Ernest Watanabe, 91; Flower Grower Was ‘Rose King of Hawaii’

Ernest Watanabe, 91, the largest flower wholesaler and rose grower in Hawaii whose floral business earned him the nickname the “Rose King of Hawaii,” died Sunday at his home in Honolulu of natural causes.

Watanabe built the one-acre farm his father operated in the 1920s into a multimillion-dollar business that supplies most of the 300 florists in Hawaii, as well as hotels and restaurants.

His company grows roses on eight acres of greenhouses in Waimea on the island of Hawaii and sells them through a division called Rose Connection.

On Oahu it produces other flowers, including pompom chrysanthemums and dendrobium orchids. It also imports blossoms from California, the Pacific Northwest, Mexico, South America and New Zealand.

Watanabe was born on Maui. He earned a chemistry degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1934, then went to work as a $120-a-week chemist for the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Assn.

After service in World War II, he entered the rose business with $10,000 from his parents. In 1945 his roses were the only commercial rosebushes in the state.