What a fabulous show! With a waterfall made of flowers, an active flower volcano and a mammoth blue wave you walk under when entering, the Philly flower show is a spectacular crowd pleaser! It broke all records Monday March 5th with an attendance of 33,000 plus. As the show opened for its third day, our Kauai growers of the Hawaii Flower and Foliage Association htffa.com, “of which I am a member”, were high spirited, primed to start another super busy day selling Kauai’s flowers to America. Yesterday we had brisk sales but the two concerns today are will the flowers last? Not only will there be enough flowers to finish the show but will they hold up? Luckily, two more shipments are scheduled to arrive this week to replenish our dwindling/wilting stock.

The Philly show 2012 flower waterfall photo by Kathy Offley htffa.com

One of the things I have been seeing and hearing about this show is how well the Islands and the spirit of aloha are being conveyed, there is hula and chanting on the main stage daily as well as lots of Hawaiian music playing all the time throughout the center. Hawaii and our culture has really been transported to Philly not just our flowers. It might be you can’t bring the flowers without bringing the atmosphere that has generated their scent and beauty in the first place. For the two million people that will walk through the Hawaiian islands in Philadelphia during this week; a love of our islands, its culture, and flowers is sure to bloom!

Tropic fleur from Honua Lani Gardens photo by Kathy Offley

The Kauai association and other vendors from Kauai are in an area called the Hawaiian village. My twitter friend Guen who has the Twitter address of @BG_Garden, is the creator of #gardenchat (a twitter forum for gardeners from across the world) tweeted me yesterday about our group. “I do believe I snapped pictures of your booth yesterday, I’m in heaven in the Hawaiian village.” I also participate on Pinterest, giving me an opportunity to collect articles about the Philadelphia Flower Show in one place.

Click on this image to access this Pinterest board. You can click on the articles you see pinned here from there.

We should be proud of our hard working Kauai flower growers. They are bringing the beauty and aloha of Kauai to the world! I can hardly wait for #gardenchat today. I know there will be some fabulous pictures of the #flowershow (# is used on Twitter to allow us to search for a particular event or theme) from all my friends who frequent this wonderful and informative weekly twitter chat! There is even a mobile phone app for the Philadelphia Flower Show that allows you to judge flower arrangements daily much like the iron chef does, except with flowers.

Protea of Kokee photo by Kathy Offley

One of the great things about being apart of this experience for our members, aside from promoting Kauai’s flowers at the show, is absorbing the culture and vibe of Philadelphia and visiting some great restaurants at the end of a busy day to sample the famous seafood. My mouth was watering when my friend Kathy Offley started talking about how delicious the food is in Philadelphia.

Photo by Kathy Offley for of Lelan Nishek of Kauai Nursery and Landscaping

Tropical Flower Growers of Kauai photo by Kathy Offkey

We have a favorite local saying ‘lucky we stay Kauai’ which means we feel lucky to be on Kauai at this moment but today I think there are thousands of people from all over our great country saying ‘Lucky we stay Philadelphia’. If you love flowers and have a chance to visit the flower show it is a once in a lifetime Hawaiian extravaganza! If you are luckily enough to be at the Hawaiian village, and have time to meet our wonderful Kauai growers and see our flowers, I invite and eagerly await your comments. The flower show runs until Sunday March 11th.

More of my articles about the Philadelphia Flower Show.

Today marks the beginning of the Philadelphia Flower Show, a gala show traditionally, as far as flower shows go, but this year they have totally outdone themselves by featuring tropical flowers from the aloha state of Hawaii. If you grow tropicals as a business and live on Kauai, this is an event you have been preparing for all year. Watering, fertilizing and thinning stands of flowers so that they could be picked by the thousands last Saturday, packed in a driving rainstorm on Sunday and shipped to the show Monday to be a part of an event unlike any in floral history.

Protea picked in Kokee for the flower show.

As a member of the Hawaii Flower and Foliage Association Kauai. I joined our other members including secretary Kathy Offley and president Johnny Gordinas who are my neighbors, picking, cleaning and packing thousands of flowers for the show. Each flower had to be cut and cleaned to perfection so that there was not even an ant remaining or the whole shipment could have been rejected by agriculture inspection. I watched in awe as Johnny and Kathy cleaned and trimmed flowers with lightening speed and placed them in the ever growing buckets of water in Kathy’s walkway. All day last Saturday and early Sunday morning the flowers kept arriving until the area was exploding in color. Protea from Kokee led the pack in beauty and distinction not to be outdone by the gorgeous bee hives in light peach and dark honey, tropic fleur, antherium and a multitude of others.

Tropic fluer and torch gingers

I picked my flowers Saturday afternoon, hurriedly, during a break in the rain. Tropic fleur, red and pin torch gingers, all I hoped destined to the greatest Hawaiian tropical flower show ever. Kathy had told me the torches, while beautiful, might not make the cut, as weight and their longevity made them a risky flower to count on. When I dropped off my flowers, I could not believe how many thousands had already arrived and we were still missing flowers from some of the bigger growers. It became obvious to me that the designers from our association destined for Philly were going to be creating some over the top beautiful arrangements for sale to America at the show. In that moment I realized that many people attending probably have never even seen some of these exceptional flowers and imagined their delight at feasting their eyes on the glory of Kauai’s tropical beauties. There were flowers there I had never even seen before. I was transported by their sheer beauty and quantity!

The Hawaiian Flower and Foliage Association Kauai left for Philly at noon on Wednesday. After arriving they had to spend Thusday unpacking and placing 12,000 stems of flowers and 4,000 pieces of foliage into water and position them so that they could be used to make arrangements for the show. A brutal day for sure for the already stressed members! Today they are creating arrangements with lightening speed, for we envision thousands of eagerly waiting buyers.

The flowers of Kauai on sale in the Hawaii market place at the Philadelphia flower show.

The Hawaii: Islands of Aloha themed Philadelphia International Flower Show (#FlowerShow on Twitter) is known to attract 30,000 people from accross the nation each day from March 4 to March 11, 2012. I have been watching my friend Bill Schaffer’s Facebook site (thank God for social media) and I’m totally amazed at the video of the active volcano he and his finance Kristine Kratt constructed for the flower competition out of 5,000 mostly red flowers including 2,000 antheriums! You have to see this to believe it. Using tropical flowers to create art will be a wave of the future I am sure. Of course they won first place! These popular and talented flower artists were present on Kauai for the Kauai Farm Fair last August to learn about tropical flowers and the culture of Hawaii for their role in this year’s show. Their active volcano not only showcases their huge talent but demonstrates they did their homework. On Wednesday they will get married at the show in front of thousands of their fans.

What a great day for Hawaii, this flower show will promote our state as a beautiful place to visit, full of flowers of aloha as well as assist our flowers growers, designers and florists!

To watch live broadcasts of the show you can go to 6abc.com. They have a live video-cam going and are showing lots of great footage. I have been watching some captivating videos. The booths are so beautiful, high tech and unbelievably original. I urge you to follow the show on Twitter at #FlowerShow also on Monday at #GardenChat, you will not be disappointed but awe struck by what you see.

The flowers of Kauai have arrived! Stay tuned for updates. The show just opened today!

More of my articles about the Philadelphia Flower Show. Would love to hear from you about your experiences or thoughts about the show.