Brooks gets Best in Show

LIHU‘E — Sachi Brooks of Kaua‘i Orchids earned the Best in Show award with her grammatophyllum scriptum specimen Friday when the Kaua‘i Orchid Society opened its annual Mother’s Day Show and Sale at the Kukui Grove Center.

Brooks, no stranger to orchid culture, also captured the Best Flowering Species award with her Maxillaria tenuifolia, an orchid plant which also features a fragrance.

Grammatophyllum specimens are huge, and this year’s winner is a fairly young plant with several stalks.

Neill Sams of Orchid Alley, recently returning from the Philadelphia Flower Show where they capitalized on this year’s Hawai‘i theme, took the award several years ago with his gigantic specimen.

But pressed for time, Sams did not have any plants out for judging at this year’s show.

“I just kind of put them in nice arrangements and had it out for people to admire,” Sams said. “We’ve been pretty busy with the Mother’s Day mailings, and now we’re doing the show.”

Sams also said this year’s show will forego judging by the American Orchid Society panel.

“It costs money to fly these judges over and take care of them,” Sams said. “We’ve got several AOS-certified judges on this island, but this year, we’re going to settle for local judging.”

Ann Reid, one of the AOS-certified judges, was collating the awards, noting the next show, which will be at the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau Fair later in the summer, will feature AOS judging.

Joining the Kaua‘i Orchid Society growers, Growing Greens nursery from Kapahi complemented the orchid offering with flowering plants, as well as some unique orchids such as the vanilla.

The show and sale continues Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Kukui Grove Center.

• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.