Her flower name is Hoshun, which means, "The Sprouting of Spring." We'll call her Edith, as does her husband, Eiichi Tanaka, a retired engineer in Manoa. She has a flower name as befitting the master in Honolulu of the Ohara School of flower arrangement and only the second person in Hawai'i to receive the Japanese school's Award of Honor.

The other person was Kokin Oshima, the mother-in-law of the late legislator Nelson Doi, at Kawaihae.

I never knew it is so much fun to talk to a master flower arranger. Obviously, her husband feels the same way, although he doesn't understand it. He shook his head and got up to leave when Edith explained that, once you master the rules, you throw them out and become one with the flowers.

"Something happens when I sit down with the flowers," she said. "I usually don't know what the arrangement is going to be before I do it. You have to pick a flower and move your arm," said Edith.

Artist John Young years ago said almost the same thing: "Put your brush on the canvas and move your arm."

Edith loved flowers so much when she was a little girl that she picked weeds on the way to school. Her garden is like a palette she uses to paint her masterpieces. It was comforting to learn that, like newspaper columnists, master flower arrangers also work against deadlines.

She said she promised to go with her husband to a meeting, then remembered that she was supposed to bring a flower arrangement to the Honolulu Academy of Arts that morning. "I ran out into the garden and picked part of a rattan palm. It looks like an octopus leg with suckers. Then I picked some monstera and an anthurium."

The entire arrangement took her about five minutes. Heck, it takes me at least an hour to write a column.

Edith said flower arranging in Japan began with bringing flowers as offerings to the Buddha. The niches were tall and narrow, so long-stemmed flowers were essential. The Ohara School broke away from formal long stems by using shallow bowls like bonsai pots. Common people as well as priests and samurai began arranging flowers.

The Tanaka home on a quiet street in Manoa has become a mecca for students of flower arrangement. Edith began teaching it years ago when she was principal of the Honwanji Mission School. Her oldest son learned early that watching TV in the living room was kapu while a class sat around a low table arranging flowers.

I came to the conclusion that the different schools of flower arrangement are like schools of Chinese and Japanese art. Western flower arrangement is a whole different ballgame, like the difference between calligraphy and Andy Warhol.

The Japanese have a word, "obana," which means "to bring the flowers alive." That must be what makes a great arranger like Edith.