 Aloha and welcome to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30 from the ThinkTech studios in the beautiful downtown Halaululu in the Pioneer Plaza. And today it's not raining. We've had a few days and a weekend of rain over here so things are drying out and it's very appropriate for today's topic because everything is green and looking good. So we're going to talk a little bit about a successful company in Hawaii which is a theme of the show. We talk about successful companies and individuals and how they've overcome some of the challenges of doing business here in Hawaii. So today we have a company called Plant Hawaii and we've got the owner, Karol Wilson and her grower. And I didn't know that there was a title like that but there is. But it's Molly Harlings, Harings, and she's the grower so she's the one that makes all these things happen. We were kind of joking earlier I have a couple brown thumbs so I'm not going to be qualified for the job but she can do a great job at this and particularly with all the rain that we've had the last few days things are looking pretty good. So welcome to the show to both of you. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. So now you're over in Waimanalo so you had to come way over that mountain to come over here to downtown Halaululu. Very long way. It is, yeah, but you found it and we're so glad to have you here today. Thank you. But tell me a little bit about yourselves before we go into the company. Karol, you're the owner of the company. Is this what you set out to do as a little girl or how did this all come about? What's your background? How long have you been in Hawaii? Well, I have personally been here for 22 years. My husband Scott Wilson is a local boy born and raised here, went to Kamehameha and we actually have partners who are Natalie and Blake P. K., and we're just very blessed by this partnership that we have. My husband and I, we definitely did not think we'd end up like this. He has a design background, went to school for design. I had more of a social work background, but we did both kind of end up in entrepreneurship in a sense. I had a child care for a while, then a cleaning business. My husband went from design to landscape design and then to tropical garden accents, which was a popular place in Waimanalo, where you could buy pottery and so forth. And then we got an opportunity to buy this farm. And prior to Hawaii, you were in Columbia? I'm Colombian originally from South America and our family moved us to Miami for a while before I ended up here. Oh, well, but you like the warm weather. I do. That's good. Go anywhere but warm. I was born in Jersey and I hate the cold weather, so it's so good to be here. I grew up in Florida and now here. So okay, so great. So you came around and then you met your husband and you had, this isn't your first gig. You had a couple before, which isn't unusual. A lot of entrepreneurs or small business owners go through that. They got to try some things and see what works and then finally they hit it and all of a sudden it all starts to click. That's right. And so you're here. Did you have to go through any education or training to get into this business or how did that work? Well, the farm we have, Plant Hawaii, located in Waimanalo is a three acre farm. It was a prior an orchid farm for like 35 years, so it already had its bones and the previous owner had done a magnificent job at really doing good things with it. So once he gave us the opportunity to buy the lease, because it is leasehold, then we got the opportunity to, okay, what are we going to do with what we got? And we went from there. There was some trial and error. We did do some hydroponic lettuce, for example, but that didn't work out. And now we're in a good trajectory of exactly what we want. So we hired amazing people like Molly. I mean, she really is so good. She's a grower. She's educated. She knows what she's doing. We have an assistant grower named Slade. He's also kind of elevating this business to the next level. Well, my husband and I work behind the scenes with weddings events. Our partners keep us legal. If it's a business owner, please make sure you are and make sure your taxes are all done and all that good stuff. It's always nice to be compliant. That's right. Don't mess with that. Right. So now, Molly, you got involved how long ago? About four months. Four months ago. Yeah. And were you in Hawaii all this time or did you come from somewhere else? Yeah. I've been in Hawaii about a year and a half. And prior to that, so I have a background from the University of Wisconsin River Falls. And I studied there in the last year of my, I have a biology major. And so the last year, my advisor asked me like plants are animals. And I said, well, okay, we'll go with the plants then on that one. So he switched me over to a different advisor and started off from there. So I did an internship in Denver, learned about wholesale green house growing there and moved out to Maryland where I... Now these are all cold places. So you're used to the cold weather, but you finally found a way to someplace a little bit warmer. I did. Yeah. So I did eight years in Maryland and then just decided I wanted