The Bamboo Compromise

Aloha! Years back, I was having one of many discussions with my wife about bamboo and how much I liked it.

Each time I brought the topic up, she consistently expressed a less than full desire to have any bamboo on the property.

She wasn't enthusiastic to say the least. 'No way!' 'Are you crazy?' were some of the lighter comments.

Not to be daunted, I did a lot of research and saw that there are two types of bamboo (more or less) -- running bamboo and clumping bamboo.

Well, as luck would have it, at one point, I was at Koili Point and she was overseas. And it just so happened that there was an annual plant sale going on at the Civic Auditorium in Hilo. Wouldn't you know it, Quindembo Bamboo happened to be there selling some bamboo plants. Co-inki-dink for sure.

By the time I got there, they only had two plants left: a 100 foot clumping black bamboo variety and a 50 foot clumping black bamboo variety. Both types were in pots and were about 8 feet tall and very spindly looking.

The sale was about to end so I had to make a quick decision. I wanted the 100 foot variety and knew my wife wanted the 0 foot variety. What to do?

So as any good spouse would do, I compromised.

What you see in the picture is the healthy and happy 50 foot variety of black bamboo on the south side of the property near the ocean and representative of the byproduct of good matrimonial communication.

I didn't tell her and tried to act surprised when we next visited the property and the bamboo was already about 25 feet and healthy. She was not happy but in the end, I think she wasn't overly upset.

Fast forward a few years to today and I have a few projects underway to use some of the bamboo to include making a shoji screen and some outdoor furniture!

With that, let me leave you with a Hawaiian word of the day: 'ohe' -- which translates to 'bamboo'. Final note... No bamboo are native to the Islands as they were brought in by Polynesian voyagers over the centuries.

Aloha! Check availability for both houses at: https://www.airbnb.com/p/oceanfront-ac-pool

If there are topics you would like to know more about in future blogs, kindly let me know at koilipoint@gmail.com. Mahalo! Len