Garden Club of Honolulu's flower show blooms at HoMA June 23-25

The Garden Club of Honolulu was established in 1930 by a dedicated group of gardeners, andheld its first flower show at what was then the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1931. The event cost $165.81 to produce, with the museum covering $75 of that. It was the start of a close relationship that continues 92 years later with “Oceans: Beyond the Reef,” a Garden Club of America Major Flower Show, presented by The Garden Club of Honolulu June 23 to 25 at the Honolulu Museum of Art. To see the flower show, simply pay for museum admission—there is no extra charge. You can book museum admission in advance here.

The success of that first 1931 show led to The Garden Club of Honolulu being accepted into the Garden Club of America, and today the Honolulu affiliate is one of the national organization’s largest, most active clubs out of 200 across the country. It follows strict national standards in promoting education, conservation, preservation, and artistic and horticultural excellence.

Flower Show Chairs Phyllis Lee and Janice Fergus are joined by 100 club members and approximately 90 judges will fly in from across the country to make their selections in the categories of floral design, horticulture, photography, botanical arts, and needle arts.

HoMA Trustee Kitty Wo has been a member of TGCH since 2009, and is the current president. She found herself an empty nester and thought it was time to “learn something new.” Today she is a skilled floral designer and an approved judge in floral design and botanical arts, a position that took nearly 10 years to attain.

“Floral design has opened a whole new world to me,” says Wo, who is overseeing staging for the show and is chair of the Botanical Arts Division. “It is something you have to study, practice, and really work at. It is such a creative process, and I enjoy the challenge, stimulation, and beauty of working with flowers and dried materials, transforming them into works of art.”

This year’s floral design display will feature the ocean theme through an interpretive design based on HoMA’s iconic print Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai.

Growing knowledge

Seeing the museum’s colonnades and courtyards alive with orchids, bromeliads, and other flora grown as part of the Horticultural Division is a flower show highlight. Members of The Garden Club of Honolulu have been cultivating plants and projects for the past two years. This year includes classes focused on Native Hawaiian plants, an important component of environmental sustainability. Look for loulu, Hawai‘i’s native fan palm; ‘ilima; ti; and other native and introduced plants. There will also be a display in Central Courtyard highlighting canoe plants—the staple crops that the islands’ first inhabitants brought with them on their long ocean voyages. Kalo (taro), ‘ulu (breadfruit), ‘uala (sweet potato) and other life-sustaining plants will be on view along with an actual canoe.

In the Mediterranean Courtyard, museum visitors will find a deeply researched educational exhibit featuring the Kumulipo, information on improving ocean health and its ecosystems, and biocultural land management. The Doris Duke Theatre will continuously screen a film featuring segments from the Garden Club of America’s annual Conservation Study Conference, “Protecting Island Earth,” held last November. It focused on early Hawaiian biocultural conservation methods and how it is being paired with modern science to mitigate climate change and heal our planet. Cultural practitioners and experts such as Celeste Connors, Nainoa Thompson, Chipper Wichman, and Aulani Wilhelm share their stories.

No place like HoMA

The Garden Club of Honolulu feels very fortunate to collaborate with the museum, says Chair Phyllis Lee. Its Honolulu show is a favorite of national judges due to the high caliber of entries and the club members’ warm hospitality, but also because of the venue—the museum’s beautiful indoor-outdoor architecture and collections make it a singular setting for a flower show.

Posted by Lesa Griffith on June 2 2023