T--'s Garden

Out of bed at 5:00 AM this Sunday to go with E-- to the house of his friend T-- in Quezon. I brought along tikoy (ube and pandan flavors) as pasalubong to T--. Hey, it's the Chinese Lunar New Year around this time, so tikoy is quite appropriate to give to friends. The Chinese say tikoy, because of its sticky consistency, will assure the "stickiness" (longevity?) of the friendship among friends.

T--'s house is located in the foothills of Mount Banahaw, hence his garden is blessed by a cooler wetter climate than in Metro Manila. We were greeted by a beautiful landscape arrangement in the entrance. ------->



The picture at right shows E-- and T-- at the garden located at the back of the house and what is unusual for me is the clump of poinsettias still in full flower in April! The latest I've seen poinsettias in flower in Metro Manila is late January. The big poinsettias one encounters during the Christmas season are artificially induced by controlling the amount of daylight to induce flowering (so-called photoperiodism).





At least 9 varieties of crotons (locally called San Francisco) were growing in a bed against one wall. Does any reader of this post know why crotons are called San Francisco in the Philippines?

A trellis located at the side of the house was covered with a robust passion flower vine.

I felt invigorated by the cool clean air and healthy plants in T--'s garden, and I sigh, thinking about my own plants back home, imprisoned by the hot polluted air of Metro Manila.