04-25-2010, 12:13 PM
We bought a bunch of Plant It Hawaii fruit trees at Makuu a few weeks before their last sale. I think the guy doing the selling was one of their workers making some side money. Many of the vendors are not "certified nursery professionals" because their operation is too small to afford the fees, but often they have been growing these plants here for many years and are knowledgeable about their stock. With plants experience can easily trump credentials.
My husband is a former nurseryman and certified arborist who knows his plants, and we have heard some absolute BS come out of the mouths of "certified professionals" who were just trying to make a sale. Certification often can mean someone paid the membership fees and sat through some "professional development" seminars or took an online course designed for the mainland.
The plant vendors at Makuu are mostly long term members of the community who have no interest in steering people wrong. If they can't tell you the name of the plant and it's best growing conditions, think twice before you buy it. If they haven't being growing and selling plants for very long in Hawaii, decide if you should walk away. But Puna (especially HPP) is full of small scale growers who are selling good stock they raised themselves, not just imported and moved up to bigger pots, as so many commercial nurseries do. Commercial nurseries also often order plants sight unseen, the seller packs a tractor trailer and the receiving nursery has to take all or none of it, so there really isn't a lot of picking and choosing going on.
I would agree on Rozette's quality, and they really know HPP's micro climates.
Carol
My husband is a former nurseryman and certified arborist who knows his plants, and we have heard some absolute BS come out of the mouths of "certified professionals" who were just trying to make a sale. Certification often can mean someone paid the membership fees and sat through some "professional development" seminars or took an online course designed for the mainland.
The plant vendors at Makuu are mostly long term members of the community who have no interest in steering people wrong. If they can't tell you the name of the plant and it's best growing conditions, think twice before you buy it. If they haven't being growing and selling plants for very long in Hawaii, decide if you should walk away. But Puna (especially HPP) is full of small scale growers who are selling good stock they raised themselves, not just imported and moved up to bigger pots, as so many commercial nurseries do. Commercial nurseries also often order plants sight unseen, the seller packs a tractor trailer and the receiving nursery has to take all or none of it, so there really isn't a lot of picking and choosing going on.
I would agree on Rozette's quality, and they really know HPP's micro climates.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb