lei

Lei makers in several categories are awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes. The winning lei makers are awarded more than $5,000 in prize money.

Hawaiʻi's lei industry is in danger of slowly disappearing as aging flower farmers find it more difficult to get the next generation interested in the business. A group called BEHawaiʻi is behind a new push to support and preserve the industry by getting more plants in the ground. The Conversation's Lillian Tsang has more.

Jim Little's 50-year love affair with plumeria began after an overgrown tree supplied him with a yard full of cuttings. Now, Jim Little has passed down his plumeria passion to his son Clark and grandson Dane. The Conversation's Lillian Tsang visited the farm to talk with the three generations about opening up the farm to visitors.

May 1 is Lei Day here in Hawaiʻi — a tradition that goes back to the 1920s. Our partners at the Center for Oral History shared the voices of a couple of longtime lei sellers who started out helping their parents and went on to run their own Honolulu airport stands.

Talia Portner, the horticulturist for the Koko Crater Botanical Garden, says the young crater, a result of an eruption 7,000 years ago, offers mineral-rich soil that is fertile ground for the drought-tolerant plumeria.

Although melia is not native to Hawaiʻi, the hardy plumeria continues to fascinate lovers of frangipani with its many hues and fragrances. For Plumeria Week on The Conversation, we spoke to plumeria experts and farmers from across the islands.

Doug Brunner is the owner of Maui Plumeria Gardens in Ha’ikū and Waikapū on Maui. As part of The Conversation's Plumeria Week, we highlight the export business of plumeria cuttings.

Dick Wheeler, the owner of Molokai Plumerias, says at one time the farm was the largest supplier of fresh blooms for lei sellers in the state. But drought and destructive insects have weakened his orchard of three and a half decades.

The Conversation went out to the UH Research Station in Waimānalo where University of Hawaiʻi Professor Emeritus Richard Criley did much of his work and recently took us on a walking tour.

This Saturday is May 1, officially, a day to celebrate garlands of flowers in Hawai'i. Lei day was established in 1929, and each major island has its own…