It is the wet season in the Solomon Islands, a sweeping string of more than 900 tropical forest-covered volcanic islands in the Solomon Sea southeast of Papua New Guinea.

The leaden sky, heavy with heat and moisture, is dropping sheets of torrential rain amid the distant clap of thunder. Foliage in the garden shakes under the violent deluge as the streets of the capital, Honiara, become a network of gushing streams.

In contrast, the edge of the town’s Central Market is a river of brilliant color overseen by a group of determined and enterprising women.  Elegant tapered heliconias in a rainbow of shades from apricot to red compete with delicate spider orchids and the vibrant pink and fuchsia of full bodied ginger flowers interspersed with fresh green palm leaves.

The Solomon Islands is home to over 230 species of orchids and tropical flora which have played a role in traditional culture and customs for generations. They are used, for their beauty and fragrance, to decorate homes and villages.  Flowers provide adornment during dances and ceremonies, while floral arrangements add to the celebration of weddings and festivals.

However, floriculture as a commercial industry, which includes cut flowers and potted plants, has only emerged in this country during the last decade. Since then it has been rapidly adopted and promoted by women living in the urban region of Honiara.

Located on the main island of Guadalcanal, Honiara is a coastal town and port with a population of 64,600 which is rapidly growing at 2.7 percent per year.  

A recent boom in logging fuelled a national growth rate of 7 percent from 2003 to 2008, but this has not led to a change in most people’s livelihoods and economic well-being and individual incomes remain low.  Only 27 percent of urban residents are employed in the formal sector, so many depend on the informal economy to meet family and household needs.

A report by UN-Habitat last year recommended that the economic base of Honiara be diversified to build the economic resilience of communities. Floriculture is well-placed to make a contribution with hundreds of households now involved in growing and selling flowers. It also represents potential for empowering women who face limited economic opportunities and comprise 44 percent of the capital’s unemployed.

Florist Freda Delight with one of her magnificent floral arrangements featuring Heliconias. (Courtesy of Freda Delight)Floriculture is well suited to smallholders and households as a small area of land, such as a household plot, is sufficient for production and low capital input is required.

Hilda Atorea began cultivating spider orchids, heliconias and ginger flowers at home 10 years ago. The sales she makes to regular customers at the market, as well as churches and hotels, brings in much needed funds to pay for food and clothing for the family and school fees for her children.

According to Freda Delight, a florist and vice president of the Floriculture Solomon Islands Association, which was established in 2009, “Most of the women are housewives who grow flowers in their backyard and those who sell flowers at the market every Saturday; that is their income.”

Delight told The Jakarta Post that both the numbers of growers and public interest in floriculture had significantly increased in recent years.

She remembered being inspired to become a florist during a workshop in floral art and ornamental horticulture conducted in the Solomon Islands in 1997 by acclaimed Fijian florist, Jimmy Montu.

“At the time, I was a researcher working at the Dodo Creek [Agricultural] Research Station and that is where I started to grow my pot plants,” she recalled.  “We started to sell nursery cuttings from our research at the market.”

But the outbreak of a civil conflict in the country in 1999, triggered by inter-community grievances about access to land, employment and resources on Guadalcanal, known as the “Tensions”, put an end to Freda’s fledgling business for the next five years.

“I lost all my plants [during the conflict],” she said.  “I just started to grow them again in 2003.”

Now, though, her enterprise is flourishing and she provides floral arrangements to the government and business houses.  

“The government often has special events.  Last year was a busy year with the visit of Prince William and his wife, Catherine.  I received an order to do flowers for their visit,” she proudly explained.

“There were also flowers for the Women’s Day and events hosted by the Ministry of Women, as well as different workshops organised by the Ministry of Agriculture.”

Delight makes the best of her creative and entrepreneurial skills.

“I always do the interior decorations, arranging the hall and the type of setting and, sometimes, I do some catering as well.”

But along with the successes there are challenges.

“We don’t have a florist’s shop here in the Solomon Islands,” Delight said. So many materials required for making wreaths and floral displays have to be ordered and imported, which is expensive and takes time.

Growers also contend with transportation difficulties and lack of cool room and storage facilities at markets. She added that women would also benefit from “more opportunities for life skills training and training in post-harvesting, packaging, sorting and selection.”

Nevertheless, paying tribute to their initiative, she emphasized that “the women do things on their own and work hard, even when there is no assistance or funding.”

They also have dreams for the future.  Hilda would like more land to expand her garden and gain access to more varieties of flowers.  Freda, who was encouraged by the international response to her work that was shown at the Trade Pasifika Exhibition held last year in Nadi, Fiji, would like to bring the beauty of Solomon Islands flowers to the world.

“It is a dream of mine to produce and export the best flower arrangements,” she declared.