Every morning, Michelle Broder Van Dyke and Chris Ritson lace up their gardening boots and step into their backyard to tend their flowers. Their backyard, however, is better described as an Eden. Ensconced at the top of Pu‘u ‘Ōhi‘a, an O‘ahu mountain commonly known as Mount Tantalus famous for winding roads and views of downtown Honolulu, the duo’s garden spans six acres of natural forest, rare flowers, and bountiful fruit trees.
It is harvest day on the morning of my visit. Armed with a half-dozen buckets and joined by Kōlea, the couple’s miniature hound and beagle mix, we hike down to a plot of heliconia. The air is crisp, and droplets of morning dew still cling to the bright orange bracts. “I call these my babies,” Broder Van Dyke says, clipping ones at the height of their bloom and gathering them like a bouquet. “They flower year-round. So it’s really satisfying because they’re always there.”
Under the name Tantalus Botanicals, the two supply tropical florals to local flower shops and design commissioned arrangements. The company stands out for its all-natural and sustainable techniques. “The flower industry is one of tremendous waste,” Ritson says, describing wide use of plastics, phenol-formaldehyde foam, pesticides, herbicides, and even artificial tinting to feign freshness. “We think we’re enjoying the flowers from the earth,” he says, “but the ecological price we have to pay is really high.”
The couple harvests blooms the day they are ordered to avoid using preservatives. “I think that really stands out with us,” Ritson says. “We can do a lot more ephemeral and fragile flowers because of that.” Currently, the company only supplies O‘ahu, since shipping flowers to another island requires pesticide.
Broder Van Dyke’s family purchased the property in 1987. The allure of the land was hard to resist, she recalls. Her parents set to work restoring the natural forest in their backyard, which had been left untended and was overgrown with invasive plants that were choking out native species.
Broder Van Dyke and Ritson moved back into her childhood home in 2013, continuing the work that her parents began three decades earlier. The couple refrains from using pesticides to clear the invasive plants, instead uprooting them by hand or chainsaw. As the two delved deeper into the thick forest that surrounded their home, they found examples of endemic flora whose lineages have survived since ancient times. “That’s just really humbling—to think there are organisms here that have witnessed everything that’s happened,” Ritson says.
For their wedding in 2017, the couple decided to source flowers from their garden. “We thought it would be more meaningful,” Broder Van Dyke says, “to use these flowers that we had formed a special connection with.” Ritson, a visual artist by trade, built a chuppah with invasive strawberry guava trees the couple had cleared from the property, and they decorated its corners with monstera leaves and bright anthuriums. Lush bouquets of crimson torch ginger and golden rattlesnake flowers decorated the reception, sprouting from verdant foliage like tropical explosions. As a wedding favor, each guest received a bouquet of the couple’s homegrown flowers.
It was inspiring for the couple to witness their guests enjoying the flowers they had grown. They began to harvest more to share with their friends, who in turn began commissioning the couple to create arrangements for their events. “That was where Tantalus Botanicals originated,” Broder Van Dyke says, “us sharing the beauty of our land with others.”
The couple extends a lot of care to the plants thriving in their backyard. Ritson likens tending to the garden to the construction of a piece of art. “It’s like the greatest sculpture you could make,” he says.
Looking down from our perch by the heliconia, I spot clumps of blossoming banana trees, planted by Broder Van Dyke’s dad, who, she says, “was obsessed with having bananas year-round.” Across the garden, plump torch ginger blooms have sprouted from an understory of leaves 10 times taller than the flowers themselves. Up a series of stone steps, a delicate bed of blush-tinted anthuriums sways softly with the mountain breeze.
Michelle Broder Van Dyke and Chris Ritson of Tantalus Botanicals liken tending to a garden to the construction of a piece of artwork.
“Flowers have taught us patience. There’s a deep gratification that comes in waiting two years for a flower to bloom.” — Michelle Broder Van Dyke, co-owner of Tantalus Botanicals
The couple harvests blooms the day they are ordered to avoid using preservatives, which allows them to forage more ephemeral flowers.
The company stands out for its all-natural and sustainable techniques.
Every morning, Michelle Broder Van Dyke and Chris Ritson lace up their gardening boots and step into their backyard to tend their flowers. Their backyard, however, is better described as an Eden. Ensconced at the top of Pu‘u ‘Ōhi‘a, an O‘ahu mountain commonly known as Mount Tantalus famous for winding roads and views of downtown Honolulu, the duo’s garden spans six acres of natural forest, rare flowers, and bountiful fruit trees.
It is harvest day on the morning of my visit. Armed with a half-dozen buckets and joined by Kōlea, the couple’s miniature hound and beagle mix, we hike down to a plot of heliconia. The air is crisp, and droplets of morning dew still cling to the bright orange bracts. “I call these my babies,” Broder Van Dyke says, clipping ones at the height of their bloom and gathering them like a bouquet. “They flower year-round. So it’s really satisfying because they’re always there.”
Under the name Tantalus Botanicals, the two supply tropical florals to local flower shops and design commissioned arrangements. The company stands out for its all-natural and sustainable techniques. “The flower industry is one of tremendous waste,” Ritson says, describing wide use of plastics, phenol-formaldehyde foam, pesticides, herbicides, and even artificial tinting to feign freshness. “We think we’re enjoying the flowers from the earth,” he says, “but the ecological price we have to pay is really high.”
The couple harvests blooms the day they are ordered to avoid using preservatives. “I think that really stands out with us,” Ritson says. “We can do a lot more ephemeral and fragile flowers because of that.” Currently, the company only supplies O‘ahu, since shipping flowers to another island requires pesticide.
Broder Van Dyke’s family purchased the property in 1987. The allure of the land was hard to resist, she recalls. Her parents set to work restoring the natural forest in their backyard, which had been left untended and was overgrown with invasive plants that were choking out native species.
Broder Van Dyke and Ritson moved back into her childhood home in 2013, continuing the work that her parents began three decades earlier. The couple refrains from using pesticides to clear the invasive plants, instead uprooting them by hand or chainsaw. As the two delved deeper into the thick forest that surrounded their home, they found examples of endemic flora whose lineages have survived since ancient times. “That’s just really humbling—to think there are organisms here that have witnessed everything that’s happened,” Ritson says.
For their wedding in 2017, the couple decided to source flowers from their garden. “We thought it would be more meaningful,” Broder Van Dyke says, “to use these flowers that we had formed a special connection with.” Ritson, a visual artist by trade, built a chuppah with invasive strawberry guava trees the couple had cleared from the property, and they decorated its corners with monstera leaves and bright anthuriums. Lush bouquets of crimson torch ginger and golden rattlesnake flowers decorated the reception, sprouting from verdant foliage like tropical explosions. As a wedding favor, each guest received a bouquet of the couple’s homegrown flowers.
It was inspiring for the couple to witness their guests enjoying the flowers they had grown. They began to harvest more to share with their friends, who in turn began commissioning the couple to create arrangements for their events. “That was where Tantalus Botanicals originated,” Broder Van Dyke says, “us sharing the beauty of our land with others.”
The couple extends a lot of care to the plants thriving in their backyard. Ritson likens tending to the garden to the construction of a piece of art. “It’s like the greatest sculpture you could make,” he says.
Looking down from our perch by the heliconia, I spot clumps of blossoming banana trees, planted by Broder Van Dyke’s dad, who, she says, “was obsessed with having bananas year-round.” Across the garden, plump torch ginger blooms have sprouted from an understory of leaves 10 times taller than the flowers themselves. Up a series of stone steps, a delicate bed of blush-tinted anthuriums sways softly with the mountain breeze.
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