In the late fall of 2018, I visited Honolulu and visited Foster Botanical Garden for the first time. This is an amazing space close to downtown that was founded by an interesting plant fanatic, William Hillebrand, back in the 1850s. I read his story in a great book that my friend Dean purchased for me during the garden visit. It was fascinating to hear about how challenging it was to import plants at the time, and the obsession that many people had to try and have one or two of EVERYTHING from around the world. The plants came in by boat after months at sea and thousands of them were lost, but William stuck to it and introduced some beautiful specimens to this garden.
While we wandered the garden, some lonely seeds fell into my pockets and wouldn’t leave me be, so I brought them home. Among them were various palm nuts, and three of those have since sprouted, one in my office at work and two on my heat mat at home.
This palm is now about a year old and only has one long strappy leaf. My hope in 2020 is that I can keep it growing and get a second leaf!