HONOLULU (KHON2) — This week, Watanabe Floral is creating the flower piece that will be on Grand Marshal Sam Choy’s car in the Aloha Festivals Parade on Sept. 27.
“The Aloha Festivals is such an important thing,” said Monty Pereira, head of sales and marketing director of Watanabe Floral. “So to play a small role in this particular case, and being able to help Sam with his grand marshal car, is something we’re excited about.”
“As the grand marshal there’s going to be a nice big floral piece on the hood of his car. It’s something that’s traditional, especially here in Hawaii and especially for the Aloha Week parade. Most of the flowers that we’re going to be using are coming from the Big Island,” Pereira said.
The flowers are flown in a few days before the big day so the piece can be arranged on Friday, right before the parade.
“We’re going to bring everything in fresh. But in the heat anything can start to age, so we want to bring it in as late in the game as possible so that they’re as fresh as possible,” Pereira said. “With normal flowers, you keep them in refrigeration and that helps to preserve them. The tropical flowers don’t like to be in cold temperatures, so that one does better at room temperature.”
Prior to the start of the parade, the floral piece for Grand Marshal Choy will be mounted on his car by the KHON2 team.
Tropical flowers in the floral parade
“Depending on the piece, like on a float, you’re going to see a lot more larger type flowers, like the heliconia, because they take up a lot more space. On the car, you’re going to see a lot more anthuriums, things that are shorter-stemmed, that can create some bulk and be appealing,” Pereira said.
Locally grown tropical flowers are the typical choice to adorn cars and floats in the parade, he shared.
“You’re going to see a lot of color throughout the entire parade, but certainly in our piece as well,” Pereira said. “You’ll see things like heliconia, things like anthurium, things like ginger, birds of paradise, that are creating the color and then lots of local greens as well, whether that be monstera or ti leaf.”
Many of the flowers in the parade are from Hawaiʻi island and other local farms, he added.
“I would think this is one parade that the majority of the flowers are going to come from local sources,” Pereira said.
Economic impact of Aloha Festivals
“September is one of the slower months of the year for us,” Pereira said. “January, coming off of Christmas and right before Valentine’s Day and then September, the transition of everyone going back to school tends to be slower periods.”
During Aloha Festivals, “what normally happens is those that are getting floats are working directly with farms to provide the materials to them,” he said.
The established connections between local farms and those that have floats can create an annual agreement for who works together.
“These are on-going relationships that people have had for years and years and years. And that way they save on the costs of putting things together,” Pereira said.
Watanabe Floral enjoys supporting Aloha Festivals in their own way each year.
“[Aloha Festivals] doesn’t necessarily impact us that dramatically from a sales perspective but it’s just fun!” Pereira said.
He shared how tropical items are featured in-store more during September.
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“We’ll be doing our part to promote Aloha Festivals, to promote ‘shop local,’ to promote local products all month and indefinitely because we all have to do our part to support local and keep local thriving,” Pereira said.