Got no pot!

Months after moving in -- our neighbor's gift of cuttings

When we first retired and moved to the Puna District on the Big Island of Hawaii, we bought a newly constructed house on one acre. Half the lot was a forest of ohia trees (80% of  died quickly from a horrible infection/fungus that is slowing killing thousands and thousands of the island's ohia trees.) Those trees were surrounded by huge mounds of invasive bushes and vines.

Outside nursery --  pots

Pots in the greenhouse

Overflow - more pots

Waiting for pots

The other half of the lot was nearly bare -- nothing  but red cinder on the "ground" -- the ground being lava. Our gracious next door neighbor was kind enough to take us around his property with his machete whacking off lots of cuttings to get us started.


He also gave us a couple dozen one-gallon pots.Since then we have bought many plants, but retained all the pots to propagate cuttings -- so easy to do in this climate. There have been times when nearly all the pots are stacked neatly in the greenhouse -- literally hundreds of then, and I wonder if I should reduce the stacks and recycle some.

Potted plants waiting to be planted

This week, after pruning I decided to pot up a few cuttings -- and WHAT!!! where are all the pots?? And, I realized they were nearly all in use! Hard to believe, and I'm the master gardener around here. It seemed so funny (at least to me) I decided just to take a series of photos of all the pots (in use) with rooted cutting, bulbs, seeds and such -- just waiting to be incorporated into the landscaping.

How, you may wonder, can anyone use all those plants? Well, when's the last time you paced off a full one-acre lot? We have nearly 30 landscaping beds on our expanding acre, and there are still "bald" spaces !! Oh, no! And, for further silly creativity, all the beds have names, such as:  "Moon Bed," "Poliahu's White Bed," "Monarch Bed," "Sam's Hill," "Dark Goddesses Bed," "Kate's Bed," oh, and the "Once Ugly Bed." ("And," Phil added, "she does all this for fun!!)

"Plumbing" for Pests

simple pvc coqui trap

Many of our friends here on the Big Island of Hawaii, and the district of PUNA in particular, remember when you did NOT hear the perturbing sounds of the infamous COQUI frogs all night long.

 LISTEN TO COQUI  As you listen to this short video, imagine this sound multiplied 1000x – then maybe you won’t think it is so cute.  At our house, we have tried to keep most of the vegetation away from the house, but if a few of these little buggers are near your bedroom window – you have to use earplugs.

Yes, if you are visitor, there is some enchantment, but most of us locals find them annoying. At least we know when the temperature falls to 60 degrees because they are quiet.

Apparently this invasive species arrived in Hawaii from Puerto Rico in 1988. While Puerto Rico residents seem to adore them as their mascot; here, however, they have a negative impact by eating many of the insects that would be consumed by the insectivore birds that are actually native to the island. If they keep growing in numbers, they may contribute to the decline of local native species.  

Our neighbor's nightly catch

The male calls the females and mating pairs here can produce an egg clutch of 150 eggs every 20 days!!  Since adult coqui frogs live 4-6 years – the chances of eradication are small.  It is an exponential challenge.  There are some places around Puna where you can hardly hear your own voice – especially in the more jungle-like areas. 

Our main goal is to catch as many as we can (especially close to the house)  using this simple technique (offered by UH) and our next door neighbor.  They can be killed by freezing, very hot water, or citric juice.