Jimmy Toledo

GM: How did you get started in horticulture?

JT: I was looking for a job. One of my friends told me that they had an opening here at Kauai Nursery, so I applied and pretty much learned everything from scratch. I had no experience, no college, no nothing. I started when I was 20 years old and basically learned everything from the ground up. I slowly learned how to operate machines and got our chemical pesticide license. Then I started doing maintenance, landscaping and design. Eventually I ended up as the nursery manager; that’s been about 12 years now. I’ve been with the company for 34 years.

This job is interesting because what I found is you never stop learning. There’s always something new coming around the corner that keeps you engaged, keeps you motivated to keep learning. This is a 150-acre nursery, and we have somewhere around 3,000 different varieties of plants. So, there’s always something new to learn.

GM: What do you do as the nursery manager at Kauai Nursery & Landscaping?

JT: I keep track of all the plant material and what we need to propagate, since we propagate about 85% of our own plants. I research plants coming in from the mainland. A lot of times, plants that grow in the mainland may be an annual, but when it comes here, it turns into a perennial because of the weather difference. I do my due diligence and make sure the plants we’re bringing in aren’t going to become invasive and start to take over.

Hawaii gets several invasive species a year, whether it be insects, bacteria, animals, fungus. There’s always something that’s coming, so I work hand in hand with the Department of Ag and HISC, the Hawaii Invasive Species Council.

GM: What is your favorite part of the job?

JT: The challenge. Every day you come in, there’s going to be something new, something challenging. You never know what’s going to happen when you show up to work; that challenge keeps you going and keeps it interesting. … We have a program where high school kids that have issues learning in classrooms come here for about two hours a day, two days a week. We’ll put them to work and have them organize plants. Basically, give them life lessons. Everything is a learning opportunity in my book.

GM: What plants do you grow or propagate?

JT: We have around 3,000 different species of plants here. So, what don’t we propagate? Because it’s 100 acres and we have so much land, we put whatever is most popular in the ground, so we can constantly provide cuttings. The perennial peanut is a big seller; it’s technically edible, but it’s a great groundcover, especially for going under orchards because it is a nitrogen fixer. That’s always a big seller.

Katie McDaniel is associate editor of Nursery Management magazine. Contact her at kmcdaniel@gie.net.