Fuku-Bonsai is emerging from a 21-year battle for survival that began in 1989 with the spraying defective Benlate contaminated with weed killers. When we recognized that residual contamination would prevent us from growing our original crop to the same high standards, we successfully switched to Dwarf Schefflera, the best houseplant with ideal bonsai characteristics that was more resistant to the contamination. Now our True Indoor Bonsai™ are the most successful gift bonsai for anyone anywhere who can grow houseplants!  Fuku-Bonsai is the only bonsai nursery that specializes in houseplant bonsai, is the acknowledged international pioneer, and a certified nursery able to ship to all parts of the United States. David Fukumoto has an international reputation and our website is highly respected. We’re a big fish in a small pond but will be greatly enlarging the pond as we move to stronger promotion and marketing.

                     Our full product line includes: 1) HAWAIIAN LAVA PLANTINGS in several sizes that are very slow growing, easy care, and ideal gifts.  2) POTTED BONSAI in several sizes include older larger Custom Collection for those who want to grow and train bonsai, and 3) WORKSHOPS including the recently added Introductory Workshop Package. We made a major breakthrough and developed proprietary techniques to produce large quantities of highest quality prepared bonsai stock in 2” pots that take 2-4 years to produce. This greatly raises the quality of the entire product line and made the breakthrough Introductory Workshop Package (IWP-8) possible.

                     IWP-8 is the educational bonsai Holy Grail achieved after 48 years of trials and research. With it anyone anywhere can learn (and teach) bonsai successfully!  Fuku-Bonsai was recently awarded a $90,000 USDA-Rural Business Enterprise Grant to rebuild 50% of the nursery benches and build plant racks to enlarge commercial production of the 2” prepared bonsai stock.  We have a large plant inventory that will be converted to quickly move into salable inventory and production of a full range of quantities of quality products. 

                     Making the transition from our original Brassaia to Dwarf Schefflera was difficult but necessary.  Brassaia was badly impacted by the Benlate residue and the required excessive amount of spraying produced weaker, poor quality plants. We greatly reduced our work force and mainland accounts to concentrate on developing high-quality Dwarf Schefflera. We thought we had sufficient salable inventory in 2005 and started marketing primarily on the Internet.

                     We were overly successful, sold out much of the inventory to a single corporate order for the company’s Christmas gifts and forced to pull back.  We planted a HUGE 2006 crop to mature in 2010 but then experienced a major total crash of our jerry-rigged computer. Our single older computer was possible because of the goodwill and assistance of our business associates who salvaged parts from traded-in retired computers. Following the crash of 2006, we had very limited computer capabilities and the new equipment purchased required replacing all computer software as the modern operating system does not support our old software. The computer issues are just now being resolved. 

FUKU-BONSAI ORIGINS

                     Fuku-Bonsai has roots in a Fukumoto family bonsai hobby begun in 1962. While still a beginner, in 1966, David was asked to be a last minute substitute teacher for Aiea High School’s Evening Adult Education bonsai class.  Then there were no books on tropical bonsai nor source of plants for bonsai.

                     In the next two years David wrote a handbook and provided prepared bonsai stock from Myrtle’s backyard nursery. About this time bonsai was just catching on in the mainland as American occupation forces returned home after World War II.  In Hawaii the veterans had gone to school on the GI Bill, had established their careers, and began exploring their cultural roots. With Ted Tsukiyama, Michael Uyeno, Dr. Horace Clay and others, the non-profit Hawaii Bonsai Association was formed as an umbrella group to assist bonsai clubs on an island wide basis.  David wrote articles for Bonsai Clubs International Magazine and the American Bonsai Society Journal.

FUKU-BONSAI AS A SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP & MERGENCE OF HAWAII AS AN INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF BONSAI

                     In 1973 David participated in writing the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture certified export nursery program and; when approved by California, the Fukumoto family moved to the Big Island, purchased a 12-acre former sugar cane field in Kurtistown, and started Fuku-Bonsai as the first certified nursery as a sole proprietorship with funding under the New Farmer program of the State Farm Loan with First Hawaiian Bank participating.

                     The nursery prospered and consistently sold all production via retail mail order and only through widely scattered Fuku-Bonsai Authorized Retailers.  The primary product was Hawaiian Lava Plantings of Schefflera (Brassaia actinophylla) and with all shipping via US Postal Air Priority Mail.  Throughout the late 1970’s, Fuku-Bonsai continuously expanded with loans from Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) and Federal Land Bank. As the first Hawaii nursery, David developed a “non-soil” potting media that utilized 75% volcanic high velocity pumice ejecta and 25% peat most with amendments and slow release fertilizers. He collaborated in the design of Fuku-Bonsai plastic bonsai pots and saucers still in production today.

                      He became a research affiliate of the Harold Lyon Arboretum of the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the study titled: “FICUS; An Inspiration for Bonsai for Indoors” and a series of papers were published in the ABS Journal in 1979. These articles are credited with ficus bonsai being the most popular bonsai in the United States today.  However, ficus required more light than available in most homes and David continued research seeking the best most durable houseplants for anyone anywhere. With contacts from his magazine articles, he ran national trials of a large number of possible plants and is considered the world authority in this area.  Fuku-Bonsai’s products are trademarked: “TRUE INDOOR BONSAI.”  

