In clear view of the snowy peak of Mauna Kea, Donna and Joey Mah were clad in boots and warm clothes as they worked their 4.5-acre leased flower farm in Waimea’s Lalamilo Farm Lots. ADVERTISING In clear view of the
In clear view of the snowy peak of Mauna Kea, Donna and Joey Mah were clad in boots and warm clothes as they worked their 4.5-acre leased flower farm in Waimea’s Lalamilo Farm Lots.
The winter day I visited J&D Farm, Donna greeted me with an armload of greenery. Her morning harvest would fill her booth at the Keauhou Farmer’s Market on Saturday. She sells seasonal favorites including blue spruce, eucalyptus, Australian tea and the leafy evergreen called “false holly” to decorate her customers’ homes for the holidays.
From the farm’s entrance, we headed into a row where the Australian tea was in full bloom. Their sprays of bright pink flowers looked ready to enliven any winter arrangement. Stretching out beyond the teas, long rows of tuberose plants had fragrant spikes of buds shooting skyward awaiting harvest. Later in the day, Donna would be cutting and chilling the spikes to prepare for market or for shipping to florists throughout the state.
Joey broke from his task of weeding one of their long zucchini beds to join us briefly on our farm tour. Over the 30-plus years of farming in these farm lots, Joey has found that zucchini is a great rotational crop for their tuberose beds.
They plant each crop in 200-foot rows that are about 8-feet-wide and covered in weed cloth to reduce weeding labor. Holes cut in the cloth determine the distance between plants. Drip irrigation pipes run on the surface and supply water when needed. Once tuberose bulbs reach a good size in one of their fallow beds, the zucchini will be replaced and their main flower crop will go in while an older tuberose bed will be planted in zucchini.
Both Joey and Donna come from a long line of Hawaiian flower lovers. Donna’s grandmother, Toshiko Iwamasa, was well known in Waimea for her haku pansy lei, as well as her classes in lei making. Toshiko taught her daughter, Ellen Hori, the art of lei making and she in turn passed it on to her daughter, Donna. Now Donna’s daughter, Lyla, is also involved in the flower business.
Donna’s parents worked as vegetable farmers on an ag lot they leased not far from J&D’s current spot. When Donna decided to continue the family’s farming tradition, she knew she’d prefer growing flowers instead of revisiting her childhood chores on the vegetable farm.
Joey grew up on Oahu with a flower-loving mother who owned Lorry’s Lei Stand in Honolulu for many years. She instilled in her son the appreciation of working with flowers. The flower tradition continues in the family as their daughter Lyla has her own business making and selling small cup bouquets. Though Donna and her daughter both enjoy arranging flowers and making lei, the majority of the cut flowers grown on J&D Farm today are shipped to florists and lei makers throughout the state.
Donna and Joey started farming in 1983 by leasing a portion of Donna’s parents’ farm. They have experience growing lots of different crops and are always experimenting with new ones. During the recession, they grew more food plants. When the weather turned dry, they tried succulents and Christmas cactus for fun. Now customers ask for some of these, so they are still growing them.
At the far south end of their farm, Donna was pleased to show me their new asparagus beds. They started this new crop from seed rather than risk transferring diseases by planting crowns from other farms. They also decided to plant a hybrid (non-GMO) that they got from Twilley Seeds in South Carolina as further disease protection. The Jersey variety asparagus they planted has a wider spectrum of disease resistance than the more common Mary Washington variety. Their beds are coming along well. Watch for their asparagus harvest to appear at their market booth this spring.
Donna’s favorite flower is the gardenia and the dark green bushes grow well in the cool weather at her farm. This time of year, gardenia flowers are rare, but Donna is able to pick a few to satisfy some of the winter demand for this ultra-fragrant specimen.
In cooler weather, she finds her white hydrangea offers an attractive contrast to her greenery, though it is missing the lovely scent of the gardenia. The beauty of the hydrangea is its full head of tiny blossoms and its extended life as a cut flower. The large hydrangea bushes were loaded with flowers when I visited, and the small miniature roses growing nearby were just beginning to bloom. Seasonal flowers like dahlia and blue scabiosa for arrangements and lantern ilima for lei are definitely part of J&D Farm’s floral repertoire. They also grow roses and orchids in a separate greenhouse to supply lei making florists throughout the state.
Donna and Joey spoke briefly to me of the effects of our government’s free trade agreements on lei flower farmers.
“Today, lots of lei flowers come from Thailand, the Philippines or countries where cheap labor and low tariffs mean the flowers can be sold really cheaply here in Hawaii,” Joey said.
Donna continued by relating a story about a local politician who was wearing a foreign-made lei.
“She didn’t even know that the flowers were not Hawaiian, and she didn’t get it that buying and wearing a lei that was not from Hawaii could have such a dramatic impact on lei flower farmers here,” Donna said.
Though global government agreements can sometimes cause problems for local farmers, Donna points out that by talking to people about these issues, she can heighten their awareness of all sides of a question and perhaps get support for opposing deals that negatively impact local farmers. Of course, she advises that you look for and buy lei that are crafted locally from local flowers. As a general practice, she believes it is in the best interest of consumers, as well as local farmers, that you can identify the source of any produce you buy.
Donna’s advice to those thinking of farming in Hawaii is to expect long hours of hard work outside in all kinds of weather. She wants new farmers to know that farming can be humbling and you need to learn to take the inevitable failures with grace and a sense of humor. However, she reports that the pleasure of harvesting makes it all worthwhile. She loves the reaping the rewards of all the hard work and walking into her warehouse at the end of the day with a wagon or arm full of beautiful flowers to distribute to others.
Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant living on a farm in Honaunau.
