VISITING FUKU-BONSAI
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KURTISTOWN! Our large sparsely-populated area was once homesteads where you could own property by clearing and working the land. It's a town of small business people with J. Hara Store, the post office, and BJ Service Station. Kurtistown is on Volcano Highway 11 about 10 miles from Hilo and 20 miles from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. If you're coming from Hilo, you'll come through Keaau and begin noticing that it begins to feel cool. After the 9-mile marker, look for an intersection sign for Olaa Road and your see a "BONSAI" sign right at the intersection of Volcano Highway and Olaa Road. If you're coming from Kona through Volcanoes National Park, you'll past our small town's "business district" shown above. Count nine houses and you'll see the sign.
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A PHOTO VISIT TO FUKU-BONSAI
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Our modest Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center is in the midst of a former sugar cane field and this is the driveway entrance. No one is allowed into the growing areas of the nursery which is to the right of the driveway. |
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The entrance area features a large Dwarf Schefflera "Entry Tree" that is mounted on a 6' diameter concrete disc with turntable hardware. The potting house is to the left. Fuku-Bonsai is a working bonsai nursery and visitors can chat with the staff and observe the various activities going on. The day starts with the entire staff packing so plants are ready for the scheduled FedEx pick-ups on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. |
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Shipments go out to the continental US on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and arrive within 48 hours on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. We prefer that the parcels go out to arrive in midweek as most damage occurs when parcels are enroute over the weekend. On the left is the Center office and packing shed with the sales are in front of the FedEx truck. |
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Inside the packing area. Sheet iron surfaced packing tables allow very efficient packing of small individual cartons as well as larger group bulk orders or to our wholesale accounts. On the back partition, the Micro-Lobster Museum and Exhibit includes educational panels and some of the research tanks including new prototypes. |
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Since turning over most of the bonsai specialty to Michael, I've been deeply into Micro-Lobster research and development. I enjoy showing visitors the latest theories and every so often we have visitors who have more academic knowledge than we do and I learn too! |
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FedEx has an exceptional record and they make it possible for us to have a great lifestyle in a beautiful rural setting. Their infrastructure and capabilities are impressive and when requested, we can track any shipment. Fuku-Bonsai qualifies and has an assigned "One Call Representative" who can arrange special handling when necessary. This makes it possible to ship to destinations where low temperature are above freezing with very high success rates. We use heat packs when necessary and even ship to Alaska for most months of the year! |
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The bonsai sales area holds several hundred bonsai so visitors have a nice selection of plants to choose from. Each week, the staff brings in plants to be washed and dip-treated for shipment and to refill the sales area. We conduct our workshops in this area. The cost of the workshops packages are the same as for our online customers and their is no charge for the staff supervision or teaching time. The workshop result is shipped to anywhere in the US for a $10 fee. But more often than not, two more plants are selected and the shipping is free! |
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This is a part of the center collection that includes Japanese bonsai, Chinese penjing, Hawaiian outdoor tropical and our specialty True Indoor Bonsai. It includes the Lyon Arboreteum / Fuku-Bonsai Ficus Research Collection and the Memorial Bonsai of the Hawaii State Bonsai Repository co-sponsored by the non-profit Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation. |
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Our insurance company and certified nursery regulations prohibit visitors from entering the nursery area. As a certified nursery, all plants are grown from seeds and cuttings in non-soil media on benches. Each bench is 6' wide by 40' long and there are over 250 benches. The nursery has millions of plants and this scale is necessary to spread out the overhead costs and keep our plants affordable. Because of Hawaii's natural climate, plants do not need winter protection and this makes us the most efficient nursery specializing in houseplant bonsai which can be grown indoors anywhere in the United States. |
Each year, more of our oldest customers are finding us and we're delighted with the huge increase in customer success and interest in training True Indoor Bonsai. If you're planning to visit, print out this sheet to aid in finding us and call ahead. Most of our staff can conduct Keiki Bonsai Workshops and Advanced Workshops, and if I'm not tied up, I'll be happy to be the "coach!" ~~~David