That wreath looks a little dried out and brown?  That would be your reminder to take down those Christmas lights and decoration around the house.  If you have not already chopped up your Christmas tree and placed them in the green bin for green-cycle, please do so to eliminate the chance of fire from a dried-out Christmas tree.  Here at Sweet Blossoms Hawaii, we are accepting your holiday and Christmas wreath for wreath-cycle. We separate the wreath apart for proper disposal or recycle.  You can do the same by follow our blog from last year.  Wish you all a healthy 2010. 

 See video of Christmas tree fire at USFA

http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/citizens/all_citizens/home_fire_prev/holiday-seasonal/treefire.shtm

Help support OUR local economy this Holiday Season. By pledging to spend $150 of your shopping dollars at locally-owned stores this season, you will have a $25 million impact on O‘ahu, an estimated $4 million more than if it was spent at a non-local big box retailer. Honolulu Weekly will automatically enter you to win $1000 in gift certificates from independent locally owned merchants and restaurants.

Make your pledge at Honolulu Weekly! Deadline to pledge is December 20.

http://honoluluweekly.com/pledge/

(Estimate based on numbers from Civic Economics that $0.68 of every dollar spent at a locally owned business stays in the community, while only $0.43 stays when spent at a chain.)

Did you know the under-wrapping for your prom bouquets are reused Pregis airspeed packing cushion material? They are made of #4 Plastic (LDPE), which can be 100% recycled, same as your grocery bags.

Under the fancy ribbon wrap is a special message

Our supplier choose air packing cushion over the polystyrene packing peanuts. And we reused the air packing cushion first before recycling the rest. Everybody wins. Drop off your grocery bags for recycling at the Kapahulu Safeway store. The bin is at the entrance nearest to ColdStone.

Unwrap your bouquet of ribbon, plastic sleeve, and wet paper towel; put it in a vase with some water; you could enjoy your bouquet for another few days.  Better yet, order your bouquet with open stems and no unwraping is required. After the prom, simply place your bouquet in a mid-size vase with some water.  Enjoy your prom.  Enjoy your bouquet. 

unwraping is easy.

After the bouquet flowers wilted, untie the bouquet, check to see if the flowers are wired (orchids, plumeria, hypericums are usually wired).  Flowers with wire removed can be tossed into your green recyle bin (yard waste bin) for greencycling. Wire can be tossed into your regular waste.  H-power will pick out the metal wire before it goes into the burner.

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

Drop off your used baskets at the shop and get instant discount or credit toward your flower purchase. Or pick up a few and make a donation to our charity of the month. We love win-win-win situation. Win for the environment – less basket in the landfill.  Win for our customers with savings on their store purchase.  Win for the Charity when we make contribution for a cause. 

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.

Dec 6, 2008 (9:00 am – 2:00 pm)
Gift certificate for a school garden lesson , make your own gifts from recycled material, or just a fun day at the fair. Visit the Green Market Gift Fair at Church of the Crossroads (212 University Avenue)

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 

After almost a year collection of our flower clipping and chopping, we are ready for a second mulch pile. We will need to chop some of the old material a little before we can use them as mulch in the garden to suppress weed.   |more on mulch and compost |