Growing ʻŌhiʻa from Seeds to Seedlings as a Community!
We want to plant at least one ʻŌhiʻa Tree on every elementary school campus so that every child can have the opportunity to kilo the amazing lehua flower cycle and plant the seeds that they collect from their ʻŌhiʻa!

Community of ʻŌhiʻa Vision

Our COʻŌ Story

One of my fondest memories from 2020 is observing our ʻŌhiʻa lehua tree with my son, Ezra. The minute we knew homelife was going to become the new way of life, I felt the need to turn our yard into a #homelab. On Earth Day, we picked up our ʻŌhiʻa Love packet in Kailua and that’s when the idea came to me. The kit included this wonderful tool to observe the lehua flower stages. And so on May 27, 2020, Ezra and I started our kilo (ʻŌhiʻa lehua) practice right from our yard! In the first 78 days we observed three stages: ʻōpuʻu lehua, kukuna, hua. From the 79th day to the 158th day: We observed the ʻanoʻano and hua hakahaka stages. We also planted the seeds were collected and observed germination within 14 days.

Our First Time Collecting Seeds

On January 17, 2021, nearly 236 days later, we collected our last seeds from branches we could reach on our tree. We’ve discovered that kilo, the practice of observation over time, gives ideas within us the time to grow and expand and as a result we become more inquisitive and more thoughtful with our actions and intentions. In a world where it’s easy to get sucked into a digital interface, kilo can counteract and connect us to profound ideas that didn’t exist before. I’m sharing this because when I started Kilo Books Hawaiʻi, I didn’t foresee that it would lead me to my new passion for growing ʻŌhiʻa lehua from seeds.

Planting Our Seeds

Coming full circle, on January 31, 2021, Ezra and I planted our ʻōhia seeds to begin the new phase of our #kilojourney. Here is an image from 60 days into our ʻŌhiʻa Seed to Seedling Project! And so along with my good friends, Tyler Levine (Owner of Beachnut Seeds + Youth Director for Seeds of Honua), Debbie Millikan (Member of Oʻahu Farm to School Network + Seeds of Honua), we started Our “Community of ʻŌhiʻa” Initiative to support individuals and families who are interested in growing ʻŌhiʻa lehua from seed!

Want to join Community of ʻŌhiʻa?

We’re stoked to announce that since the start of COʻŌ, our community has grown. We’re hoping to grow our community by a few more members in April as part of celebrating native Hawaiian plant month and Hauʻoli Lā Hōnua!

Want to join? Pre-order your ʻŌhiʻa Seeds Planting Kit to plant on ? Lā Honua 2023!