                     In 1980 Hawaii burst onto the international bonsai scene in sponsoring the landmark International Bonsai Congress at Sheraton-Waikiki featuring Japan grand master Saburo Kato representing Nippon Bonsai Association in their first international appearance, Deborah Koreshoff of Australia introducing Chinese penjing, and John Naka of California.  David was the “ring-master moderator” for Hawaii’s unique 3-ring presentation that saw three Hawaii teams spread out in the ballroom with attendees drifting and rotating through the stages.

                     With knowledge of Japanese culture and as the oldest English speaking bonsai community, Hawaii served as a liaison between Japan and the western world including having a major role in forming the World Bonsai Friendship Federation and in assisting in the creation of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington, D.C. that houses the Japan Bi-Centennial Bonsai Gift to the U.S.,  the American collection (that includes the Haruo “Papa” Kaneshiro Tropical Greenhouse and a bonsai by David Fukumoto), the Chinese penjing collection, and other bonsai related exhibits. 

EVOLUTION TO A CORPORATION, DEVELOPING THE KONA FUKU-BONSAI CENTER, SPRAYING DEFECTIVE BENLATE, AND BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL

                     In 1985 Fuku-Bonsai evolved into a Hawaiian corporation to eventually have over 200 stockholders who raised over $2 million to own and operate both the Fuku-Bonsai 12-acre nursery in Kurtistown and the Fuku-Bonsai Center in upper Keauhou-Kona on 17-acres of the former JM Tanaka Quarry.  Funds were raised from operations, a series of stock offerings, and a loan from the State Capital Loan Program.  Much of the layout, building design, construction of the garden structures, and landscaping were handled in-house. The center opened to critical acclaim and celebrated its grand opening in September 1992 with nine themed bonsai gardens with Phase I utilizing about three acres.

                     Unfortunately, in 1989, Fuku-Bonsai sprayed defective Benlate fungicide that was contaminated with weed killers and this eventually caused over $30 million of losses of the “old plant bank” of bonsai that had been in training since 1973, the loss of the 17-acre Kona Fuku-Bonsai Center with extensive improvements, and total and major recropping and restructuring costs.  Fuku-Bonsai was initially part of a group of over 200 plaintiffs representated by a litigation team led by Kevin Malone of Florida.  There were over 5,000 lawsuits against DuPont.  Residual contamination prevents the growing of the original Brassaia crops and Fuku-Bonsai has fought an epic 20-year long battle for survival.  In taking amongst the largest losses, it barely survives while many others are no longer in business.

                     In March of 1994 Fuku-Bonsai was forced to seek Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection to stop foreclosure on the 12-acre Kurtistown property.  A few months later, DuPont agreed to settle with the litigation team for $2.5 million.  We resisted but only had the choice of accepting the settlement or being liquidated.  We retired the mortgage on the Kurtistown property, paid off all creditors 100% + interest and the bankruptcy was cancelled in 1996. We began the long battle to rebuild and reinvent Fuku-Bonsai. 

                     Upon leaving bankruptcy, in a related case, it became known that DuPont withheld evidence, misrepresented facts and committed the most grievous settlement fraud in the history of the U.S. judicial history.  Fuku-Bonsai was not able to return the settlement funds and forced to “affirm the product liability settlement and sue for fraud.” After over 10 years of litigation, in 2007, Fuku-Bonsai was forced to settle on the eve of trial with total NET recovery after taxes and legal fees of both product liability and fraud settlements being less than 10% of losses. Fuku-Bonsai continues its battle for survival.

                     Rebuilding Fuku-Bonsai became a challenge once we realized we could not grow our previous Brassaia crop.  Very fortunately,  Dwarf Schefflera (Schefflera arboricola) was immune to the residue and is a superior houseplant bonsai!  Against all odds Fuku-Bonsai has survived and is beginning a new era!

CONCLUSION

                    As I write this update in August of 2010,  Fuku-Bonsai is emerging into a new era!  This is not to say that we are fully recovered as we still has many challenges still remaining with the need to refinance being the priority.  But many companies that took much smaller losses due to defective Benlate have been forced to close.  Fuku-Bonsai survived because of a huge amount of support from our staff, customers, stockholders and the Big Island and bonsai communities.  I thank everyone and ask for your continued support.

                     Throughout our most difficult days,  the emphasis has always been on how to continue to upgrade and improve our quality standards.  I believe we have elevated our standards to the highest level in the United States and this is made possible due to a very dedicated hard working staff working a huge volume of plants to keep costs down.  Each year customers become more successful and are taking on greater challenges. 

                     For new customers just being introduced to our products, I highly recommend the IWP-8 Introductory Workshop Package.  Within a few months you'll become very confident in handling our plants.  I strongly recommend that you stay with our plants, OUR PROCEDURES, AND OUR POTTING MATERIALS!  Whenever there are problems,  it's usually because a customer believes that our plants will work with what they do with other plants, the way they grow their other plants, or the way they water their other plants!  They keep insisting that our methods don't work, but their methods do not produce strong white root tips! 

                    Each year customers are moving into more advanced projects and that's a wonderful evolution.  Please feel free to email me if there are questions or if I can be of assistance!   Mahalo (thank you) to all for your great support!

                    ~~~David W. Fukumoto, president and founder, Fuku-Bonsai Inc.             Email: david.f@fukubonsai.com