History of Vanda Miss Joaquim in Hawaii
Vanda Miss Joaquim
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A plantation worker's house in Chin Chuck Camp in the 1950s. Note the hedge of Vanda Miss Joaquim.
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Vanda Miss Joaquim is the orchid that was responsible for giving the island of Hawaii the nickname "the orchid isle" when it was grown here by the millions after World War II. It is a hybrid orchid originally made in Singapore by Agnes Joaquim in 1893. The following are excerpts from the book Biology of Vanda Miss Joaquim, 2002, by Hew Choy Sin, Yam Tim Wing and Joseph Arditti.
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As so often happens in the orchid world there are conflicting reports about “who started it all” in Hawaii. According to one report, Lester William Bryan of Hilo, Hawaii started it following a visit to the Singapore Botanic Gardens in 1920. Bryan was in the Far East on an expedition for the Hawaiian Sugar Association. He was given 28 cuttings by Isaac Henry Burkill, director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens 1912-1925. Bryan took these cuttings to Hawaii and within a few years cultivated more than 10,000 plants and make a big profit from selling the blooms at 35 cents (a lot of money before World War ll) each (Teoh, 1982). Another claim is that J. Milton Warne of Hawaii and his brother Bob “were the first to realize the commercial value of Vanda Miss Joaquim” (Herman, 1995). In fact, J. Milton Warne started his first nursery which included orchids in 1931 … The brothers established nurseries “across from one another” in 1938 (Herman, 1995). In other words, their activities seem to have started 5-10 years after Bryan’s.
…
Altogether the impact of Vanda Miss Joaquim was tremendous and was followed by a big rush to grow it under the alias of the “Princess Aloha Flower (1952a) for shipment to the mainland, making leis (Jones 1947a, 1947b, Reusch and Clay, 1955) and the tourist trade. At one time, there were several thousand growers of Vanda Miss Joaquim in the Hawaiian islands, including housewives who had a few plants (Teoh, 1982). Larger operators were planting acres of Vanda Miss Joaquim under overhead irrigation (Keller, 1952b) with each acre holding 250,000 plants (Teoh, 1982). Damage by volcanic eruption may have caused individual problems (anonymous, 1960) but it did not dampen enthusiasm … For a time cuttings were sold for a dollar per foot (Teoh, 1982).
Eventually “it is … [in] Hilo … that … Vanda Miss Joaquim [was] produced in large quantities for export to the Mainland (Lind, 1950). One of these growers was Flowers of Hawaii, Inc. where “the flowers are picked in large baskets and after passing through a water spray are weighed. The grower’s returns are based on how many pounds of flowers he delivers." (Lind, 1950)
…
The demand for flowers and leis was very big. Flowers were also used extensively for decoration of floats. Military personnel passing through Hawaii carried flowers to the mainland (Teoh, 1982). This created popularity and demand which increased after the war. Airlines which by then could reach the Hawaiian Islands even with their propeller driven airplanes made export possible. Around 1954 the value of Vanda Miss Joaquim flowers shipped from Hawaii to the Mainland was US$1-1.5 million per year (Teoh, 1982). There was a report of a chartered plane flying out almost two metric tons of Vanda Miss Joaquim corsages (Teoh, 1982). These corsages averaged 180 flowers per pound which means that the plant carried some 720,000 blooms to the mainland (Teoh, 1982). An order for 250,000 corsages could be handled easily and that many were sent to Texas at one point (Teoh, 1982). …The market eventually fettered out and flowers sold not for 35 cents each, but 100 blooms for one cent. Only diehard growers continued to grow it. Thirty years ago, blooms of Vanda Miss Joaquim were still used for leis in Hawaii but on a much reduced scale of operation (Jones, 1960). They are still used to a small extent by the tourist industry.
References:
Herman, L. 1995. The Princess Aloha Flower. Orchid Digest 59: 197.
Jones, R.W. 1947. Orchids: An Industry In Hawaii. American Orchid Society Bulletin 116: 483-493.
Jones, R.W. 1960. Vanda Miss Joaquim, Orchid Glamour Girl. American Orchid Society Bulletin 29:68.
Keller, A. 1952. Notes on Hawaiian Orchids and Their Growers. American Orchid Society Bulletin 21:376-380.
Lind, F.J. 1950. Liquid Sunshine and Orchids by the Pound. American Orchid Society Bulletin 19: 437-440.