something new and came out here to Hawaii. Very good. It's amazing how many people do that. And it's nice that you landed on your feet and things are working for you. It's very good. Definitely. So you've been here a year and a half and you got hired, I guess, by Plant Hawaii. And then you just kind of hit the ground running. Very much so. Yeah. Very good. Now tell me, once you're there, at Waimanalo, everybody in Hawaii knows about Waimanalo, but very fertile ground, isn't it? I mean, it's... Very. Good place to grow plants. Just about anything. Yeah. And I need to ask a question. There's been an awful lot of talk recently about some of the medical marijuana stuff. Is that something you're planning on getting into or what's the rules on that? So Department of Agriculture rules, state rules, you cannot grow cannabis on any state land. You do have to... Oh, no. Any state-owned land. You have to privately own the land in order to grow the cannabis. There's a misconception about that. So it's got to be fee simple. Absolutely. You can't have a lease hold and grow cannabis on it, not yet. And so for now, it isn't anything that we're even thinking about. It's not in the business plan. Not for now. I mean, I would love to help with medical marijuana in some way or form, but it really is a privately owned endeavor. But you're doing pretty good without it. We love what we do. Absolutely. Yeah. And you've got a pretty good selection of plants, and you seem to have some passion for it. You've got the biology background in the plant side of things. So that gives you some pretty good credentials to get into this. And you're just doing this from like on-the-job training. So it's... I mean, you've got different ways of being successful at this. Yeah, you do. You have to be a little well-rounded in different areas to make it work. I can't do what Molly does, but, you know, I definitely help with all the other parts. Right. But that's part of being an entrepreneur. You've got to be flexible. You've got to go where you've got to, you know, contribute and work. But you can't do it all yourself. And so you've got to bring good people in that can help you. And that's an area that sometimes people don't appreciate as much as they should. We kind of joke about it that if you keep hiring people with your own skill sets and in your own image, one of you is redundant. You don't need both of them. You need different skill sets and different, you know, diversity and background and experience. Yes. That's good. So was there any challenges that you had setting up the business plan in Hawaii and getting it started? Oh, absolutely. Imagine going into three acres, 10 greenhouses and trying to keep up with it with a pretty small team of people that aren't super experienced. So we had that challenge. Then it was a challenge of, okay, we want to build this business. We're going to have to figure out what actually makes money, to be perfectly honest, while also kind of honoring the self-sustainability that we wanted to do. And that was a challenge. Any particular licensing or permitting that you had to go through to get this kind of company going? Well, you do have to become a bona fide farmer in order to continue. And there are lots of very specific things that you have to get licensed for that, for example, Mali would have for spraying for... I got my private pesticide application license right now. There is applications that I couldn't do, that it would have to be somebody who's... Somebody specifically licensed to do it. Yeah. So there is those qualifications. Beyond that, as a business owner, as you know, it's trial and error and cutting things that don't work, which can be a hard decision. And as soon as you can. As soon as you can, and then reinvesting your money so that you can get more product and get to the next place. And then figuring out a niche that you can sustain. Well, that's true. I mean, every business has to have their little niche, their little area of specialization that they can kind of call their own. That becomes part of their brand. Now, as a child growing up in Florida, one of my duties was to weed the garden. Now, I can't imagine three acres in Waimanalo, a very fertile ground with a lot of rain coming. I mean, the weeds, that's got to be an ongoing constant. It is an ongoing process. Yeah. Absolutely. And they grow quick, too, out there, don't they? Yes. Yeah. Well, we do gravel and we do, you know, some black top here and there. I mean, you do have to... You try to control it. You have to try to control it in every way possible. And... Now, can you grow the plants out of the soil? I mean, we talked a little bit about that. So maybe does that eliminate some of those? I'll let Molly tell you a little of the combination we do for growth. Okay, sure. Yeah, a lot of times when you grow in the ground, it's more your stock plants. When you're going to take cuttings from the plant and plant up a whole bunch for your own sale of the plants, usually that's what you plant in the ground for weed maintenance and all that stuff. And then when you get it into the containers, that's when you actually just start producing it and can actually maintain it, fertilize it, manipulate how fast