Triennial flower show showcases beauty, sustainability

Mark your calendars now for an inspiring flower show with something for everyone. The Garden Club of Hono­lulu’s Major Flower & Horticulture Show returns to the Hono­lulu Museum of Art on Mother’s Day weekend, May 11-13.

So much effort and time are expended to plan, grow and execute this show that it happens only once every three years. The 2012 theme is "Echoes of Rainbows." Gardeners cherish rain, and rainbows (anue­nue) are symbolic of the gift of precious wai, or fresh water.

The show will include exhibits of floral design, horticulture, photography and botanical jewelry. In addition, two conservation education exhibits will promote awareness of sustainable growing practices.

One exhibit, organized by Barbara Masu­moto and Tina Semenza, showcases sustainable gardens in schools. Many schools have native, ethnobotanical or food gardens and use worm compost (vermiculture), aquaponics and other modern horticulture technology to teach keiki about sustainable growing in small spaces. Educators and aka­mai parents find that keiki who grow vegetables are more likely to happily eat them.

Vermiculture recycles the nutrients from food waste. This is one way to make our own fertilizer, save space in landfills for real trash and keep nutrients from chemical fertilizers in runoff water from polluting our ocean.

The second exhibit, by Tanya Alston, Victoria Hill, Margaret Mortz, Paulette Stone and Pat Wassel, is a vertical garden made from recycled wood and planted with "recycled" succulents.

Living walls, as this exhibit demonstrates, are another horticulture technology that readily applies to small spaces. You can grow food this way, as they are doing at IHS, the Institute for Human Services. You can also grow an ornamental garden of succulents to decorate or cover up an ugly wall, like the cinder block retaining walls many of us have in our yards.

The Garden Club of Hono­lulu and the Hono­lulu Museum of Art go way back: The first Garden Club show was held in 1931. During World War ll, monthly meetings were held at the Hono­lulu Academy of Arts, as it was known then, and through the years many of the museum’s floral volunteers have come from the club’s ranks.

The Garden Club of Hono­lulu’s show is one of only nine Garden Club of America "major" flower shows held nationwide, with 70 judges coming from the mainland to select the winners. Hawaii is lucky to be on such a prestigious list.

The judges love coming here and seeing the magnificent flowers and plants we nurture and grow and the creative horticulture that we practice here in Hawaii.

Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidib@hawaii.rr.com.