Scott Seymour Nurtures a Family Floral Tradition

By Fern Gavelek

Scott Seymour has an eye for decorating with plants, whether it’s planting on a sloping hillside or designing a table centerpiece, the self-taught, flower-arranging guru is the go-to guy in Kona for spectacular flower arrangements.

A landscape architect by trade and training, he also studied city planning at the University of Oregon. Whether it’s a local, visitor or kama‘aina wedding, a baby’s first lu‘au or a non-profit gala, Scott’s elaborate, multi-stem, floral creations are revered as works of art, and their very presence and beauty, the vital flower essences, can “make” an event or occasion.

Seymour inherited his love and skill for “floral elegance” from his mother, the late Sadie Seymour, who founded the Kona Outdoor Circle. He recalls days as a pre-teen in the 1950s, when he and brother Rusty were recruited “to help Mom do flowers” at Kona’s landmark Moku‘aikaua Church.

“Mom would stand facing us to give instructions and we would place flowers into the arrangement from the back,” remembers Seymour. “My younger brother and I were always wrangled into assisting Mom and I took to it as it kept me in the background. I rarely spoke as I stuttered frightfully.”

Sadie, a trained nurse, opened Kona’s first plant nursery after the 1953 death of Scott’s father—Dr. Walter James Seymour, one of Kona’s first physicians. She named it after the ahupua‘a where they lived, Moeauoa.

“Mom was the first floral designer on the Kona side; she had a shop on Ali‘i Drive. She was self- taught and did plant rentals too,” he smiles with pride.

Scott remembers waking early as a youth to pick hundreds of ginger buds for their “7 o’clock Tight” ginger blossom lei, and sitting up late into the night plucking apart Vanda Joaquin blossoms for use in stringing the Mauna Loa-style orchid lei. The island son credits his mom for his “Old Island English” style of flower arranging.

“For the most part, Mom did island florals but she also loved using flowers typically found in English cottage gardens,” he says. That included hydrangea, dahlias, snapdragons and roses cultivated in the gardens at island ranches. Sadie was allowed to pluck the blooms of these temperate plants from friends.

“Mom combined those blossoms with tropical plant material she collected from the uplands, like native liko lehua, and voila!— the ‘Old Island English’ floral style was born!” Scott says he returned to Kona after college in 1968 to take over Sadie’s landscaping business and he soon found himself doing flower arranging, by default.

“Local families, seeing I’d taken over Mom’s plants, just assumed I’d also be doing the flower thing,” he shares. “I got calls to do homes for Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays, and then there were family weddings. I’ve done near whole families over the last 40-plus years.”

Seymour kept the family’s business name and expanded it to Moeauoa Nursery and Design Associates to include his landscape architect services. He finds that designing outdoor landscapes is beneficial for creating indoor floral arrangements. “I get cutting rights,” he grins.

The affable landscape professional believes wholeheartedly in the philosophy of sharing, whether it’s nature’s abundance, or his time and talent.

To Kokua: Lend Support

“Being brought up in Hawai‘i, I learned from an early age that families help each other, that we need to pitch in,” he states. “So when a family friend comes to me and wants help for their big occasion, I kokua. I tell them their expenses are just what the materials cost and my time is a gift.”

Over four decades, Seymour’s floral splendor has graced the interior of Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu’s Capital District, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hulihe‘e Palace and Parker Ranch’s Historic Homes. His designs have provided fragrant color, beauty, and pizzazz to numerous festivals and local fundraisers. The lucky person who gets to take one of his aromatic art works home feels like they won the lottery.

Adding up the years he’s been at it, Scott figures he’s done over 50 weddings, including one at the Old Airport’s Makaeo Pavilion that transformed the well-used community center into a wintry wonderland.

“It was for Herbie Ching’s daughter and we decorated from top to bottom,” he recalls. “First the ‘family’ cleaned and painted the walls, and then we went to work creating ponds with fountains and trees, using dry lantana branches. We collected 10-foot saisal flower heads from the hillside and painted them white and strung them with twinkling lights. Oh, it was a sight to see!”

For more than 30 years, Seymour has volunteered to do the Easter flowers at Kawaiaha‘o Church, the “Great Stone Church” in Honolulu, known as the “Westminster Abbey of the Pacific.” It’s a job he enjoys and a family affair. The annual task came to him through his wife, Kaliko Burgess Chun, whose family has done the Easter flowers there for the past 107 years.

“This year, I had a whopping 1,100 yellow flowers and 1,000 white flowers, so I created massive arrangements, using about 500 stems each,” he excitedly relates, all in one breath. “Imagine! I was a wreck. The floral foam is only so big and I was upset with my wife for ordering so much.”

His son Mana helps with the projects, which often take four to five hours to complete.

Teaching Others How To

Those who admire Scott’s arrangements aspire to learn his Old Island English style. They are Scott Seymour groupies, attending thrice-monthly classes at the Donkey Mill Art Center or at other venues.

This writer attended a packed Christmas wreath class back in the early 1990s at the Kona Outdoor Circle to make a fragrant holiday wreath. We used bits of island plants gathered from our gardens and the woods: Christmasberry, liko lehua, pukeawe, wawaeiole, rosemary, lavender, orchids, etc. It was a gratifying experience with a wonderful takeaway.

“Scott teaches us how to make flowers flow,” states Cheryl Holdcroft of Kailua-Kona. “His arrangements are very dense; it’s nothing for him to put in 100 stems.”

Cheryl’s been attending Scott’s Donkey Mill classes for several months; each class has a theme. Upcoming classes include “It’s Topiary Time in Tita-Rella-Ville!” on November 17 and “An Island Wreath to Start the High Season!” on December 8.

“Just as money changes all the iron rules into rubber bands, one may opt not to get involved with the theme,” Scott says, with a dose of humor. “I’m flexible with most anyone’s ideas.” During classes, Scott demonstrates arranging, while students work on their own creations. “I’m flexible with most anyone’s ideas,” he says. Floral foam, greens and direction are provided. Students bring their own containers and “floral spectrum to play with.”

Scott, who is one-quarter Hawaiian, is well versed in island history, flora and fauna, and his classes are peppered with tidbits of fascinating, local lore. In addition, he offers valuable tips, including one, which Cheryl claims, “makes your cut flowers last three times longer.” If you mistakenly break a flower off a stem, Scott comes to the rescue, showing a disappointed student how to save that flower by using a water-soaked cotton wad, floral tape and wooden skewer.

“This is how you keep a Hawaiian hapu‘u frond from unfurling,” points out Seymour at a recent class. “You pierce it with a fine skewer.” After students finish their arrangements, Scott offers each a friendly critique.

When asked his secret to successful arrangements, Scott answers in his trademark joking way, “I do a sketch. Then I make a list of plants and try to get them…or I go to plan B. By the time the arrangement is done, we’re on Plan L-M-N-O-P!”

To sign up for Scott’s upcoming classes at the Donkey Mill Art Center, phone 322.3362. The Kona Historical Society offers a Holiday Wreath Making Jeep Trip up to Papaloa on December 1. Phone 323.3222 for information and reservations. ❖