ll start with sister genera Pigafetta and Metroxylon. I’ve covered both before, so here I’ll just zoom in on the bristles that are more decorative than deadly. Pigafetta have glossy smooth trunks, but the petioles are covered with a thick carpet of long bristles. They are fairly soft and flexible, but it is still essential to wear heavy gloves when hauling away the fallen fronds, of which there are many.

 

Likewise, the bristles covering the petioles of Metroxylon don’t seem to provide much protection from herbivores. Since they evolved on islands lacking large vertebrates, defense is probably not their function. I'm guessing some distant ancestor had more robust thorns that provided some protection from herbivores, but are gradually being lost due to lack of selection. Each species has a different pattern of bristles. The most popular species, M. amicarum, retains only traces of bristles.

 

M. warburgii has a thick swath of bristles running along the center of the petioles, but the sides are completely smooth.

 

M. vitiense and M. upolense (second photo) both have longish bristles arranged in rows across the full width of the petioles.

 

[Rick Kelley]

Verschaffeltia splendida from the Seychelles goes a bit farther with bristles covering the trunk as well as the petioles. I think the spines on the trunk will eventually fall away as the tree matures.

 

Presumably Phoenicophorium borsigianum is closely related to Verschaffeltia. Both are from the Seychelles. Both have impressive entire leaves. And both are covered with light weight bristles. Apparently, the genus name literally translates as ‘stolen palm’. I’d certainly be willing to try sneaking this palm out of Kew Gardens when no one was looking. It is an especially beautiful species.

[Rick Kelley]

The last two I’ll show are cold blooded killers from South America. Aiphanes horrida is quite decorative with interesting fronds and clusters of brilliant red fruits. However, just about the entire tree is covered with deadly spines. This might make a good security hedge screening an unpleasant neighbor. 

 

The last palm that subscribes to the motto ‘The best defense is a good offense’ has the mellifluous name, Astrocaryum murumuru. No wonder it is so abundant in the Amazon. What herbivore could possibly take a bite out of it?  Some of these daggers are over 10” long. And they are very sharp and stiff. Mine is trying very hard to send up suckers, but I keep cutting them back to a single trunk fearing it could easily get completely out of control. I got this from Mike in Kurtistown. I’ve seen the huge multi-trunk parent tree growing at his place. It is a dangerous monster. From a distance it is actually a very attractive palm, but think long and hard before planting this in your landscape. It is a definitely not recommended if you ever have small children running around your property. I don’t let garden visitors get anywhere near it.

[Rick Kelley]

It’s probably time for some more color. Just about all my garden photos attempt to show a crown of feathery green fronds camouflaged against a background of green vegetation. It’s a challenge. A bit of color goes a long way. Here is a palm purchased as Eurtepe sp Orange Crownshaft. Not sure what the real species name is. I’m learning to love this one after it finally developed the advertised orange crownshaft. When younger it was an ugly duckling. The old dead fronds would not come off making the tree especially messy. No hint of orange for six years. Every time I walked past it, I thought it needed to go so something, anything more attractive could be planted. Luckily, I’m easily distracted and never gassed up my chainsaw. The moral of the story is to be patient. If not patient, at least lazy. That’s a Bismarkia at the lower right providing a bit of contrast.

Next up is the wonderful Bentinckia condapanna. This is a super popular palm in Hawaii. I don’t know any other species that has similar coloration. Is it mauve? Inexplicably, the author of the (short) description on Palmpedia failed to mention the colorful crownshaft, the single most important selling point of the species! This one has about ten feet of bare trunk not shown in the photo after almost eight years in the grown starting from a 5-gallon pot from Floribunda. It began flowering about two years ago. I’ve seen larger trees blooming in other gardens that have striking maroon-purple inflorescences. So far mine have been short and not even slightly impressive. I’m trying to germinate the first crop of seeds, but after a few months, no signs of life. Apparently, in India this is a favorite snack for elephants. I think mine is safe as long as the pigs don’t learn to climb.

 

I’m showing Bentinckia nicobarica for comparison. Years ago, I got several of these without name tags. I initially thought they might be some sort of Clinostigma because of the large light green crownshaft, juvenile entire leaves, and rapid growth. Later I got a positive ID from the person who originally grew them (thanks Bo). It’s a nice palm, but I would never have guessed it was closely related to B. condapanna. Clearly, being separated by the Bay of Bengal for who knows how long has allowed them to diverge quite a bit.

