Charman Akina garden

[realarch]

Last Sunday HIPS had the opportunity to tour the fantastic garden of Charman Akina located about 9 miles north of Hilo. Although a significant portion of the estate has been sold off and subdivided, there still remains a large, mature, and important palm sanctuary. The day was cloudy, warm, and sultry, which is pretty typical of this part of East Hawaii and just perfect for

a garden tour and potluck. Not only was the tour and food great, but Mr. Akina encouraged everyone to collect seed and offered seedlings of Pelagodoxa henryana as small gifts. Wow, a very

generous host.

Anyway, here are some photos of a great day.

The first couple of photos is a stand of Roystonea oleracea, like a cathedral, a place that makes you speak in whispers.

A few announcements before the tour

[ariscott]

Wow... is that bread fruit tree in the background of pic #3? Very nice....

Regards, Ari

[realarch]

The garden is large enough to be divided into sections, so we'll start on a path that used to be the railroad tracks for sugar cane transport. The garden was formally cane fields and tropical forest.

Reinhardtia lastisecta

Licuala, and our Secretary, Patty.

green Bismarckia, how beautiful is this?

[realarch]

This path is almost totally under canopy and you can hear the water from the small stream that runs adjacent to it.

Cryosophila warscewiczii

Looking up into the crown

former railroad track

[realarch]

Here are some shots of Drymophloeus oliviformis.....incredible specimens.

Stilt roots and such a slender stem

Looking up again

[realarch]

Here's the stream, or what we call a gulch. Lots of rain lately, so the gulch was full.

A palm I'd never heard of let alone had ever seen one. Heterospathe delicuatula.

Check out the inflorescence on this puppy. They do call it the 'purple antler palm', well someone does.

[realarch]

Then we turned the corner and it looked like something out of Avatar. A forest of Socratea, Iriatea, Physokentia, just to name a few. It was stunning.

Got Roots?

[realarch]

Here was this Pelagodoxa henryana standing in the middle of all these Socratea. It's the largest one I've ever seen. Perfect habitat.

Here is Sean Callhan, Director of the Hawaii Tropical Botanic Garden, standing at the base of Physokentia dennisii. Sean led the tour of the garden.

A 180 and there's a stand of Physokentia insolita

Here's looking up into the P. dennisii

[realarch]

Lillikoi Lee next to a Joey.

Check out this Pinanga bicolana. Wow!

Now we're heading into a meadow area with lots of different species. Elaeis oleifera.

Heterospathe elata

[realarch]

Dypsis utilis

[realarch]

Hydriastele sp., although it looks like H. longispathe.

Phoenicophorium borsigianum

Normanbya, Neoveitchia, Phoenicophorium

Nephrosperma vanhoutteanum

[realarch]

Astrocaryum sp.

A trio of Clinostigma samoense

Metroxylon

Dwarf catechu

[realarch]

Here's the famous Dypsis carlsmithii, named after the former owner of this incredible estate. A beefy palm.

Another area of nothing but D.carlsmithii.

Pigafetta's, royals, and a happy member lost in his own mind.

Gives you a sense of scale in this area of the garden.

[realarch]

More.

Pritchardia maideniana

Sean leading the tour.

The potluck was great and gave everyone a chance to talk and socialize.

[realarch]

Time to go home, getting dark, and heading down the road with a full stomach, good memories, and a Pelagodoxa seedling.

A truly wonderful day totally devoted to palms.

[Kumar]

BEautiful !! Nothing further to say!

[basilios]

Incredible garden....wow.....

[Urban Rainforest]

Tim, What an awesome garden and that Carlsmithii is unreal!! I wonder how many thousands of seedlings have been produced from that one palm . Does that garden get enough rain for all it's irrigation needs or do they have to supplement it. Seeing the gulch I'm guessing they get enough but I was just wondering about other areas rainfall amounts outside of say Leilani Estates. Looks like you guys had a great palmy day!!

Stevo

[bgl]

Tim,

Thanks a lot for posting! Great photos! This was certainly an incredible event, but how could it not be? This is one of the legendary gardens, not just here in Hawaii but anywhere. Part of the original Carlsmith estate, but sold and subdivided about ten years ago or so, and all the palms still remain. There's plenty rainfall here, and no additional irrigation is necessary. I don't know the numbers but being that it's fairly close to Hilo, which gets 129 inches of rain, on average, per year, my guess would be that it's somewhere in that range. The garden is located right next to Onomea Bay, just uphill from the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden's visitor center, and the terrain is steep and very impressive in places. And the D. carlsmithii in post #13 is of course the type specimen. It has been moved once, in conjunction with the garden being subdivided, and suffered a minor setback at that point, which is noticeable when you look closely at the trunk. The palm is probably about 40 ft tall, overall height.

