I thought going to the tree farm, pick and cut our own Christmas tree is out of the question when we live in Hawaii. That’s before we heard about Helemano Farms in Wahiawa, Oahu. What is missing is just the snow. (driving direction to the farm)

When you get to the farm, there are signs that will guide you to the sale pavilion. You will see them making wreaths from freshly cut trees and staff help loading the trees. You park your car. Their friendly staffs will bring you and your family down to where the trees are. Row and rows of Christmas trees grown in Hawaii is just unreal.  Remember to a camera for a family photos. You pick your tree, they cut it for you and bring it back up to the pavilion. They net it and load it onto your car. And you are on your way to a tree of experience. No more needle mess to clean. No more tree drying out on you before Christmas and cause a fire hazard. More room for those keiki art ornament. Joy to Oahu.  Thank you Halemano Farm.

Six reasons why I consider buying a local Norfolk Christmas Tree:

1. Buy Hawaii first. Support our local economy.
2. Our farmers cut and prune our Norfolks carefully so that each stump will eventually grow into another whole new Christmas tree.
3. Our farmer cut them right there and then.  No more three to four weeks old tree from the mainland. Once cut down, Norfolk trees will stay green and healthy for at least couple months.
4. Reduce the risk of foreign invasive pests entering into our delicate island environment.
5. You are buying oxygen for the island. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, removing and storing the carbon while releasing the oxygen back into the air.
6. It’s fashionable. It’s our island’s favorite Kamaaina Christmas tree.

Norfolk Pines (localy grown) Tree tickets are available at our store right now. Perfect as gift from one family to another.

• 6 ft and under - $40
• 6 to 7 ft - $50
• 7 to 8 ft - $60

It is more fun to see the tree at the farm. But if you can’t make the drive down, we can pick up the tree for you for a $12 fee and you can stop by the store for the tree.

Fresh Green Wreaths (locally made)

• 12 in. to 14 in. - $38.99

Holiday season is right around the corner.  Order your flower arrangements early, so you’ll have more time to enjoy the holiday rather than busy at it.  Pin cushion is a little late this year but it definitely be ready to be part of your holiday tropical arrangement. 

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 

Many Waikiki hotels has lesson on lei making and other cultural activities - free to their guests. Check them out. Fun, fun, fun.

Hyatt Regency Waikiki
Lei Making Demonstration
Learn to make your own traditional Hawaiian lei. Our Hawaii family resort offers a Lei Making Demonstration every Friday from noon to 2:45 p.m. on the second floor of the Ewa Tower in back of the ground floor escalator. Visitors can take part in the demonstration and make their own lei as well.
http://waikiki.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/activities/kids/family.jsp

Outrigger Waikiki
Specialty Lei Making
Every Tuesday, 9:30 am -10:00 am
Outrigger Waikiki Lobby
Weave special lei using a technique called Hilo, using ti leaves
http://www.outriggerwaikikihotel.com/events.cfm

Outrigger Reef on the Beach
Arbor Day Celebration (Kumula’au)
(November 6, 2008)
Celebrate Arbor Day and learn about Native Hawaiian plants, with a special focus on the kukui nut tree. Guests are invited to enjoy kukui lei making and a demonstration of la’au lapa’au. Guests can also pick-up a free plant while supplies last. For more information, please call 808-924-6007.
http://outriggerreef-onthebeach.com/local_events/local_events.cfm

Hilton Hawaiian Village

Wedding Expo is coming to the Hawaii Convention Center on October 17-18, 2008. Tickets is $7.00 at-the-door. It’s the best place to begin your search for your wedding “team.” Don’t forget to pick up your free Bride’s Choice Wedding Directory. You can always research some more when you get home.

Go prepare. Visit the expo web site and see if they have a vendor list. Mark the vendors that were recommended to you by your friends and families. This way you will get to talk to them and gather their information all in one place. Mark down also vendors that won’t be at the expo. It is not cheap to be at the expo with the cost of booth rental, printing of marketing material, and staffing. You be surprised that many of the island favorite vendors won’t be at the expo because they rely so much on word of mouth recommendation. Research some of the vendors online. Mark down the vendors that make a good impression on you with their products and services. Narrow down 3 to 5 vendors per category for your day of visit.