Here is Clinostigma exorrhizum. This is another palm I was going to cull. It is a slow grower for me. The fronds seem a little unkept. But the worst characteristic was retention of dead fronds and really ugly dead crownshafts. It was a mess. However, recently I went to work on it and was able to peel away the layers of old dead crownshafts. Under all that crap was a wonderful white trunk and fresh white crownshaft. OK, you are beautiful enough to be spared the chainsaw.

[Rick Kelley]

It is hard to beat Cyrtostachys renda when it comes to color. Lots of palms have red fruit. A few have leaves that open red. Some have red crownshafts. But few come close to the intense, deep red of sealing wax palms. 

I particularly like the contrast with the green trunk below. These thrive in wet wet wet East Hawaii and can get quite tall. You might notice mine are suffering from a mild scale infestation and the older leaves are covered with black sooty mold. This doesn’t seem to bother them. From comments I’ve read on PT, it seems these can be a difficult species in parts of Florida and impossible in California. Yet one more reason to consider moving to Hawaii.

 

Some people disrespectfully refer to Areca vesteria as the ‘poor man’s sealing wax’ palm. Rest assured, there is nothing second rate about this species. Although the crownshaft may not be the same saturated red as Cyrtostachys, they make up for that with more vigorous growth, abundant clusters of brilliant red fruits that burn your retinas, and really cool stilt roots. It comes in several different color varieties and either clustering or single trunks.

Clustering form with red crownshaft.

Single stem form with orange crownshaft

Looks like it wants to crawl away.  Or maybe it's doing a Morticia Addams impersonation. Some of these stilt roots are five feet long.  With the tremendous amount of rain we get, pretty much everything in the garden is soon covered in moss.

The plentiful seeds and easy germination make this species abundantly available and a bargain compared to the pricey sealing wax. Again, conversations on PT indicate folks in California are often lured into trying this species only to have their hopes dashed after they die from prolonged cool winters. My place rarely drops below 60^o. 90% of the time the night-day temperature range is 68-85F. It is really too bad these are difficult on the mainland because there is just so much to love about them, especially as they get larger.

[WaianaeCrider]

1 hour ago, Rick Kelley said:

It is hard to beat Cyrtostachys renda when it comes to color. Lots of palms have red fruit. A few have leaves that open red. Some have red crownshafts. But few come close to the intense, deep red of sealing wax palms. 

I particularly like the contrast with the green trunk below. These thrive in wet wet wet East Hawaii and can get quite tall. You might notice mine are suffering from a mild scale infestation and the older leaves are covered with black sooty mold. This doesn’t seem to bother them. From comments I’ve read on PT, it seems these can be a difficult species in parts of Florida and impossible in California. Yet one more reason to consider moving to Hawaii.

 

Some people disrespectfully refer to Areca vesteria as the ‘poor man’s sealing wax’ palm. Rest assured, there is nothing second rate about this species. Although the crownshaft may not be the same saturated red as Cyrtostachys, they make up for that with more vigorous growth, abundant clusters of brilliant red fruits that burn your retinas, and really cool stilt roots. It comes in several different color varieties and either clustering or single trunks.

Clustering form with red crownshaft.

Single stem form with orange crownshaft

Looks like it wants to crawl away.  Or maybe it's doing a Morticia Addams impersonation. Some of these stilt roots are five feet long.  With the tremendous amount of rain we get, pretty much everything in the garden is soon covered in moss.

The plentiful seeds and easy germination make this species abundantly available and a bargain compared to the pricey sealing wax. Again, conversations on PT indicate folks in California are often lured into trying this species only to have their hopes dashed after they die from prolonged cool winters. My place rarely drops below 60^o. 90% of the time the night-day temperature range is 68-85F. It is really too bad these are difficult on the mainland because there is just so much to love about them, especially as they get larger.

There are some at Ho`omaluhia Gardens here that must be 30 feet tall.

[teddytn]

On 1/9/2021 at 11:18 PM, Rick Kelley said:

Here is one example of the kind of terrace walls I’ve been building. 

Here are some photos showing the construction. It is a bit hard to orient the before and after photos, so the asterisk on the left photo shows the future location of the Neoveitchia storckii.  It was planted as a 1 gallon in 2017. The background trees are the native ohi`a that colonize fresh lava flows. These will probably all be dead in another year or two due to a fungal disease that was introduced to the island about seven years ago. They look ok in this photo, but I notice a new dead one every week.