Bo-Göran

PS. This garden was the focal point of the IPS Biennial that took place here on the Big Island in 1990.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

WOW! Thanks for taking the minute to post these photos Tim. This is the first I have seen of this garden. It is spectacular!!!

Anyone know the approx. elevation here? Under the 600 foot zone?

[paulgila]

incredible! what more can be said?

[bgl]

Bill, it's very close to Onomea Bay and the ocean. Elevation probably around 100-150 ft for the most part.

[Kim]

Very impressive garden! Tim, your photos manage to convey the maturity and magnitude of the garden so well. Thank you so much for posting the photos, wish I could have been there. Pelagadoxa seedlings, wow!

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Bill, it's very close to Onomea Bay and the ocean. Elevation probably around 100-150 ft for the most part.

Wow at 100 feet it's right by HTBG... Thanks! Sounds like we won't need to be much higher to get gobs of rain around there... Hard to gauge all of it from this side of the globe. We need another vacay!!!

Still saving all our pennies for the move, still seems so far away some days!

[BS Man about Palms]

Fantastic Tim!

Thanks for the tour pix...I really like the pics of the Heterospathe delicatula as I have a decent sized one that has been growing outside in a pot for a couple years here and seems none the worse for wear from it. Its supposed to be a higher altitude Heterospathe, so I thought it stood a good chance...

Nice to see the size... the "cagayensis" is super colorful too..

[fan palm]

amazing everything looks so healthy and well grown that some of the pics looks like they are taken in habitat! crazy!

[Xenon]

Wow, incredible! Love the Drymopholeus and Hydriastle, not too many pictures of them anywhere.

Thanks for sharing,

Jonathan

[edric]

Great shots Tim, Ed

[realarch]

Thanks for the comments! This garden was just too beautiful not to share the photos with the board.

[Dr. George]

Mahalo, Tim

What an amazing place!

Thanks for the tour.

If this garden was the focal point of the IPS Biennial of 1990, one has to ask how old is this garden?

gmp

[Dypsisdean]

Wow, incredible! Love the Drymopholeus and Hydriastle, not too many pictures of them anywhere.

Thanks for sharing,

Jonathan

I agree. Thanks Tim - it's nice to see what some of my little guys will look like in a few years.

[bgl]

George,

Keep in mind, this is part of the original Carlsmith estate, and I'm fairly certain it dates back to the mid 1960s. What's amazing is how different the various parts of the garden are from each other. Certain parts are very well manicured, while others are completely wild and the palms grow exactly the way they would in habitat. The topography is also very unique with lots of elevation change. At the beginning of the tour, Charman talked to the group (third photo in post #1)and, among many other things, mentioned that they are in the process of developing a new "secret palm garden". Keep in mind, this is in a garden that's more than 40 years old, and they have room to develop a new area! Pretty amazing. This new "secret palm garden" has an access that is next to impossible to find, and the path leading in to it is right next to a ravine that drops down some 60-70 ft. Spectacular would be an understatement!

Bo-Göran

[LauraAnu]

Great photos Tim

Thanks for the insight Bo. It it always good to know a bit of background about older palm gardens.

Laura

[Walter John]

Oh wowza, thanks for posting, I'm sure there's more ?

[GTClover]

I agree with all the rest! Wonderful garden and many thanks for taking the time for the photos!

Susan

[pogobob]

Thanks for the great photo tour Tim, we always enjoy wandering the nieghborhood of palm gardens there when we visit Hawaii. We actually considered purchaseing a home there several years ago, but the mosquitos, fire ants and coqui frogs freaked Jennifer out! I on the other hand didn't even notice all the bites and stinger welts that covered me from head to toe as I was in a palm stupor

[Jeff Searle]

Tim,

Thanks for sharing all the great photos. It's nice to say that I had the opportunity to visit this garden on two different occassions. The last was with the IPS Biennial, which btw, was held in 1994, not in 1990. It is an incredible garden to visit! Thanks.

Jeff

[bgl]

Jeff,

Actually, it was indeed in 1990. And the one in 1994 was in Caracas! I should know. I was there! (I'm guessing you're thinking of the one in 2004 which did indeed take place here in Hawaii).

Bo-Göran

[velutina]

I think this proves that living in Hawaii would be torture unless you have acres of land...

[Jeff Searle]

Jeff,

Actually, it was indeed in 1990. And the one in 1994 was in Caracas! I should know. I was there! (I'm guessing you're thinking of the one in 2004 which did indeed take place here in Hawaii).

Bo-Göran

Bo,

I stand to be corrected. It was the "2004" that I was thinking of. Thought about this while out working in the yard and too late for an edit.

jeff