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So I go to my place for the first time in 19 months and the plants along the border have gotten enormous. There is a palm that four men could hold hands around (gotta put that on my to-do list for next time --- please e-mail with requests to be included in that group). There are other palms that looked so cute when they are young, but now are vying for attention like a teenager with a pierced eyebrow.Also some sort of agave plant that is 15 feet high. Sculpturally, it is quite impressive. This would look beautiful at, say, the entrance to a resort on the side of the island that looks like a blackened Baja California. But it is out of scale for what I want.
In short, some of these plants are beautiful, but, you know....just too big or in the wrong place for me (others would think they are neat). Must I kill these things and have them hauled off to their death, or is there or a nicer way of dealing with these things? Will someone buy them? Will someone dig them out and put them some place they are wanted?
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Palms are one of the tropical plans that cannot be trimmed into submission.... there are people (and business - some that buy, most you pay to have them come & dig) that will transfer plants. Wether it is worth the effort would have a lot to do with the species of plants, the location of the plant and the base ground (more are willing to work deep soil than pahoehoe)
The speed that plants grow here is always amazing, and the fact that there are only two growing seasons, fast growth & hyper-drive, has continued to amaze me, along with the things I knew as scrawny little houseplants that have a Audrey Jr. appearance in my yard (Feed me!)
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put them on freecycle, someone might want them. palms are pretty easy to transplant, ie, you dont need alot of rootball. those agave on the other hand, when that big usually flower and then die. (tough digging also!!)
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Thanks, Carey, and lquade. Freecycle is a great idea. Hadn't thought of that. The agave is gigantic and beautiful but I like plants that produce something or smell nice.
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Glen, Those are the two criteria we have instituted. Since we have a smaller lot, we added one more requirement: it has to produce within limits, and the best are plants that produce more evenly throughout the year
Trees like our older tangerine and Bilimbi are nice, but our trees produce hundreds of fruit a week for a few weeks, when everyone else's is also producing like crazy & we are left with fruit that is hard to give the away.... but must be picked up or you have a pest problem.... we usually end up driving into Hilo & slepping around the fruit... the senior housing facilities around town do appreciate, but can only take a part of the harvest of one tree at a time.... we have even overloaded the food basket with fruit at times...
And we normally cut back 1/4 -1/3 of the growing wood of our fruit trees every year, just to try to control the growth..... FEED ME!!!!
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If you don't want more agave plants cut the flower shoot off immediately after it shoots up or else you are going to have hundreds of keiki everywhere. PS. Agave does however produce something; a great low glycemic sweetener if you learn how to prepare. There are mainly two ways which I can describe if you are interested, if not cut that shoot!
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Okay, I messed up. Forgive me, I have a concussion, a headache a sore shoulder. I don't know what kind of cactus it is. But I don't know what kind. Agsve is my generic term. It's some kinda giant Baja California lookin' thing with grey leaves that are pointed. It is gigantic -- bigger than the back of your Ford F-150.
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No pics available. Here's a word picture: The cactus is gray/blue with leaves bigger larger than a man that come to a point and radiate out from the center. There is no bloom at the center nor do I think there will be. It is about 15 feet tall and as wide. There is a snow bush about ten feet high. A giant palm about 20 feet high and 4 feet wide, maybe some arecas and some triangle palms (not sure about removing those as they are in grass and I don't want to tear up the grass). Okay, I will try and get pictures or you can just go by and look. The plants are beautiful...but too big for my taste and purpose (in the way of a prospective fence).
