Resilience: A Lesson From Our Nursery

Kaua’i was rocked hard last month after Hurricane Lowell passed by. High surf destroyed much of Poipu and Kekaha, and strong winds and heavy rain took a toll on all of us here on the North Shore. We are incredibly lucky that we didn’t experience more damage at the nursery, but we’ve lost some of our oldest trees and were left with a lot of cleanup and repairs, like many of our neighbors.

Coming back to the nursery after the storm, it felt extremely raw and surreal to see towering trees come crashing down, hedges completely gone, and our nursery plants thrashed and toppled over.

It would be easy to get discouraged looking at all of the damage. We didn’t even know where to start. Assessing the extent of the damage, two of our oldest and tallest trees and one palm were completely uprooted. Other trees had their branches mangled and broken. Our hedges were torn apart. Our irrigation systems were damaged. Some of our greenhouse and potting buildings sustained damage, and tent structures were mangled and blown away.

Despite the destruction, we saw such strong resilience in our plant stock. While tall potted trees and palms were knocked down, we propped them back up, and they’re starting to recover. Some of our shrubs got wind-whipped and damaged by the strong winds, but with thorough pruning and care, they are starting to bounce back. And many of our small plants stood strong, sustaining very little damage.

The nursery needed a lot of work. Our amazing team showed up in the days after the storm and immediately got to work clearing downed branches and repairing structures. With no power or running water, it took some time to get our entire operation back up and running. Although lots of our plants were undamaged, the hot sun in the days following the storm worried us, with no irrigation and no rain in the forecast. But our amazing county and utility workers worked non-stop to get things back up and running, and by the end of the week we had water and could start repairing our irrigation systems.

With power back, debris cleared, and greenhouse and irrigation systems repaired, we’ve been back to our normal operations. We are so inspired by our local community, who has been stepping up to help our neighbors, from local businesses offering free food and organizing gas and ice drop-offs, to individuals who came outside the morning after the storm and began clearing roads for locals. The aftermath of this storm has been extremely rough, but it has also shown us how resilient we are as humans, just like plants. Mahalo to everyone who has reached out to check in and continued to support us. It’s a long road ahead for Kaua’i, but we’re here to help rebuild and regrow.