ASLA AT THE BOARD OF WATER SUPPLY UNTHIRSTY PLANT SALE - AUGUST 1, 2026

The 2026 Annual Halawa Xeriscape Garden Unthirsty Plant Sale took place on a beautiful sunny Saturday, August 1, 2026. Ms. Sheri Mikami Community Relations Specialist II for the Board of Water Supply was the community leader of this annual BWS event.

Malu Stanich, ASLA, Dana Anne Yee, FASLA, and William Perreira, represented ASLA Hawai`i Chapter at our community ASLA event. Alex Tamai, ASLA kindly visited with his wife and new baby.

The ASLA Hawai`i Chapter was part of the many Community organizations that shared their interactive displays, giveaways, activities, and demonstrations. Delphine Homerowski, ASLA designed and created beautiful, colorful laminated cards featuring native plants, which were a big hit at our booth game. Visitors picked one of the many cards and told us whether the native Hawaiian plant would grow best in sun or shade and whether the plant needed lots of water or if it was an unthirsty, drought-tolerant, low-water-need plant. Everyone was a winner and received candy prizes. Malu provided the plant photos for the game. It was great. Delphine and Malu created a wonderful game that we can now use at other ASLA Hawai`i community events, such as the upcoming LICH conference in October 2026.

Malu also brought native Hawaiian plants that he grew which was a plus to decorate our booth and to show the actual live plants that were shown in the laminated plant card game. Malu picked up the banners, brochures, video, and even brought his laptop and battery to help show and teach visitors about landscape architecture. I brought a Hawaiian quilt with a plant design, and we used one of the banners as tablecloths. The wood bowls full of candy brought excitement to both young and old. I asked some of the young visitors, "When you grow up do you want to be a landscape architect?" and you guessed it, the answers were a happy joyful "Yes!".

We all had a chance to see the plant sale, participate in the other community organization booths, meet like-minded volunteers and visitors of all ages, and eat a delicious Japanese bento. This is an annual event where you, as part of the ASLA Hawai`i Chapter, may want to volunteer or attend next year's 2027 Unthirsty Plant Sale.

It was a wonderful, enjoyable event where we shared our American Society of Landscape Architecture profession with the community and made many people so happy. ​