it grows. And I guess part of it is one of the requirements to get it out of the soil and get it into the plant. It's got to have some roots and some foundation to grow from. Absolutely. Yeah, a lot of times you can take them already. You can buy them in already rooted or you can propagate them and make your own. Right, and then when you take them out of the ground, is there special fertilization or food that is put into the plants that continue for it to grow? Yes, yes, of course. And do you have to be licensed for that? Is it a chemical-based thing? No more of a knowledge based on what the plant needs, when it needs it, how often it needs it. We saw a tremendous improvement in, for example, hiring Molly. Just her knowledge improved the health of the plants immediately. So that is important is to definitely have somebody who knows what they're doing, like you said, in a position that it needs to be in. Exactly. And I would imagine that you have the right person in the right place with the right knowledge that can have a direct impact on sales and health. Absolutely. You don't have as much waste. Exactly. You know, it's an important part of the company. Yes. Very good. We're going to take a short break here in a minute and then we're going to be gone for a minute and then we're going to come back and I want to dig into the details or the roots, if you will, of the company and take a look at the website a little bit and talk about the different products and some of the different services that you offer. But we're going to be gone for just one minute. This is a business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here with Plant Hawaii with the owner and the grower. And we're going to be coming back in about one minute to talk more about the company. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Aloha. I'm your longtime host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough for Sister Power. Think Tech is important to our community because it motivates, it empowers, it educates all people. For the first thing, Think Tech Hawaii is participating in an online web-based fundraising campaign to raise $40,000. Give thanks to Think Tech. We'll run only during the month of November and you can help. Please donate what you can so that Think Tech Hawaii can continue to raise public awareness and promote civic engagement through free programming like mine. I've already made my donation and look forward to yours. Please send in your tax deductible contribution by going to this website. Thanks for ThinkTech.CauseVox.com. On behalf of the community enriched by Think Tech Hawaii's 30-plus weekly shows, thank you for your generosity. Welcome back. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here this week talking with Plant Hawaii. They're a growing firm that's growing all kinds of different plants in Waimanalo, which you would think is very easy, but there's a lot of science to it. You've got to be educated to understand how all of this works. But it is a growing business and it's getting bigger. We're going to talk a little bit about the details of Plant Hawaii right now. What is your product line? Talk a little bit about what it is exactly that you guys do. Sure. Well, we do a couple of combinations. We have a retail and wholesale component. We have an interior escaping component and I'll explain to you what that is. Basically, for the retail, we are able to open in our farm from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. We have a cool little garden center in one of our enclosed greenhouses. It's really magical. It's beautiful there. We're up against the coal owls. Mountains are there. I've seen pictures of it on the website. It's really neat. It's neat and then it gives you an opportunity to speak with us about kind of consulting with us about, okay, what is it that you want to do inside or outside your house? We do classes. I'll do an on-the-spot class on how to up pot your orchids or so forth. Are there scheduled classes that people can sign up for? We will have that in the future and that will always be on our website. We want to partner up with other businesses around us to do that. For now, we definitely do on-the-spot classes, no problem. And so we have that retail component on the farm component. Then we also provide rotations for hotels, for their rooms, for their lobbies. Do you have staff that goes out and switch them out? Yeah, very much so. It's a once-a-month rotation. It's a pretty easy program for any hotel who would like live, beautiful plants in their residences wherever they would want to. Well, they're a lot better than those plastic or silk ones. Yes, so we have those two components. Then we also have kind of new-ish, but we are also a full wedding and events provider. We have our own florist, the wonderful Anna Cassie. She's amazing. And our website will show a lot of that. But you don't do weddings. You just provide the floral arrangements for the weddings. Yes, yes. We don't do them at our place. But we definitely service your wedding, deliver everything, set it all up. What about funerals? I know we're going from one extent to the other. We decided not to for now, because that is very involved. It definitely