First, I have to pull all the rock away from the side of the driveway to clear the construction site. I usually have to haul lots of extra rock to the worksite so I have plenty of rocks to find ones that fit together. These are all dry stack walls built without mortar. I gradually backfill with cinder and mulch as the wall gets higher. Once the wall is complete, I have to haul all the leftover rock away to the next site. So, after many days of heavy lifting, I finally get to plant a one-gallon baby palm. This last part usually takes about two minutes. Later I added a couple more Neoveitchias since I liked the first one so much. The finished wall ended up being about 100 ft long with steps at either end climbing up to higher elevations off to the left. You might be able to see a baby Phoenix roebelenii hiding in the coleus at left just above the steps. 

I have been experimenting with coleus as a groundcover to supply some color and compete with the blizzard of airborne weed seeds that quickly choke every new area of cinder I spread. There is no way I could mow so much rough terrain. Also, there is an irresistible temptation to plant baby palms far too closely. They seem so lonely when they are little. Filling the blank space with coleus until the palms get some size is my solution. Back in Texas coleus were delicate bedding plants set out in late March. Once temperatures went over 95 in June, they generally succumbed unless heavily watered and kept in shade. If they somehow limped along to Halloween, frost finished them off. Here they grow profusely year-round and get over six feet high. They seed like crazy, so there is always a large selection of new seedlings with wild colors and patterns to try next year. Meanwhile, after six years the new driveway has been completely covered with weeds. When mowed, it resembles a very long, narrow lawn that goes down the middle of my property.

 

On 1/9/2021 at 11:00 PM, Rick Kelley said:

Now for a heads-up on growing palms without soil in Hawaii. The Big Island can be separated into an older, norther half (= Mauna Kea), and a much newer, still growing southern half (=Mauna Loa & Kilauea). The northern half is old enough that erosion has produced deep soil. Former sugarcane plantations along the Hamakua coast are the sites of many spectacular palm gardens. But let me be clear, these people are cheating. They just grab a shovel, dig a hole in the deep dirt, and drop the palm in. Mission Accomplished in only ten minutes. Real estate prices are very high up there because there is essentially no risk of molten lava repaving your property.

South of Hilo gardening is much more challenging. We regularly get molten lava running down the side of the volcano or erupting out of cracks in the streets. Kilauea just rumbled back to life December 20, 2020. Plus, there are all the earthquakes that go with this rambunctious geological activity. This depresses real estate prices significantly making Puna the last affordable location in the state. As a consequent of living on steaming hot real estate fresh out of the oven, most of us down in Puna are trying to garden on solid lava with little or no soil. What to do?

Many lots are ‘ripped’ by a giant bulldozer and then leveled before a house is built. Generally, the rock is broken up to a depth of about two feet. After the dozer leaves, the treeless property looks like a parking lot covered with 6” rocks. Remarkably, this is often sufficient for palms to establish a reasonable root system. The big attraction of ripping a lot is that the resulting flat land is infinitely easier to maintain (mow) compared to its natural condition.

Only a small section of my property was bulldozed to make way for a small house and driveway. The remaining 90% of the land remains in its original state of rough, lumpy lava formations. To provide something for the palms to grow in, I have been bringing in many dump trucks full of black volcanic cinder. Think volcanic popcorn. Filling in low spots provides room for roots while also helping to level out the terrain. I also build terraces on the sides of slopes that can hold more palms. I spread the cinder by hand with a shovel and wheelbarrow. 60 truckloads (~2000 cubic yards) so far with maybe another ten needed to complete the job over the next year. This corresponds to covering the two-acre garden area to an average depth of around 8”, but of course some areas are left as raw lava and some low spots have 4 ft of cinder. The cinder comes from a quarry on the edge of Leilani Estates. Yes, THAT Leilani Estates that was partially buried under fresh lava in the summer of 2018 when the East Rift broke open. The cinder had been spit up at the end of an earlier eruption several decades ago. 

There is an old saying in gardening that you get better results putting a $1 tree in a $10 hole than by putting a $10 tree in a $1 hole. Well, I have spent much more than 10X the price of palms to bring in all that cinder. So far, it seems to be worth the investment. The coarse nature of the cinder provides excellent drainage that palms appreciate, but the downside is that it does not hold moisture very long if we go a week or two without rain. To fortify the cinder and provide more moisture retention, I mix enormous amounts of mulch with the cinder. I’ve brought in close to a thousand cubic yards of mulch over the years. Of course, this is almost all air, and the solids decay fairly quickly. Mulch is free from the Hilo landfill, but goes quickly. They produce mulch from shredded green waste (rapid decay) and from shipping pallets (longer lasting). After a while I have rich organic ‘soil’ full of fat worms. Pigs soon follow.