Reusch, G. and H.F. Clay, 1955. Hawaiian Leis and Corsages. American Orchid Society Bulletin 24: 578-584.
Teoh, E.S. 1982. A Joy Forever: Vanda Miss Joaquim, Singapore's National Flower. Times Books International, Singapore.
* * * * *
As so often happens in the orchid world there are conflicting reports about “who started it all” in Hawaii. According to one report, Lester William Bryan of Hilo, Hawaii started it following a visit to the Singapore Botanic Gardens in 1920. Bryan was in the Far East on an expedition for the Hawaiian Sugar Association. He was given 28 cuttings by Isaac Henry Burkill, director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens 1912-1925. Bryan took these cuttings to Hawaii and within a few years cultivated more than 10,000 plants and make a big profit from selling the blooms at 35 cents (a lot of money before World War ll) each (Teoh, 1982). Another claim is that J. Milton Warne of Hawaii and his brother Bob “were the first to realize the commercial value of Vanda Miss Joaquim” (Herman, 1995). In fact, J. Milton Warne started his first nursery which included orchids in 1931 … The brothers established nurseries “across from one another” in 1938 (Herman, 1995). In other words, their activities seem to have started 5-10 years after Bryan’s.
…
Altogether the impact of Vanda Miss Joaquim was tremendous and was followed by a big rush to grow it under the alias of the “Princess Aloha Flower (1952a) for shipment to the mainland, making leis (Jones 1947a, 1947b, Reusch and Clay, 1955) and the tourist trade. At one time, there were several thousand growers of Vanda Miss Joaquim in the Hawaiian islands, including housewives who had a few plants (Teoh, 1982). Larger operators were planting acres of Vanda Miss Joaquim under overhead irrigation (Keller, 1952b) with each acre holding 250,000 plants (Teoh, 1982). Damage by volcanic eruption may have caused individual problems (anonymous, 1960) but it did not dampen enthusiasm … For a time cuttings were sold for a dollar per foot (Teoh, 1982).
Eventually “it is … [in] Hilo … that … Vanda Miss Joaquim [was] produced in large quantities for export to the Mainland (Lind, 1950). One of these growers was Flowers of Hawaii, Inc. where “the flowers are picked in large baskets and after passing through a water spray are weighed. The grower’s returns are based on how many pounds of flowers he delivers." (Lind, 1950)
…
The demand for flowers and leis was very big. Flowers were also used extensively for decoration of floats. Military personnel passing through Hawaii carried flowers to the mainland (Teoh, 1982). This created popularity and demand which increased after the war. Airlines which by then could reach the Hawaiian Islands even with their propeller driven airplanes made export possible. Around 1954 the value of Vanda Miss Joaquim flowers shipped from Hawaii to the Mainland was US$1-1.5 million per year (Teoh, 1982). There was a report of a chartered plane flying out almost two metric tons of Vanda Miss Joaquim corsages (Teoh, 1982). These corsages averaged 180 flowers per pound which means that the plant carried some 720,000 blooms to the mainland (Teoh, 1982). An order for 250,000 corsages could be handled easily and that many were sent to Texas at one point (Teoh, 1982). …The market eventually fettered out and flowers sold not for 35 cents each, but 100 blooms for one cent. Only diehard growers continued to grow it. Thirty years ago, blooms of Vanda Miss Joaquim were still used for leis in Hawaii but on a much reduced scale of operation (Jones, 1960). They are still used to a small extent by the tourist industry.
References:
Herman, L. 1995. The Princess Aloha Flower. Orchid Digest 59: 197.
Jones, R.W. 1947. Orchids: An Industry In Hawaii. American Orchid Society Bulletin 116: 483-493.
Jones, R.W. 1960. Vanda Miss Joaquim, Orchid Glamour Girl. American Orchid Society Bulletin 29:68.
Keller, A. 1952. Notes on Hawaiian Orchids and Their Growers. American Orchid Society Bulletin 21:376-380.
Lind, F.J. 1950. Liquid Sunshine and Orchids by the Pound. American Orchid Society Bulletin 19: 437-440.
Reusch, G. and H.F. Clay, 1955. Hawaiian Leis and Corsages. American Orchid Society Bulletin 24: 578-584.
Teoh, E.S. 1982. A Joy Forever: Vanda Miss Joaquim, Singapore's National Flower. Times Books International, Singapore.