requires a certain skill set that you then have to develop. And we want to be respectful of that process. So it's a different product. It really is. It really is. So we decided let's stick to something and perfect it. And Molly can tell you a little more about our variety, which is that's what's exciting for us. Sure. So you've got a whole bunch of different types of plants out there. Yes. Orchids, first and foremost. So we have Vandas and Phalaenopsis, which is the butterfly orchid. A lot that you see in the stores. Which is right behind you. I was just going to ask. Is that something like what we have here? That's Phalaenopsis. They're beautiful. So Hibiscus? Yes. Now Hibiscus, I see a lot. I've got some of these in my front yard. Awesome. I've never been able to do those. Yeah, Hibiscus is relatively new. Well, for myself in general. We grow about 42 different hybrid varieties. Wow. Which you have your commons, of course, which you see a lot. But ours are dinner plates size, double whirls. The color variation in them is just outstanding. Can you influence the color at all by the food that you provide? Or is it just kind of natural to the plant? Yes, for them. There's only one type, really, the Snow Queen, which if you give it too much bird, it reverts from a variegated leaf just to a solid green leaf. But as for the color in the flower itself, no. I'm pretending to know what you're saying. Well, you know, we're very blessed. Our auntie is the Hibiscus lady. She's very popular, Auntie Jill. And she actually makes them from seed. And she's able to combine seeds and make her own combinations. And she's like our mentor. And so we're very blessed by having that as kind of an example for the Hibiscus. Are you writing all of this down for prosperity? You have to. It's so involved. I was just going to say some of this goes from generation to generation. But if we want to keep it going, we've got to have some record of it. That's right. Absolutely. So those are the components we have. I'm trying to think of what else we have. I do have a question while you're thinking about that. I notice some of these types of, you know, and I see this around. In Florida, we have a lot of moss. Yes. You know, and I've seen it around Hawaii too in different places. And it'll grow on some people's trees, but not on others. But I get the impression that you could purchase this and have it, you know, it's kind of like a plant type, you know, that you can grow. So this is called Pele's hair here in Hawaii. Oh, Pele's hair. Okay. And you can certainly put it on any tree and it just starts to go. Now these guys though are air plants. And we are also selling air plants. What's cool about, if you come to our retail tent, you'll see quite the variety of not just indoor plants, but cool little gifts and outdoor landscaping stuff. And we're also servicing landscape companies who maybe want like door flow, which is something that's more of a ground covering. So that's another component to our company that is built up. People can see pictures of this on your website, right? Everything can be on our website. Anything new will be on our website, yes. And that website, what is the name, what is the address for that website? PlantHawaii.com, very simple. So it's .com. There it is. And it's up on the screen right now. And if people were to go there, they'll be able to go through the different pages of the website and see all these different pictures of different things that you have. Yes, they will be able to see all the different components. And will it also, and I kind of know the answer to this, but it'll also help people how to get to where you're at in Waimanalo. Yes, we're deep in Waimanalo. Deep deep in the mountains in the jungle of Waimanalo. Yeah. On Saturdays, we actually put out signs. And all you have to do is follow those signs. Otherwise, call us. You'll get lost maybe once or twice. Call us again. Now, we do have a sign out front. It's not that hard. In today's world, I guess it would be on Google Maps. It is on Google Maps. An address if you could follow the GPS. Yes, follow the GPS. I think of the days when we didn't have that. I know. So we can find it. Once we get the address, which is also on the website, then they can plug that in and then just follow the trail out there. And then once you get out there, there's parking. And then there's a florist that you can buy a flower. And then there's a gift shop or something like that. We call it more of a garden center. Our florist is only when we have weddings. We don't have a florist per se. What's unique about our nursery is that we are able to grow most of the things that you will use in our weddings, like a lot of the greenery and... And theorems. Yeah, we take it from right from their cuttings. When we grow these, they spike about once a year in the wintertime. And then we'll just use some of the flower arrangements in our weddings themselves. And can you order and have these things shipped? So, for example, I know a lot of people that live in Vegas, you know, for example. And they like getting some of these flowers and these arrangements from Hawaii, you know, for certain occasions. How can that work? Is there a way to do that online? We're