Kawamoto Orchid Nursery

Their property is huge! Their selection is excellent and their prices are reasonable! The staff makes it feel like it’s home. Will be coming back soon!

Procrastination is never good, but I’m guilty of it, especially during Christmas. I was on a mish to find air plants for my office Christmas gifts in the 11^th hour. Kawamoto Orchid Nursery fulfilled my need and then some.
Talk about hitting the air plant JACKPOT! The motherload! They have a ton of air plants and gorgeous orchids! I saw several different varieties of air plants, most were $ 5 each.
I breezed in and breezed out in 10 minutes, shopping done, thank you very much.

Just go… Even if aren’t looking for orchids you won’t be disappointed. They have a plant for EVERYONE.

They have a variety of potted orchids that you can use as centerpieces. I placed an order for my wedding and chose the orchid color (can’t be guaranteed to be the exact shade), pot color, and color of ribbon and paper butterfly. Prices vary depending on which type of orchid you want and how many other plants are in the pot. They looked beautiful.

The orchid farm is tucked in Palolo valley. There’s plenty of gorgeous orchids and air plants inside the greenhouse. The workers here are very helpful and nice. I would definitely recommend driving or calling here if you want/​need orchids!

Hidden at he end of a long drive way at the bottom of the mountain you have this beautiful gem, Kawamoto Orchid Nursery. They have the most beautiful orchids I have ever seen!
I took my mom there because she’s absolutely obsessed with orchids. She had the time of her life going down each isle to look at each orchid. The variety is unbeatable! They let you peruse the entire nursery (there are 3 different ones) at your own convenience. We were not rushed or pressured to buy anything. They were there to answer any questions but if we had none they let us be.
I was very happy to find out that they do online orders! I live in Michigan now so it’s comforting to know I can still send an orchid even though I’m miles away from home.

Great selection of beautiful orchids. The arrangements are always tasteful and they deliver too! They are my go-​to florist for mother’s day and birthday arrangements!

Kawamoto has an amazing selection of hard to find species… I was actually overwhelmed at the size of the facility. If you are an orchid enthusiast, Kawamoto should be on the top of list of places to go while visiting the islands.

Wide selection and very nice proprietors. The nursery is easy to find at the back of Palolo valley. Prices are reasonable for high quality flowers and plants.

Title and header of today’s rating = ORCHID SNOBBERY
I deleted my 5-​star rating for Kawamoto that I wrote last year. I don’t like the update format in Unilocal very much.
Since the 5-​star rating last year, I’ve come back to visit Kawamoto several times, most recently today.
I detest snobs of all sorts… wine snobs, private-​school snobs, brand-​name clothing snobs and yes, even orchid snobs. Most times at Kawamoto, I don’t get snobbery and rudeness and I normally deal with the men of the family. The past two times I’ve visited (last month and today), I’ve dealt with an older Japanese lady, she looks like she’s in her mid-60’s. Last time she was a bit rough around the edges but obviously had her happy pills. Not today!
Normally I walk away with something, anything, even if Kawamoto is on the pricier side because of fan loyalty but today I left without buying a thing.
I asked the lady if she sold a certain type of plant and her response was «No no no no!» Geeze. Let me turn up my hearing aid and the part of my brain that understands the word «no» the first time, because apparently it ain’t working. She told me to look around and off I went, to the row of orchids I visited last month. I picked up a lovely dendrobium species that my neighbor wanted, so I was here today to pick up another one.
Orchid No No Lady came down into the greenhouse where I was, and I asked her how much were the two specimens in my hand as she was a few rows away. She said, «I don’t know, I got to look at them» then turned her back to me.
I told Orchid No No that I was here to buy more orchids, this time for my neighbor. She told me the things I had in my hand were «species» orchids and expensive and that no other orchid nursery on the island had the same selection they had. She told me to check Ebay because that’s where they did 80% of their business and I should go look up the flowers online. I was thinking, Now why would I do that? I am here in person, so sell me the damned orchids, already! Maybe that was her way of bragging.
Orchid No No proceeded to tell me that these were not orchids for beginners… now how does she know that my neighbor or myself are Orchid Beginners? She was very reluctant to sell them to me and raised the price up $ 5 more a piece than they were last month.
Little does Orchid No No know (ha ha ha) that I have actually read the book The Orchid Thief, frequent all the orchid shows, know my Grams from my Phrags, Paphs, Phals and also their going prices,; researched cloning, culture and flasking of orchids and belong to several snobby orchid boards (I am not one of them I swear).
Being the stupid Orchid Beginner that I was, I decided at one last crap shot at being nice to Orchid No No Lady because I was hoping she’d be nice to me so I wouldn’t have to ditch Kawamoto. I offered to donate a systemic fungicide that I paid big bucks for and told her so — I couldn’t justify using such a powerful fungicide in a non-​commercial setting, besides, I didn’t want to dispose of it. I believe you need to to take it to a special waste facility as it will contaminate ground water. If anyone could use it, it was an orchid nursery, and Kawamoto WAS my favorite.
What does Orchid No No Lady snidely say to me? «Where did you get it from, Home Depot?»
Screw you guys.
Adiós, Kawamoto. Been nice shoving money into your family business until Dragon Lady showed up. Keep her away from customers… thanks, you owe me.