I have a ‘spaghetti’ lot that is 125 ft along the road and 1000 ft deep. The original driveway was about 300 ft long, but the rear two acres was inaccessible when I arrived. I had only been here two years when in late 2014 a narrow 15 mile long river of molten lava began flowing towards the small village of Pahoa about seven miles from my house. This caused considerable second guessing whether the move to Hawaii had been such a good idea. In the end I decided that life is always uncertain. My property will definitely be destroyed by lava someday, perhaps buried under thousands of feet of lava from hundreds of separate eruptions. It could begin next week, or it might be 200 years from now. I decided that the chances the lava would reach my place in the next 25 years were low. I was staying put. Soon thereafter, the eruption stopped at the outer edge of Pahoa.  In early 2015 I hired a huge D9 bulldozer to extend my driveway another 700 ft to the back property line so I could reach all three acres with large dump trucks full of cinder or mulch . 

I did not understand how bulldozers operate. I thought the front blade scraped a path. No, it is the giant claw in the rear that does most of the work. It is plunged deep into the rock. Then the 100,000 pound dozer takes off plowing up huge boulders. These are pushed into piles and crushed into smaller rocks as the dozer driving over them. Over and over. Finally, the front blade is used to grade the broken rock.

The dozer operator did a great job, but an unanticipated side effect was large berms of leftover rock heaped on either side of the extended driveway. For 700 feet! What was I gonna do with all that rock? Well, I’ve spent the past five years building low terrace walls on the sides of slopes. I then backfill with cinder and mulch until it is ready for baby palms. Rocks too small for walls are used as fill material to level large depressions. I used up all my rock from the dozer before I had completed all the walls I needed, but luckily a neighbor’s excavation job recently provided a fresh supply of rock to finish my various landscaping projects. I estimate I’ve moved several hundred tons of rock, by hand. Remarkably, I have had no back problems. So far.

Rick you’ve posted some valuable examples for everyone here to see. Of course we’re all here for our love of flora, but there’s so much more to managing land than digging a hole and watching a plant grow. Soil health, composting materials on-site and reintroducing to growing plants, soil food web, landscaping, hardscaping. You are on a way bigger level than I am, but you’re speaking my language. Hats off to you, very impressive labor of love you’ve got going!!!

[Rick Kelley]

Today the game is: Licuala or Imposter? We’ll start with three contestants, and you decide if each is really a Licuala or some lookalike.

 

1. Lanonia dasyantha, a tricky imposter. Looks like your average Licuala to me, but taxonomists say no. This one has only been in the ground a little over a year and is growing in deep shade. It might have pushed up two new fronds. I think it should get around five feet high eventually. I do really like the mottled leaves. Rumored to be more cold tolerant than the typical Licuala.

2. Licuala grandis. This entire leaf species will eventually make a 15-foot trunk if given excellent tropical conditions, but it is not my favorite member of the genus. In my garden it is slow having only doubled in size after seven years.  The leaves are only about half the diameter of the more spectacular L. peltata ‘sumawongii’ variety.  Still, I have seen these be very effective when planted in groups.

3. Itaya amicorum. Yet another imposter, this time from South America. Palmpedia has many photos of impressive specimens growing around the world, but mine always looks like it just survived a category 5 hurricane. The fronds seem particularly fragile and prone to wind damage. I’m hoping as it gets bigger it will become stronger. Or maybe I should have planted it in a more protected location.

[Rick Kelley]

Trick Question. They are allegedly the same species, Licuala peltata.  #4 is the split leaf variety, Licuala peltata var. ‘peltata’.  The second one (#5) is everyone’s all-time favorite, Licuala peltata var. ‘sumawongii’.  The split leaf plant is a recent addition to the garden, so I can’t say much about it.  In that short time, it has been clobbered not once, but twice by falling ohi`a trees.  So it’s had a rough life.  It’s about six feet tall.

I’ve shown this sumawongii before.  It has been in the ground about six years and is about eight feet tall.  The fronds are a little over four feet in diameter.  In my opinion, this leaves L. grandis in the dust.  It currently has two inflorescences (about 1 o`clock in photo) each with four hanging flower clusters.  I got no seeds from last year’s bloom, but I’m hoping for better luck this year.

 

Over many decades, these can get surprisingly large in Hawaii.  Right now, this one only has the beginnings of a trunk. 

[Rick Kelley]

Here are the last two contestants.

6. Licuala ramsayi is from Northern Australia where it can grow quite tall.  I haven’t seen any giants growing in Hawaii, but I’m sure there must be some older trees somewhere.  At least in my garden, this is a very slow species.  I don’t expect to live long enough to see these climb into the canopy, but it still gets high marks for general good looks.  That’s yet another L. sumawongii on the left and a Marojejya in the distance left.

