Palm garden in Captain Cook, Big Island of Hawaii

[mike in kurtistown]

Yesterday, the members of the Hawaii Island Palm Society not presently in Peru traveled to Captain Cook, south of Kailua-Kona, to see the palm collection of George Peavy, proprietor of Kahili Kona farms, which grows quantities of citrus fruits and dragon fruits. But this topic is not about the club activity, but about many of the spectacular palms that we saw. The pics are in alphabetical order by genus for no better reason than that the order in which File Explorer stores them. First up is a spectacular pair of Bismarckia nobilis:

 

Borassodendron machadonis

 

Burretiokentia grandiflora

 

 Calyptrocalyx hollrungii

 

A Chrysalidocarpus baronii with two heads. George Peavy says that the pair emerged when an old frond dropped.

 

A trio of Coccothrinax crinita

 

Cryosophila warscewiczii (upper center)

 

A pair of Dypsis rosea (yes, still Dypsis)

 

Elaeis oleifera

 

Johannesteijsmannia  (Joey) magnifica

 

Joey perakensis (Joey-on-a-stick)

 

Pelagodoxa henryana

 

Sclerosperma mannii (center) and Pinanga javana (upper right)

 

A trio of Vonitra utilis (George Peavy underneath)

 

Finally, a landscape view from the farm with the ocean in the distance.

 

End of story.

 

[happypalms]

Absolutely beautiful palms and some good ones at that, great pics, lucky Hawaii growers!

[Harry’s Palms]

Thank you for sharing . Beautiful pics , the palms are stunning. Harry

[realarch]

Thanks Mike for the photos and the identifications as well. Lovely garden I will have to make time to visit one of these days. 

Tim

[Hilo Jason]

Thank you Mike for posting these pictures!  I was planning on making it, but sometime life doesn't go as planned so I was not able to.  I really enjoyed seeing these photos. 

[Rick Kelley]

It might be easy for most people to skim over this post and think, 'Oh, that looks like a nice palm collection.' However, I'd bet most folks would be stunned to see the garden in context of the surrounding geology and grasp the massive amount of work needed to create this patch of paradise. The property is a very long, narrow 8 acre lot sitting on the steep western slopes of Mauna Loa (13,600 ft summit). Although Kilauea grabs most of the lava headlines, Mauna Loa is still very much alive. It erupted about two years ago and sent a river of molten lava dow into the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Lava can flow out in any direction from the summit. The Peavy property is adjacent to a recent flow (maybe 1955?) that covers the upper half of satellite image shown. The edge of the new lava is the legal property line on that side of the parcel.  Because the topology is so steep, freshly erupted lava can flow all the way down from the summit to the ocean in just a few days. By contrast, Puna on the east side is so much flatter, lava from Kilauea or the East Rift tends to ooze much more slowly. This illustrates the precarious nature of living on the Big Island. In the future, a similar satellite image might show the lower half of the area covered in lava from the 2028 eruption. 'You pay your money and take your chances.'

Most of the property is a citrus farm. The star at lower left is the entry gate off the highway. The palm garden (yellow box) is planted on the acre surrounding the house. Several huge monkey pod trees provide ideal canopy for the understory palms. The house has a spectacular view of the ocean from an elevation of several thousand feet. I was impressed to learn that the tropical vegetation can make it on only 30-60" of rain annually. They have built an extensive catchment system to harvest rain from the roofs of all the buildings. Only with extensive irrigation is the lush growth possible. The result is a truly impressive garden filled with rare species. If I recall correctly, the first trees only went in the ground about 17 years ago. This was the first time HIPS had been invited to this property. It was a wonderful treat.

[Kim]

Thank you, Mike and Rick, for adding photos and information here on PalmTalk. 

Bo and I attended the morning session of the tour and I really appreciated what Dr. George has achieved in a relatively short time. The understory captured my attention as much as the palms -- an impressive amount of foliage plants really set off the palms. And the palms were varied and quite impressive. Photos below.

Below, an astonishing pair of Dypsis rosea, closeup of inflorescence below.

The one Colocasia I can keep alive, 'Gloriosum.' (Correction: Philodendron 'Gloriosum')

Below, Dr. George on the left welcoming a visitor while Kenny (hope I got that right) mans the Polaris.

Below: palm jewelry

Fun getting acquainted with Leonard and his pal.

Below, more of the wonderful foliage plants -- i"m told keeping them in sealed pots with plenty of water is the 'secret' to success for this one.

Dr. George describing his still-young Sclerosperma mannii while engulfed in luxuriant greenery, Monkey pod tree overhead.

Bo with a couple of old men, aka Coccothrinax crinita.

Dr. George with what I vaguely remember as a Raphia species.

Below, Borassodendron machadonis  with Dr. George for scale.

Next 2 photos: loving the understory inspo

For a final bow, the most colorful and happy Bentinckia condapanna on the planet, no "enhancement' necessary.

Special thanks to Hawaii Island Palm Society, Dr. George, and wife Lynn for an inspiring day in the garden. There was so much more than what you see here... just wonderful!

 

 

 

 

 

[Dr. George]

Just learned about this thread.

Glad everyone enjoyed the tour and we appreciate all of the nice comments. We are always happy to share the garden and self invitations to visit are encouraged.

Mike - I didn't even see you wielding a camera. Thank you for sharing pics with everyone else.

Rick - Yes, Mauna Loa did a number on the West side of the Island in 1950. The first lava flow that crossed the highway travelled from the summit (13,681 ft elevation) to the sea (24km - 15 miles) in a little less than 3 hours. So clearly when Mauna Loa gets a bit shaky we do too. Good news is that eruptions are approximately every 20 years and the last one was in 2022. Hopefully we are good on that front for awhile.

Kim - the Raphia is mambillensis. It is a trunkless or nearly trunkless species in the genus.

Happy to try to answer any questions - gmp