Masquerade of Orchids
We just can’t get enough of them - orchids, the fragrant, exotic symbol of the Islands. We use the colorful blossoms to adorn homes, yards, hotels, businesses and people, even tropical drinks. We buy them for special occasions as well as for everyday pleasure.
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Honolulu Orchid Society president Williette Wong
We just can’t get enough of them - orchids, the fragrant, exotic symbol of the Islands. We use the colorful blossoms to adorn homes, yards, hotels, businesses and people, even tropical drinks. We buy them for special occasions as well as for everyday pleasure.
Are you a fan of Vandas? Do you have a passion for Phalaenopsis, a craving for Cattleyas? Are you dreaming of Dendrobiums?
This weekend you can immerse yourself in the beauty of orchids at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. The Honolulu Orchid Society 66th annual Orchid Plant and Flower Show, “Masquerade of Orchids,” opens at noon Friday and continues through the weekend featuring elaborate themed orchid displays by Island orchid societies and growers as well as cactus and succulents, bonsai, ikebana and African violet displays. The Honolulu Aquarium also sets up an aquatic display at the show.
Orchid Show judge Chang says
his Dendrobium Bracteosum
blooms last for three months
The Honolulu Orchid Society and other invited Island orchid clubs set up the show on Thursday, then the judging takes place, with 25 awards.
“We judge them first for the display; the mayor donates a cal-abash bowl for the best orchid display in the show,” explains Williette Wong, president of the Honolulu Orchid Society and show co-chair with Melvin Waki. “And the governor also donates a trophy for the best flowering orchids in the show, ‘Best in Show.’”
There are 10 judges for this year’s show, and Wilbur Chang, who’s been an orchid grower for “something like 49 years,” is once again one of them. Chang regularly travels around the island to the individual clubs, giving demonstrations and classes.
“Whatever anybody wants to know, I’ll teach them,” says Chang, who hybridizes orchids at his Kaneohe home. “It does-n’t matter to me who, what, when or where, if they want to learn, I’ll teach them.”
Chang explains that, to be a judge, you first “have to know a little bit about orchids.
Chang cross-pollinates his
Bulbophyllum Ecinlabium
“You have to put in a six-year period; you spend three years as a student judge, and after three years, hopefully, you can get promoted to a probationary judge for another three years. So in six years you become an accredited judge. But it takes a minimum of six years.”
Chang has been judging for about 30 years. He also helps set up the shows, however, he admits to slowing down these days.
“I’m getting too old for that,” he says, “so I have to kind of cut back now. We need some young blood.”
With the judging completed Thursday night, the orchid folks are back bright and early Friday morning, before the show opens at noon, in a whirlwind of last-minute preparations.
In addition to the orchid and other displays, the three-day show features demonstrations, classes, contests and this year, being so close to Halloween, a Masquerade Costume Contest from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday; keiki
must be accompanied by an adult. Three prizes will be awarded and will be presented by Mayor Mufi Hannemann at 3 p.m.
Longtime orchid grower Wilbur Chang has been
growing this Dendrochilum Magnum for 40 years
Saturday’s program also includes an Orchid Drawing Contest in two divisions: for keiki ages 4-14, and adults, age 15 and older, which is held in two sessions, 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. There is a nominal $2 registration fee to enter the contest; registration is 30 minutes before a session begins. Art materials are provided, and the first-place winners in each division of each session receive an Award Certificate and an orchid plant; second and third place winners also take home orchid plants, which hopefully, says Wong, will encourage them to want to grow orchids themselves.
To top off the show, the Windward String Orchestra, led by Steven Cardines, performs Sunday from 2 to 3 p.m.
But once the show is over, it doesn’t have to mean the end of your personal orchid immersion program. There are about 15 orchid societies here on Oahu
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