7. Borassodendron machadonis from the Malay peninsula. I got this as a one-gallon plant from Floribunda. It’s about six feet tall after a little over four years in the ground. It was slow at first, but is starting to pick up steam. I was motivated to get it after seeing a pair of beautiful young trees growing at the University of Hawaii at Hilo botanical collection. Only now am I appreciating how large they get.  The UHH pair have grown much more than I had anticipated over that time.  Could end up being another example of an overcrowding mistake down the road.

[ChrisJordanDDS]

Amazing thread, thanks for sharing the beautiful photos as well as all the details regarding the work you’ve put in along the way. I’m considering buying some land in the Kona area for an eventual retirement home, I’m not sure I can convince my wife to move there full time even in retirement as we’ve built our life in Southern California, but I can’t stop dreaming about building a garden in Hawaii...  Don’t know if I could handle all the rain on the east side, but nothing can compare to the Hilo-area tropical gardens. Well done!

[John hovancsek]

There are a lot of bee keepers in your neck of the woods. You should have them put a hive on your property to promote pollination and have an endless supply of honey. 

[Rick Kelley]

Today we will revisit the old saying, ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’  I certainly hope that is true, but just to be sure I’m using about four tons of prevention.  The most eye-catching palm in my garden is Metroxylon amicarum, which is how I began this thread.  It is perhaps 30 ft (9 m) tall and growing fast.  As I’ve mentioned numerous times, my property is solid lava bedrock without any soil. In effect, I’m trying to grow palms on a Walmart parking lot.  To compensate, I bring in volcanic cinder for raised beds so the roots have something to grow in. Unfortunately, cinder is only slightly more substantial than Styrofoam packing peanuts.  The Metroxylon is growing in about 15-25” (~50 cm) of cinder that extends partially around the base of the tree.  Here is an overhead diagram showing approximately where the cinder was piled up when I planted the tree seven years ago. The second drawing is my plan to shore up the tree by filling in the area on the right between the tree and the road.

[Rick Kelley]

I’m concerned that as the tree gets taller and more top-heavy, there is an increasing risk the wind will blow the tree over since its root mass is restricted mostly to one side. The side of the tree facing the road is just bedrock so the roots cannot extend very far to the right side. To try and remedy this I removed the rock wall facing the road so the roots can grow rightward. Then I brought in a bunch a large rocks left over from a neighbor’s excavation project. Several of them weigh over 200 lbs (>100 kg).

 

Then I had a dump truck drop a load of black cinder over the site.

 

After a couple of days with a shovel and wheelbarrow, I now have a large area for new roots to grow into and hopefully help support the tree during storms. Down the road I'll even out the top of the new rock wall to make it look a little neater.  I’ll update in the years to come if the tree gets knocked over despite these efforts.

 

For anyone interested, cycads #1 is Encephalartos whitelockii, #2 is Dioon rzedowskii, and #3 is Brugmansia (Angel trumpet).  When that blooms it gives off an overwhelming fragrance at night reminiscent of an industrial explosion at a baby powder factory. 

[Hilo Jason]

I always enjoy and appreciate your updates Rick!  

I have just started some rock work at my new property and after several days of sorting, moving and stacking these rocks I have a huge amount of admiration for what you have done at your place! 

[realarch]

Oy vey! Like I’ve told you before Rick, I kind of look past the palms and see the effort in every boulder, loaded wheelbarrow, and shovel full of cinder. Your comment above about laziness……I doubt that.

Tim

[Rick Kelley]

After a long pandemic shutdown, I was recently able to visit my two favorite mature Metroxylon amicarum trees. I was rewarded with finding over a year’s worth of fallen seeds.  I was especially delighted to discover that an older one with a rotted shell had already germinated and was beginning to send out baby roots.  I brought home two sacks of seeds.  I’ve tried germinating many of these seeds over the past eight years, but so far only gotten one to make it.  With a new supply of seeds, I’ll be able to experiment with some different approaches to see if I can improve my success rate.

If any local HIPSters want to give these a try, get in touch and I’ll be happy to share some seeds.

This windfall made me think I should post a new entry focusing on palms in the garden that I started from seeds.  Everyone loves to try their hand at sprouting seeds.  I certainly feel a certain sense of accomplishment towards palms I grew from seed.  The huge variety of species growing in Hawaiian gardens means plentiful seeds are easily available.  And with our growth rates, it often provides something very close to instant gratification.  I’ll start with the one Metroxylon amicarum seed that did germinate for me.  The seed was collected in January 2020, germinated in May 2020, and went in the ground in October 2020.  Almost a year later it is now about five feet tall and doing a great job fighting its way through all the coleus.