I visit Kawamoto twice each year when I am in Hawaii. The selection is outstanding and the kawamotos are always welcoming. They will take the time to discuss prospective purchases and the care and feeding of your Orchids.
I have about 100 plants in my greenhouse in LA, and my Kawamoto Orchids are the best of my plants. The blooms are spectacular and very different from the stuff normally found in local places on the mainland.
For those not lucky enough to visit Hawaii Regularly, Reid Kawamoto has an exceptional eBay presence with many, many selections available. He also comes to the mainland for Orchid shows with plenty of choice plants to purchase.
If you haven’t tried Kawamoto, you are missing the best way to build your orchid collection.

My husband, my 8 year old son, and I have been coming here for the last 2 or 3 years now. We love this nursery. Mr. Kawamoto is such a sweet man and he knows his orchids well. He answers all our questions. When we come he always greets with a smile. He always say to us «GO LOOK AROUND SEE WHAT YOU GUYS CAN FIND. THE KITTY IS SOMEWHER.» My son would look for the cat while we roam around. But we are definitely coming back.

This place is awesome. They have really rare beautiful orchids and the shipping works ok when I have them sent to mainland. You can easily miss the place when driving there since its hidden in a residential area.

Orchids make a wonderful gift, and Kawamoto Nursery is my favorite place to get them. They have so many beautiful plants at all price points. The variety of plants available is incredible. My late grandfather grew orchids as a hobby, and Kawamoto Nursery’s homey atmosphere always makes me think about him. :) It’s definitely worth the hunt!

Oh Kawamoto Nursery. You are the Yuppie of the Orchid world. You made your big bucks in your early youth and now you can just sit back, relax, and watch your market shares go up.
Down the steepest entrance to any business ever, you’ll find Kawamoto Orchid Nursery. This place is enormous, not what you’d expect from Palolo at all. At least 10 green/​shade houses on this property. The first green house by the entrance is their showroom. This is the gist of the business. Clones, clones, everywhere. Kawamoto specializes in Cattleya clones. If you are looking for something else, the owner will gladly direct you to his buddies that can certainly use more business than he does.
In recent years, Kawamoto acquired hundreds of species from orchid nurseries that closed down. This acquisition was pennies to the dollar. So he all-​of-​sudden has great species at an incredibly affordable price.
Their organization is by greenhouse. There’s a Cattleya Greenhouse, Bulbophyllum Shadehouse, Maxillaria Shadehouse, etc etc. But that’s as far as organization goes, you have to search for everything thereafter. Even when I asked the owner, he’ll say «oh… I dunno.»
Let’s talk about Les Karamoto, current owner of Karamoto Orchids. This guy is so laid back, he really just wants to sit around and talk story with his friends. Walking around his massive nursery is not something he seems very excited about. He’s a very nice guy, after a few visits he remembered me and told me that a shipment of my favorite species came in but he didn’t know where it was. Umm okay. Don’t expect much help from him unless you want to know about his more social life, like orchid shows he’s been in and which nursery owners he knows.
One last thing. Since this is Palolo and the greenhouses are wide open, animals freely walk through here. Once I saw a group of 3 feral pigs walking through here.

