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Four Quick Questions with our 2011 Best in Show Winner
By Kim Schultz

When the judging is complete at our Fower Show, the first thing people want to see is who won. Since this year we did the judging during the day on Saturday, people were slowly filtering in toward the end of the day to see the center table with the Best in Section and Best in Show blooms and inflos.

I was floating around the show room for a while on Saturday afternoon, and the comment I kept hearing again and again when people looked at the Best in Show winning bloom was, "Tom Ohlson? Who is that?" Tom and Margery Ohlson have been receiving our emails for a while and are now shining examples that the judging is truly done blind and you do not need to be a member to win. (Of course, they've joined SCPS since then.) A full interview with them will appear in the February 2012 journal, but Margery was gracious enough to answer some quick questions about the winning bloom before our luau.

KS: Your Lemon Drop bloom was beautiful. How old and how big is the plant it came off of?
MO: The plant is about 3-4 feet wide and it's been in the ground about two years. It's not really that big. I'm not really sure how old it is.

KS: Where did you get the plant originally?
MO: We bought the plant from Doug Jones about 3 years ago. I think I drove by Doug's place by accident and dragged Tom back there on a weekend. Doug had a very large Thornton Lemon Drop there. I admired it greatly. Of course, it was not for sale and would have been out of our price range anyhow at that size. We looked at some other beautiful plants but I was still really enamored with that Lemon Drop. As we looked around, Doug confessed that he did have a smaller plant but it was not for sale yet.... we looked some more. At some point in the process, he decided that he would like to sell it to us. He may have caved when I told him that we were buying the plant as an anniversary gift to ourselves. Our anniversary is in July so I always use that as an excuse to go shopping for a plumeria!

KS: How many blooms did you enter in the show overall?
MO: We entered the Thornton Lemon Drop, a Jeanne Moragne, a Dean Conklin, a JL Pink Pansy, a Samoan Fluff and some unknowns in the fragrance section.

KS: Anything else you'd like to share?
MO: Our other influence is that I've danced with Halau O' Pualani's for about seven years now. It is a pleasure for Tom and I both to share our blooms with friends and O'hana. Even though we've only had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii once, we love the culture and music. We gave away one of our Celedines last year as a wedding present to my friend, Leilani. She recently told me it was the best wedding present she received.