Here is a pair of Metroxylon warburgii whose seeds were collected in December 2012. After I potted them up, they were big enough to plant in late 2013.  They now have about 8 feet of trunk and might start blooming any time.

[Rick Kelley]

Pritchardia is not my favorite genus, but here is a pair with a bit of backstory. 

The seeds came from an unidentified species growing just outside the entrance to the Pana`ewa Zoo in Hilo. This particular tree was the subject of a long, involved PT thread back in 2012.

 https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/31421-righteous-expletive-hawaiian-pritchardtia/

I collected the seeds around 2014.  The resulting plants went in the ground in 2017.  They are a bit crowded at 8 ft apart, but otherwise doing fine. The same cannot be said of the parent at the zoo.  The zoo recently completed a major renovation to make all sidewalks conform to grades specified by the American with Disabilities Act.  This resulted in the removal of dozens of mature palms that the local palm society had planted over the past 30 years.  Very sad.  All the palms around the entrance were destroyed, so my two offspring may be some of the few examples of whatever this species happens to be.  I’m no taxonomist, but for the moment I’m going with P. beccariana.  Not particularly rare, if correct. BTW, this project cost millions of dollars, and at its core was a landscaping job. Here are some of the replacement plantings at the new entrance. 

Pritchardias planted only 4 feet apart. 

 

Pritchardias planted under the eaves of the adjoining pavilion roof & rain gutters. 

 

These probably look ok to the average visitor today, but in five years they will have to be pulled out.  Whoever the landscape architect was, they apparently were not familiar with the mature sizes of native palms.

[Rick Kelley]

I’ve previously mentioned how fast Pigafetta grow in East Hawaii.  Here are some giants growing along my rear property line that I started from seeds collected in 2013.  The plants (P. eleata) went in the ground in 2016, and after five years they have about 20 ft of clear trunk.  These are very hard to photograph without a wide-angle lens.  That’s a Metroxylon vitiense photobombing on the upper right.

 

I could not resist picking up some Pigafetta filaris seeds while recently visiting a friend’s garden.  Germination only took four weeks.  I have no idea what I’ll do with 30+ seedlings.

 

The October 2016 photo below shows four of seven Clinostigma samoense in a row that went in the ground six months earlier from seeds germinated back in 2014.  Note the baby Marojejya at right (pink arrow). The Clinostigma have entire leaves when small.

 

Here they are five years later.  They look their best at this stage.  In another year or two they will begin flowering, which obscures the beautiful light green upper trunk.  One nice thing about these trees is that they quickly produce deep shade at ground level.  Begins to give the feeling you are in a forest.  The Marojejya fronds at right are about 12 ft high, but still a few years away from making a trunk.

 

Veitchia joannis is almost as speedy as Clinostigma.  These seeds were collected in December 2013 and the plants went in the ground in April 2015.  They have about ten feet of clear trunk, and are just began flowering.

 

Here’s a Veitchia arecina started from seed collected in July 2016 and planted September 2018.

 

[Rick Kelley]

This Normanbya normanbyi has grown from seed germinated in 2016 and went in the ground in 2018.

 

Aiphanes horrida seeds germinated in 2017 and went in the ground 2019.  I like the look, but it is covered in deadly spines. 

 

To me Arenga hookeriana does not look all that much like a palm.  This guy started off as part of the seed giveaway at the February 2016 HIPS banquet.  It went in the ground in June 2017.  It’s a bit slow because it is growing in deep shade.

 

Pinanga coronata makes a quick privacy hedge.  This grew from seeds germinated in 2014 and went into the ground in 2016.  It is producing loads of seeds and the ground beneath is covered with little seedlings.

[Rick Kelley]

I’ll wrap up this topic with some slower species, but still much loved.  This Licuala peltata var Sumawongii (aka L. elegans) started out as seed in 2014 and went in the ground in 2017.  I am constantly setting up new batches of seeds because when I’m handing out baby palms to visitors, people often ask for this species after they’ve seen the larger ones in the garden.

 

And finally, the palm that has never been mentioned in the same sentence with ‘instant gratification’, Dypsis sp ‘Bejoufa’, or however you choose to spell it.  You have got to really really want this palm and have an enormous amount of patience.  I got the seeds back in 2013.  Four small seedlings went in the ground in 2015.  After six painful years, they are beginning to show signs of life.  This is definitely a species for the younger demographic who has decades ahead of them.  The old sheet is just to help the fronds be a bit more visible against the Agapanthus ground cover.  Part of my problem may have been too much sun.  Lots of palms are described as ‘emergent’ species that prefer shade when small and only want full sun after they poke through the surrounding canopy.  However, I usually ignore that advice.  In almost all cases, the baby palms do great at my location because of the cloud cover, abundant rain, and mild temperatures.  But my experience with this species is that it greatly prefers shade when small.  If I had it to do over again, I would have been more careful about sun protection.