This is definitely the best part about Palolo. I had to do an article about orchids for the school newspaper, and I came here to check it out. It’s so gorgeous. They have so many different varieties, and they often cross breed to get new colors and shapes. It’s kind of confusing when you drive here, but if you Google map it, you’ll be fine. I know you have to drive by this church/​temple thing.
I’m so glad it is open to the public. A lot of orchid nurseries aren’t, and that’s really sad. I think that people should really appreciate orchids. They’re so beautiful, and they take minimal care. If you have any questions about orchids, Les Kawamoto is there to help you. He’s a really fun guy, and he knows his stuff.

Located in the back of Palolo Valley on Waiomao Road. You may ask yourself, where in Palolo would you find a nursery? If you take 10^th Avenue heading into the valley, turn right onto Waiomao Road… keep driving past the Korean Temple. The road will get alittle narrow but keep going until you past the newly constructed home blue home on your right. Look to your left and you will see a sign to Kawamoto Orchids, drive down the sloped drive way and you find the Nursery which is open to the public.
Les will be there most times, unless he is traveling to different shows. Orchids is a tough business to be in these days but he does carry alot of variety and at a reason price.

I get all my orchids from Kawamoto Orchid Nursery. I was so amazed by the variety of Orchids they had on my first visit I went on a shopping spree. I visited the nursery 3 times in one month and every room in my apartment ended up with an orchid plant, even the bathrooms. I guess I was a little overzealous since some of my plants didn’t last very long :(
I called up Les and he went through a bunch of orchid care tips with me and asked where I had each plant. I never realized that orchids required such different care for each type of plant. Guess I know better now to not put any live orchids in a windowless bathroom. lol. I had some plants that I had in the correct places and was watering properly but for some reason the flowers kept falling off too soon. I called Les and had me bring the plants down to the nursery. It was probably my fault somehow but he replaced the two plants free of charge. How cool is that? That’s service I tell ya.
I still shop here frequently but I’m a little more careful of how many plants I buy at a time. A condo is a tough environment for orchids so I try to max out at 4 – 5 plants. Forget the supermarket orchids that are fully bloomed and have been sitting around forever, shop here instead and get longer lasting blooms.
Look for the Orchid signs while on Waiomao Road and be careful as you get further up. The roads gets narrow and only has room for one car. The nursery will be on your left hand side down a steep driveway. Have fun!

We have yet to go to Kawamoto Orchid Nursery physically but we can highly recommend them based on our experience with their staff at a local flower & garden show. After getting little customer interaction from another nursery located nearby, we wandered over to the Kawamoto booth. They thoughtfully tag orchids as «Beginner’s» or «Collector’s Item», which keeps me from buying something that I might kill. We asked them to point me towards something *very* easy to maintain, given my brown thumb. I get steered towards some cool looking dendrobium bulbs, but the sales-​lady helped me pick the best of the bunch (some with multiple buds that were in good condition, especially given the transit from HI). The bulbs run from $ 10 up, but the exhibition special was 2 for $ 15. Some of the collector’s items bulbs ran from $ 20 on up. My husband peppered the other staff (a member of the Kawamoto family) with other orchid care questions. We weren’t brushed off or treated like novices and really enjoyed chatting with them. The next time we are on Oahu and in the Kaimuki area, we are going to pay them a visit even if we can’t buy anything to take back to the mainland.

Found this place via my BFF Google when I was looking for an orchid to give as a gift. I ended up spending a couple of hours here because Kawamoto has so many different kinds, with many I never even knew existed. I should mention that there were several types on display that were quite fascinating, but they only had the bulbs (? do they start as bulbs? my thumb is far from green) available for sale, and the bulbs wouldn’t bloom for another year or so.