On the day of the expo, show up early. Get the map. Locate all your pre-selected “must see” vendors. Take it slow. There is no rush. Talk to the vendors, ask questions. Take their cards and brochure. Once in a while, it is okay to get distracted. Because when a vendor impresses you that much, you sure should talk to them and get the contacts, even when they are not on your list. Happy expo!

Sorry, we won’t be there to meet you. Please stop by our shop on your way home. Come down Mauka direction on Kapiolani Ave, right on Harding Ave (Market City Mall) and right again on Kapahulu Ave. You will see us first block, right after Mr. Ojisan Resturant. Or make a wedding consultation appointment with us on another day. We know you will be excited and yet tired after visiting all those booths that day. Happy wedding planning. - Sweet Blossoms Hawaii

Friday: 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Fashion Show: 7:30 p.m.
Saturday: 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Fashion Show: 2:30 p.m.

Our friend from The Waterfront - at Aloha Tower Marketplace is going to be there. Wedding party don’t have to be at a hotel or restaurant.  Imagine your wedding  at the historic Aloha Tower with water front view.

Order your free Bride’s Choice Wedding Directory

| Tips on wedding flowers | Wedding flowers Photo Gallery | Wedding Bouquet Photo Gallery |

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.

Don’t you just love the Aloha Festival Floral Parade .  62 years since the first and still better than ever.  It is only one of the many events of the Aloha Festival - a month long celebration of the Hawaiian culture statewide. 

It is simply spectacular floral display from head to toes.

It’s back. Our Holiday flower arrangement workshop series is back. Come join the fun and make an arrangement for the holiday. Take your creation home to enjoy or give it as gift.

Halloween Flower Arrangement Workshop
Sunday, October 26, 2008
1pm - 2pm
Call to reserve your spot

Last year we have a lots of fun creating an arrangement using a pumpkin as the container. This year we will think of something. Please email us your ideas.

If you’re interested in lei, this is a very good book to start you off with. Lot’s of beautiful photos and great information on traditional lei and the everyday lei. At the end of the book, there is even a brief section on lei making.

The first section of the book inspires us with lei from the May Day Lei Competition 2001. Each lei maker explain their relationship and love with lei. I especially love the beautiful rose lei created by Randy Akau - mixing roes, ferns, bougainvillea, and hinahina, who would thought of that. Well, Randy did.

Next section display lei of old Hawaii. Some of these traditional lei such as the maile, ti, royal ilima and white ginger are still readily available today. But lei of lehua, kaunaoa, and mokihana lei are rare and reserved for the special occassions like the Aloha Parade or May Day.

In the 19th century, immigrant workers bring with them flowering plants from their home countries on their journey over to Hawaii. These new flowers were slowly adapted into use for lei making. Missionaries bought with them the American roses. Chinese bought with them the Pakalana (Chinese violet), and jasmine (Princess Kaiulani name it pikake after her peacocks) and the Portuguese bought us the plumeria. Pua kenikeni, ohai, crown flower, pikake, pakalana, plumeria, bozu are still easily found sold at lei shops. Bougainvillea, Maunaloa, stephnotis and hibiscus are rarer.
Modern era lei comprise of the cigar, firecracker, jade vine flower. But nothing like the dendrobium orchid, imported mostly from Thailand has dominated the commercial market in lei flower. It has replaced the plumeria as the airport greeting lei. More sturdy and comes in green, white and purple. The way to string them are many. Among the many, “Christina” orchid lei is credited to Beth Garguilo.

At the end of the book are instruction on lai making. You can give it a try with a stephanotis, ti or ilima lei. Don’t be afraid to substitute flowers that are available to you from your garden or local flower shop. Try it. Enjoy and have fun.

Each month from our reference library, we will pick a book that we just love and we will let you know about it.

The flower shop will be closed every first Sunday of the month.* We will take a rest, refresh and recharge; so we can serve you better for the rest of the month. Thank to our customers that reminded us the important of balance work and rest. They don’t mind the inconvenient of not being able to buy flowers from us just once a month. Come a day early or order ahead. 

*Don’t worry. we will continue to service wedding and make deliveries on the first Sunday.