 

I try to stick with palms in this forum, but I thought some people might be interested in a few other plants growing in the garden, just this once.

Since my canopy of ohi`a trees is dying, I’m planting blue marble trees (Elaeocarpus angustifolius) as a replacement.  They grow super-fast.  Here is one started from seed in 2013 that went in the ground in 2016. It’s now over 50 ft tall with a trunk more than a foot in diameter.  It will get gigantic. I keep these very far from the house.

Bambusa chungii, Blue Bamboo

 

Heliconia Barnum & Bailey

 

I suspect this might be some type of orchid growing on the side of an ohi`a.

[WaianaeCrider]

Sweet!  Over here in Wai`anae we don't get that cloud cover or much rain.  A little over 20" a year.  I have one small Dypsis 'Bejofa that I got last July from FB and it went into the ground in November.  It's getting more sun now that the summer has taken many of the leaves from the Haole Koa I use as shade, (because they are already here).  I've been planting some trees to produce shade lately.  I have a Hawaiian Koa in full sun that went out at about 4' say 6 months ago and it's over 7' now.  I've also over the years planted a number of Kukui trees. They also grow pretty fast even here in Wai`anae.  I put a young tree maybe a few months old in the ground last November.  It's now over 7 feet tall.  It's in pretty much full sun.  another the same age in deeper shade is only about 4'.  Wow the 50' Blue Marble is HUGE.  I've seen a few deep in Manoa valley.  Very old and HUGE.

[Kailua_Krish]

Thanks for the update! Over here on the opposite side of Oahu from Steve fairly dry and horrible sandy soil but a hard to beat beach

I have your same experience with Dypsis 'bejoufa'. I planted mine in full sun here and they don't seem to like it. Im a little envious of all of the palms you can grow there, Ive discovered that with the kind of soil I have here I face many of the problems growers in the FL keys have

[mike in kurtistown]

My guess on the Pritchardias that were at the entrance to the zoo before the renovation would be P. schattauerii. Would be nice if we had palm DNA analysis.

[el-blanco]

Thank you for all these post.  Very appreciative of your time in all the pictures and details.  Looking forward to seeing your place one day.

Are the Metroxylon and Pigafetta monocarpic?  

 

JW

[Rick Kelley]

3 hours ago, el-blanco said:

Are the Metroxylon and Pigafetta monocarpic?  

JW

Most Metroxylon are monocarpic.  M. amicarum is the only one that continues to flower and fruit until it is killed by disease or blown over in a storm.  That's why most people want amicarum if they have room for such a giant palm.  For some unknown reason (at least unknown to me), amicarum seeds are difficult to germinate.  The other species in the genus germinate without any problem.

Pigafetta are not monocarpic.  They bloom for many years.  The problem here is that they are dioecious.   If you ever want viable seeds, it is necessary to plant a group of trees so you have a good chance of getting at least one male and one female near enough for pollination.

Rick

 

[Rick Kelley]

Back in January when I began this thread, I talked about my disappointment that Caryota obtusa had begun flowering after only five years in the ground.  In November 2020 it sent out its fifth inflorescence.  For eight months it got bigger and bigger until it finally extended 16 ft and reached the ground.

 

The flower buds slowly swelled.  Garden visitors were impressed.  A rough estimate extrapolating from a few side branches puts the number of flower buds at around 30,000.  One positive about the tree blooming when it was so short is that the inflorescence is ‘in your face’ rather than beinig out of sight high in the canopy.  For a couple of weeks in July, the tree was giving off a very distinctive pre-blooming odor.  I thought it was vaguely similar to some type of petroleum distillate like turpentine, but other folks had different opinions.  Finally, the show began at the end of July.  On Day 1 about 5% of the flowers opened.  This attracted swarms of bees.

 

On Day 2 about 80% of the flowers opened and the bees were going nuts.

 

By Day 3 only the last 10% of the flowers were left, but there were more bees than ever.  This caused an intense frenzy for access to the last few flowers.  The flowers drop as soon as pollination happens, so a large heap of old flowers piled up on the ground.  Confused bees were digging through the pile on the ground looking for pollen or nectar.

