The majority of the citrus plantings was in the Puna
area. Most of these plantings were 1 to 2 acres or less in
size.
In the 1940's a local cooperative began to buy anthuriums
from backyard growers in Pahoa.
A progression from citrus trees to hapu'u ferns in
the forest began in the late 1940's as interest in anthuriums
increased. This type of cultivation is still used today in
the Mountain View, Kurtistown, and Puna areas.
Cultivated anthuriums were mainly dark red in color.
No specific names were given to different cultivars, instead
they were referred to by location or grower. (ie: Pahoa Red,
Kansako Red, Hayashi #1, Hayashi #2, etc.) Most of the plants
were "chop suey" or mixed cultivars.
Anthurium shippers in the 1950's included: S.
Oshima, T. Tsutsui, Matsuda Nursery, C. Saito, R. Tanaka,
Orchids of Hawai'i.
In 1959 there were 365 commercial anthuriums farms.
266 Farms were in the Big Island, 88 on Oah'u, 7 on Kaua'i,
and 4 on Maui. These farms produced 2.6 million flowers.
In the early 1960's, the saran shadehouse was being
used in Hawai'i since the construction of a wooden shade house
would cost around $8,000 per acre. This did not include the
cost of the 30,000 plus plants needed to fill the structure.
Anthurium production boomed in the 1970's due to a
world wide demand, with higher prices, direct flights from
Hilo to the West Coast and low interest government agriculture
loans. The statewide production acreage increased from 40
acres to 400 acres in 1979.
In 1980, anthurium production was at its peak with
2.5 million dozen flowers. Hawai'ian anthuriums were
shipped world wide to Italy, West Germany, switzerland, Australia,
Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. mainland. The average monthly
shipments ranged from 115,000 dozen to 232,000 dozen
flowers. Hawai'i could not produce enough anthuriums to satisfy
local, national, and international demand. There were over
200 commercial farms ranging in size from less than 0.5 to
50 acres.
