Plumeria of white, yellow, light pink and hot pink, dotted our urban landscape with its fragrant and color; which reminded me that Chris stopped by the shop the other day for a lei and we had a conversation on plumeria. He happened to be the photographer for a plumeria article in the Hana Hou! Magazine for Hawaiian Airlines.

http://www.hanahou.com/pages/Magazine.asp?Action=DrawArticle&ArticleID=691&MagazineID=43&Page=1

Two parades back to back during the last two weekends in Waikiki.  The Pan-Pacific Parade and the King Kamehameha Parade. People are all gaga over the floral display and the many performers.

^ These performers walk the whole way in wooden slippers.

One thing we did not intent to see is flowers growing in the parking lot, in the crack where weed used to grow. We pull weed and we are not sure if we should pull the flowers too. Will it cause damage to the parking lot paving if we leave them?

Our hanging basket flowers are wilted and somehow its offspring made it in the crack of the asphalt pavement in our parking lot. That proved to me that good thing doesn’t always end up where you planned but it is still end up being a good thing.

Lei Down, Rose Up.  Get it? Well, if you have any message ideas that would be fun to post on our sign post, please sent us an email or just leave it at the comment box below. If we decided to use your message, you will be rewarded with 50% off on your next purchase (see the fine print below 😉 You see, we didn’t want to do the generic kind messages like, “Happy Valentine,” “Merry Christmas,” or “Buy more flowers” of sort. We want to post something unique and fun.  Just like the one at Hawaiian Rent All down on Beretania Street.  It is clever, fun, and most importantly make people smile. Hope to hear from you soon.

*$25 on a $50 arrangement, $50 on a $100 arrangement, or $100 on a $200 maximum purchase limit for this promotion.

It’s time to dispose your Christmas tree and wreaths and it’s tempting to just throw them all in the trash. But it is worth while to separate them out for reuse and recycle first. In Kapahulu area, our next green waste (green bin) pick up is on January 8, Thursday.

Tabletop Christmas tree (topiary) – Pull off all ornaments, save them for next year to be reused. Pull all the greens and dispose them in the (green waste) green bin. Dispose the oasis in the (refuse) gray bin. The vase can be reuse or donate to Goodwill.

Wreath with metal base. – Pull off all ornaments, save them for next year to be reused. The remaining metal base and green is best just thrown in the gray bin. H-power will pick out the metal before burning the rest.

Wreath with natural twig basePull off all ornaments, save them for next year to be reused. Or call your local florist to see if they would take back the wreath. Some would certainly take the time to unwire the greens and save the twig base for future use.

Norfolk Christmas tree is rather easy to set up for treecycle.
1. Take off all the hung ornaments first and store them for future use.
2. Snap off the branches as you untangle the lights, wrapping the lights into a ball and store for next year use.
3. Snap off the remaining branches and bunch them in a pile.
4. Saw the main trunk in two or three pieces.
5. bundle everything and place them in the green bin.

There is still time to bring home and enjoy a locally grown Norfolk Christmas tree. We have just a ONE left at the shop. Christmas trees are best to be Christmas trees at your home. Thank you all for your support for buying local first – even for Christmas trees

6 ft –sold out
7 ft – sold out
9.5 ft –  sold out

Now is a good time to order your Christmas dinner centerpieces with island favorite protea, pin cushion with varies Christmas green.

You can now enjoy Christmas tree decoration and wreaths by Sweet Blossoms Hawaii at the following locations. Happy Holidays!

FilCom Center, Waipahu
Castle & Cooke Office, Millilani
Ohana West Hotel, Waikiki
Pharmacy One, Liliha

See Christmas tree decoration article about Ruth Edgar, owner of Shear Creation Waipahu.

We will not be carrying greens of the myrtle family such as eucalyptus and myrtle imported from the mainland until further notice. Last year’s emergency ruling of banning the import of Myrtaceae plants and plant parts from California and Florida, and from Central and South America expired this August. In the mean time, the Plant Pest Quarantine branch of the State Department of Agriculture has already set up a quarantine procedure on how to handle the Myrtaceae coming into Hawaii.  Until a permanent ruling is set, we will not be ordering the myrtle, since there is no guarantee that our supplier is getting our myrtle outside of the infected area.

The plant disease ohia rust (puccinia psidii) is infecting our island trees especially the ohia. For your next flower arrangement and wedding order, please ask your local florist to substitute the myrtle with other greens.

College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii
Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (hear.org)
Pacific Island Network
hawaii.gov-Department of Argriculture
honolulu weekly 

Here are a few tricks to reduce cost and increase impact with your hotel flower arrangements.

1. Categorize your current flower arrangements. Put them into three categories: 1. Background arrangements, 2. Close proximity arrangements, 3. Focal arrangements

2. Arrangements that are on a side nitch, side table, along a pathway are usually good to have but not necessary. This type of arrangements are the least effective since they are located either in the background or along a path way. Do a test, take them away for a few days and see if anyone noticed. If no one did, hurray! An instant floral budget saving. If you are a little concern about the empty nitches or side tables, you can replace the arrangements with live indoor plants such as orchids or greens.

3. Instead of having a large arrangement behind the front desk staff, place a smaller one right on the counter where guests can appreciate the flowers up close. Size them down and move them closer. Close proximity arrangements impress the guest the most. Small exotic arrangement on the coffee table or the concierge desks are good places for this close proximity arrangements.

4. If you have a few arrangements in the lobby but none of them really stand out, think about reducing the number to just one or two larger one. These couple focal arrangements should wow you guests. Don’t settle on ordinary arrangements, with your saving from step 2 and 3, you can have exotic flowers for your focal arrangements. To maximize the effectiveness of it, pick spots so that the arrangements can be seen from many directions and from far and near. Pick spots that the guests can get up close to appreciate the flowers.

5. A small arrangement in the bathroom can make a great impression on your guests. Try ask your florist to throw this in as a freebie. Nothing fancy. A few anthurium in a special vase can be easy enough.

6. Guests appreciate seeing different flowers. The orchid, red anthurium sometimes is just too ordinary. So go for broke when it comes to using exotic flowers. Try protea, pin cushion, beehive ginger, tower ginger, purperia, caribaea or dendrobium.