Ernest Watanabe, flower salesman, dead at 91
By Kapono Dowson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Ernest Watanabe, a Maui native who founded one of the state's largest floral businesses, died Sunday. He was 91.
Watanabe Floral Inc., the state's largest rose business, has five retail outlets, wholesale distribution and about 150,000 rose plants tended to daily, said his son and business partner, Russell Watanabe.
Ernest Watanabe served in the Army and returned from World War II with a dream to start his own business.
Born June 10, 1911, in Pa'ia, Maui, Ernest Watanabe served in the Army and returned from World War II with a dream to start his own business, his son said.
With the war over, he knew young men's thoughts would turn to romance. Which meant roses.
So in 1946, with seed money saved in the service and a small loan from his father, Watanabe imported a few rose plants from Texas and planted them on a small plot in Wai'alae-Kahala.
He worked the part-time business with his wife, Shizue, while maintaining his job as a research chemist with Hawaii Sugar Planters Association. But business grew quickly, and he went to roses full-time.
By the 1960s, Watanabe had become the largest commercial rose grower in the state. He opened flower farms in East O'ahu and Waimea on the Big Island. In the 1960s the continuing development of Hawai'i Kai forced him to relocate to Wai'anae.
"He left home early every Monday and worked his farm all day, sleeping in his truck at night," his son said. "We wouldn't see him again till the weekend."
In 1974, Ernest and Russell Watanabe started a partnership selling other cut flowers. In 1976, they formed Watanabe Florals Inc. and acquired a farm in Mililani.
Watanabe's parents moved from Fukushima, Japan, to Maui to work in sugar cane fields. When Ernest was 9, the family moved to Honolulu in the early 1920s to grow vegetables and flowers on a one-acre Manoa farm.
Watanabe helped his father sell vegetables from handcarts and flowers at the cemeteries. He collected kiawe beans in burlap bags and sold it as horse feed for 15 cents per 100-pound bag.
After graduating from McKinley High School, he attended the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, earning a master's degree in chemistry.
During the 1940s, Watanabe joined the 100th Infantry Battalion and expected to be sent off to Europe. Instead, the Army sent him to Australia to translate captured Japanese war documents, forwarded to Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Besides his wife and son, he is survived by sons Wesley and Leland; daughters Louise Davis, Joanne and Susan; 16 grandchildren; a great-grandchild; and sister Dorothy Kawamoto.
A wake will be held 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Kalihi Stake Center, 1723 Beckley St. The funeral service will be 10 a.m. Friday at the same location; visitation from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Burial is at 2 p.m. at the Hawai'i State Veterans Cemetery. Casual attire. Arrangements by Hosoi Garden Mortuary.