 

Then the show was over.  After three years of blooming, the tree is also just about finished.  But these pollination orgies were fun to watch, if short lived.  Every day there is something new in the garden.  Oddly, there seems to be something wrong with this tree because the previousl four bloomings did not produce any seeds.  Even if I had gotten viable seeds, I would not have germinated them fearing they, too, would have a high risk of blooming precociously. 

[Rick Kelley]

This post will be another construction update. Below are three photos of the same area along the back corner of my property.

Here is what it looked like after the bulldozer extended the driveway 700 ft to the back of the property.  Some of the large boulders left on the side of the driveway probably weight over 500 pounds.  To help orient the three photos, the ohi`a tree is marked with an asterisk. 

Same area a month later after a second guy came with an excavator sporting a jackhammer attachment to bust up the big rocks. You might be able to make out a white string on the right side marking the property line.

 

Same area today with five royals growing.

[Rick Kelley]

It took a lot of work to get from the second to the third picture.  It’s not apparent in the first two photos, but the lava bedrock sloped off to the right about 4-5 feet.  I decided to put a row of royals in this location to delineate the boundary of the property.  I thought such large trees would be more stable if they were able to sink their roots deep into the ground. 

 

To achieve this, I used the leftover rock to fill the low area on the right.  I arranged a layer of rocks, then filled the space between with black cinder.  Then the entire area was covered with a thick layer of mulch.  Then I laid out another layer of rocks, filled with cinder, and more mulch, again and again until the filled layer was almost level with the driveway.  Finally, I topped it off with a twelve-inch layer of cinder and mulch.  At last the baby palms were planted.

Maybe the small elevation difference will divert the next lava flow so it remains in the adjacent vacant lot.  Kilauea just resumed erupting a few days ago, although for the moment the lava is contained in the caldera at the summit.

[Rick Kelley]

In previous posts I have mentioned trying to avoid super common palm species. I made an exception for royals.  Well grown specimens in private gardens are wonderfully impressive, like the giant columns of an Egyptian temple.  Sadly, many poorly grown royals are seen around the island in commercial landscapes.  I’m not sure what they are doing wrong, but the trunks often have ugly constrictions.  Sorta like the leg of a gigantic dinning room table.  I’ve heard pulling off hanging dead fronds is a big no-no, but that seems unlikely to be the explanation.  Maybe lack of fertilizer?

So far, I think mine are doing ok after about five years in the ground.  They are about 30 ft tall with about 8-10 ft of clear trunk.  They are spaced 18’ (5.5 m) apart.  The outer three are Roystonea oleracea and show gently tapered trunks. 

The central two are Roystonea regia and have dramatically swollen bases 40” (1 m) across resembling a volumetric flask from high school chemistry class.

 

The R. regia started out as one-gallon babies. 18 months later I got the R. oleracea as 20-gallon plants, the largest I’ve ever worked with.  Never again.  I’ll stick to 5-gallon and under pots from here on out.  Too hard to transport home, unload off the truck, drag to the planting site, and extract from the pot.  Most palms grow pretty darn fast in Hawaii, so starting with a larger rootball often doesn’t really give you a significant headstart.

 

The hedge behind the palms is Brazilian red cloak (Megasepsama erythrochlamys).  Like almost every plant in Hawaii, this is propogated by breaking off a branch and sticking it the ground.  It quickly roots and establishes a new plant.  I have tons of this growing on my property all derived from a single cutting a gardening friend gave me years ago.  I like it because it blooms year-round and the faded flowers fall away quickly, so the plant always looks neat.  And it is fairly tough.  So far there has not been any damage from falling royal fronds.  We’ll see if that is still true down the road when the fronds fall from a much greater height.  Another great thing about this plant is that it doesn’t produce seeds, so it has not become a noxious weed.  I think this is very popular in South Florida, too.

[Hilo Jason]

I've said it before and will probably say it many more times on upcoming posts, the amount of rock work that you have done by hand is incredible and very inspiring!  I'm planning some future excavation work at our Pepeekeo Property which will carve out and level some planter area and make some 3 - 4' tall wall areas.  I'll be stacking rock walls myself to create some terraced planters and I always think of the work you've done.  

I also just got some Brazilian red cloak clippings and plan on including them as part of my privacy screen plantings I am working on there.  Have you trimmed these at all in the 5 tears or so that you've had them planted?  My concern is planting them on my fence line and having them grow out to far onto my neighbors properties and them not being happy with them encroaching eventually.  I've seen these get pretty big if left alone.  But not sure how long it takes for that to happen.  

[Frond-friend42]

Beautiful pics and beautiful garden paradise. Love that metroxylon coming up out of the coleus pic.