TheBuzz
TheBuzz
The folks behind
your Christmas treeSince last Christmas Hawaii has lost two long-time mainland friends in the Christmas tree business.
Dec. 29, six weeks after entering the hospital, Ole Cannamore, of Cannamore Tree Farms, died of leukemia. His partner and daughter are running the business, having faced their first harvest and now facing their first Christmas without him.
Paul Kirk Sr., known to many as the godfather of Christmas trees in Hawaii, died in May. He was 95 and had largely retired, with sons Paul Jr. and Morris running Kirk Co. in Tacoma, Wash., for many years. Their grandfather, George Ridgeway Kirk, established the family business.
It was Paul Sr.'s friend and competitor Ole Cannamore who once told the story of how the second-generation tree-man shipped the first Christmas trees to Hawaii in 1941, but due to world events the ship was turned back. Kirk had the trees flown in to the islands.
Richard Tajiri, president of Christmas Hawaii, has been bringing trees to Hawaii since before he moved to the mainland some 15 years ago.
He knew both Kirk and Cannamore. "We're all good friends," he said. Tajiri credits Kirk with setting him up in the business when he owned and operated Walk-In Liquor on Coral Street.
Kirk Co. is huge, with operations in the Pacific Northwest, Wisconsin and Nova Scotia, Tajiri said.
After moving to the mainland in the 1980s Tajiri continued in the tree business but also set up Haiku Gardens Restaurant in Lakewood, Wash.; he sold that a couple years ago. Kirk ate there frequently, Tajiri said.
The restaurant business was another thing he had in common with Cannamore. "Ole's Medium Rare" is operated by Cannamore's widow, Jackie.
Now living in Portland, Tajiri has a new eatery in Stayton, Ore., called Depot Restaurant.
"As soon as I go back we're going to change that to "The Rumours Bar & Grill," he said. At the old Haiku Gardens he used the name Rumours Lounge for his bar area. The Depot is a sit-down restaurant serving local-style plate lunches ranging from teri chicken to blackened ahi.
"In the evening we'll have white tablecloths and candlelight and be a steakhouse," Tajiri said.
He's not a grower of Christmas trees like Kirk or Cannamore's partner Ed MacGregor.
"I have contracts with farmers," he said. "I do the clipping and shaping and whatever and then I pick the best trees I can find to come to Hawaii."
His only retail location is at Kapiolani Boulevard and Kamakee Street, where Tajiri will sell three-fourths of his shipment of nearly two dozen containers of trees. The rest are for commercial clients such as hotels and restaurants.
"I'm one of the few people who bring in big trees," he said. He described a 16-foot tree he delivered to Luana Hills Country Club yesterday. "It took eight big Hawaiians to carry this tree," he said.
With much of Oregon having no appreciable rain until after the beginning of November, Tajiri is offering a new tree-watering device which feeds the tree water from a hole drilled into the side of the tree.
It sells for $15 and is reusable and eliminates the need for moving presents or lifting up tree skirts to pour water into a tree-stand reservoir, he said.
MacGregor, an independent grower who has partnered with Cannamore in retailing for some 20 years, said the company also lost a good friend locally, namely Ab Gentry of Kailua.
"His wife had worked with us in the Christmas trees and he did too. He saved my partner and I a lot of legwork before we got here," MacGregor said.
California resident Ossie Omer still helps Cannamore with Hawaii legwork as he has for some 15 years, MacGregor said.
Cannamore has shipped trees to Hawaii since 1981. "The first year he came over by himself and didn't make any money," said MacGregor. "I came with him the next year. We brought two containers and sold out in three days. I told him, 'You've just got to know how to sell'," MacGregor chuckled.
That was the beginning of a partnership that MacGregor describes as being closer than brothers.
At the peak of Cannamore's tree business in Hawaii it would ship 125 containers of trees but that's down to about 60 containers this year, he said.
"We've cut down a little bit," he said.
Cannamore's locations are at the old Tony Nissan on Kamehameha Highway in Aiea, the old Kam Drive-In on Kaonohi Street in Aiea, at Bayview Golf Course in Kaneohe and at King and Kalakaua.
Kirk Co. ships trees as a wholesale business. Its clients include City Mill, Daiei, Koolau Farmers and the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com