WAILUKU - A grower of innovative orchid hybrids will discuss "Breeding for Flares" at the Maui Orchid Society meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Velma McWayne Santos Community Center.
Roy Tokunaga, a longtime member of the Honolulu Orchid Society, has spent 34 years in hybridization and created several thousand hybrids. He specializes in dendrobium and cattleya alliances.
He and bromeliad grower Harry Akagi established H&R Nurseries, an orchid lab in Waimanalo, Oahu, in 1981.
Tokunaga graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in education, with a biology major. But he never used his teaching degree because Ernest Iwanaga recruited him out of college to start an orchid lab. For seven years in that lab, Tokunaga sharpened his skills in cloning and germinating orchids.
Among his orchid credentials, he has served as an accredited American Orchid Society judge since 1990. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Hiroshi Tokunaga of Kahului.
The public is invited to the free gathering. For more information, see Web site www.mauiorchidsociety.org.