a certified nursery. So which means we grow in a soilless media, which we can ship to the mainland at that point. It would be our hibiscus and our orchids. So the orchids and hibiscus, they can be shipped anywhere to the mainland. And how would somebody go about doing that? Would they call you? Or could they go on the website and order something? They can email us. And probably better to actually communicate with us so that we can help them to figure out what's best at what season to send and so forth and where they're sending it. So we'll guide them. So it is better if you have an actual communication through email or a phone call. Right, that way there's no mistakes. That's right, that's right. You don't want to mess with mom's flowers, you know. And how long does it usually take, you know, for example, just to get to here to Vegas? I mean, is it an overnight thing? Pretty much. Two days. Or overnight. Yeah, very good. Now, can these plants, are they just for the visual enjoyment? Or can they actually plant them and try to grow them in Vegas? Because there's a lot of people over there, you know, in houses and they try to do some of this stuff. Well, let Molly tackle that one. Temperature-controlled environments, yes. So I know it gets cold in the desert even. And a lot of times the tropicals, yeah, they won't. Let me tell you, Mike, I had a house over there for a while and I still have some property there and it snows. Yeah, a lot. So it does get cold and it gets, matter of fact, it doesn't snow a lot, but when it does, the snow accumulates on some of the pine trees. And the pine trees aren't strong enough for the snow and so the limbs break. No. So you actually have to go out in the middle of the snowstorm and shake your trees so it doesn't break the limbs off. This is why I live in tropical weather. Yeah, me too. And by the way, orchids don't need soil. They are kind of an air plant. So it's actually easier to control them. They can pretty much live anywhere. They can live inside the house. Inside, yes. Yes, which is very nice. Which is definitely climate-controlled. And one of the orchids we have, because it only blooms in March, it's very special to Hawaii. It's called a hono-hono. And it's long strands, very scented, floral. So we carry those too. Those are seasonal for March. Very seasonal. March, April. And so what are some of the events that you can do for, you know, provide floral arrangements for you? We talked about weddings, birthdays obviously, holidays, Valentine's Day maybe? You know, pretty much anything to be honest with you. We have minimums on certain things or there is some rules attached. You'll have all of that on our website. But we have done events at Hilton that are over-the-top events for a company. Those are big. Yeah, that wants a wall, live wall of all kinds of stuff. Our weddings are very, like, custom and beautiful. We're very blessed to have, my husband is an artist and we call him the resident artist. And he has built all of our arches, which are really unique. In fact, at the Wedding Expo, we won for Best Booth with his amazing circular arch that he made. So he's able to make custom live walls, custom baskets. He's a talented guy. Very talented. So that's a cool component to have is that he can build you a bar for your wedding if that's what you like. Wow. Yeah. Wow. It sounds you're almost into that event planning type of role. We have people we partner up with to help us with that. Absolutely, yeah. That's right. And I would imagine when graduation comes around there's a lot of opportunity there. That's more homegrown. They're more like, we got it. Really? Oh, okay. I don't know. If I was going to be bringing a plant over to a young lady that I wanted to take to the prom or something, I don't think I'd grow it myself. Yes, come to my boy. We will provide you the nice plant for the nice lady. Absolutely. All right. Well, we're going to be wrapping up here. Anything to look forward to for the winter? Anything that for Christmas or for New Year's, it's traditional that you've got that people should come out and take a look at? Well, we've had our temp diff, which means all of our orchids are in bloom now, especially our phallinopsis. And they're going to stay that way for how long? They last up to three months. Yeah. Okay. So you've got to get out there and look at this right now. It's probably one of the most beautiful times to come out and take a look at this. Yeah. On Saturday is a big sale because we have Thanksgiving coming up and we have plants that you can use on your mantle on centerpieces. Yeah. So that is coming up. And what's that website again? Planttoid.com. That's easy to remember. All right. Very good. Well, we've kind of run out of time. Maybe next year we'll have a chance to come back and talk again when you're back in bloom. We've got some other things going on. That would be lovely. But thank you for being on the show. Yeah. Thank you for having us. Yes. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30. From the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Hololulu in the ThinkTech studios. Thank you to the floor technicians and our producers. They always do a great job. Until next week, aloha.