Flora Filipina 2009 Expo

The Flora Filipina 2009 Expo will be held on February 6 to 16, 2009 at the Orchidarium Park of the Quezon City Hall (corner of East Avenue and Elliptical Road in Quezon City).

The event is spearheaded by the Philippine Orchid Society, with participation from various local garden clubs, professional plant growers and companies, the Quezon City government, the Department of Tourism, and the Department of Agriculture.

Activities in the event include:

• competitive plant and landscape exhibition,

• trade fair,

• horticultural conference, and

• plant auction.

The objectives of the event are:

• to introduce the Philippines to the international floriculture map,

• to draw local and foreign participants to view the best that the country’s horticulture industry has to offer,

• to encourage plant growers to produce exemplary specimens for exhibition which would enable the Philippines to compete in the global horticulture market, and

• to promote technological innovation through scientific exchange between the academe and industry practitioners.

The Flora Filipina 2009 Expo will bring together the country's leading plant growers, producers, collectors, and experts into one venue to show the world the best of what the Philippine horticulture industry has to offer. Also, foreign exhibitors, traders, and experts will participate in this event.

There will be 60 exhibits featuring an assortment of plants including new hybrids and species, with awards given to outstanding specimens and exhibit displays. A large sales area will have 120 commercial booths from all over the country and the world that will be offering the newest and rarest of their plant stocks and propagations as well as other related horticultural products.

A two-day conference composed of local and foreign horticultural experts will discuss the latest trends, technology, innovations, and global demands of the world's horticulture industry.

Special events include opening cocktails, conference reception dinner, appreciation dinner, cultural night, and guided tours to places of interest outside Metro Manila.

National Bamboo Development Forum

After lunch, I left my work for a few hours to go to the National Bamboo Development Forum at the Philippine Trade Training Center in Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City.

The forum and trade exhibit were opened yesterday by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, Department of Enviroment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza and Laguna Lake Development Authority General Manager Edgar Manda, and will end tomorrow.

I made a point to see the event because I laud and support the efforts of government and private entities to promote the use of bamboo for environmental protection and livelihood generation.

I toured the trade exhibit booth area whose centerpiece was a "Bahay Pinoy" Bamboo House prototype made by the municipality of Baras, Rizal.


Several booths showcased the numerous products made from bamboo. I was amazed by the big potential of bamboo products for local and international markets. I hope events like this Bamboo Forum will increase the awareness of entrepreneurs on the huge money-making capabilities of a bamboo-based business.

I listened to an ongoing lecture in an adjacent speaker's area afterwards, but I couldn't finish it because I had to go back to work.

I have three varieties of bamboo in my garden, and during idle hours, I see myself busy managing a big bamboo plantation in a large tract of land somewhere north of the city. I can dream, can't I?

Bonsai Session with Mody Manglicmot

Puffing hard and perspiring from a thirty-minute walk in a muggy hot afternoon, I arrived at the Quezon City Hall Orchidarium Park just in time to catch Mr. Mody Manglicmot's lecture at the Philippine Orchid Society's 2008 Mid-Year Garden Show.

Mr. Manglicmot was wearing a loose cotton shirt over khaki walking shorts and jogging shoes, which was so appropriate for the weather that afternoon. Even his lecture was so casual and laid-back, that I hesitate to call the whole affair a "lecture".

He brought along three bonsai plants which, during the course of his talk, he proceeded to trim and wire as he touched on the various techniques in bonsai.

He considers his bonsai plants almost like his children, that he rarely gives them away nor sells them. He recalls one time when he was forced to sell one plant. One day, an unassuming plain-dressed man appeared at his house and looked around his bonsai collection.

The man asked him the price of one particular specimen and he quoted an inordinately high price, thinking that the man couldn't afford it. The man replied: "okay, do you deliver?", then proceeded to give his address, which was located in a swanky subdivision in Makati. Mr. Manglicmot's only consolation was that his plant was in good hands, because the buyer turned out to have an extensive collection of bonsai and other expensive plants in his garden in Makati.

He said we are so lucky to have so many plant materials to use for bonsai, that even foreigners like the Taiwanese come here to get specimens for their collections.

He lamented the unscrupulous practice of some traders who dig out wild plants which they haphazardly put into bonsai containers and sell immediately in plant tiangges (flea markets), aware that the plants they sell are not yet established and have a small chance of surviving.

Although organic fertilizers are the "vogue" among his peers, he still prefers to use the usual farm fertilizers (urea, 14-14-14) at half-strength for his plants, making sure however that the potting medium has a lot of rich compost.

To end his talk, he invited everyone to join him every Saturday morning at his bonsai demonstration garden inside the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City where participants can bring along their bonsai specimens for assessment and friendly critique. He joked that the entrance fee is any food you can bring to share as potluck style among themselves.

Here is a man who has pursued his passion for almost half a century, but still fired up with the zeal to perfect his craft and share his expertise on bonsai with others.

Almost missed a bonsai show

I must have been busy the past few weeks, because I only knew this morning while reading the newspaper that the 5th Open Exhibition and Competition of the Philippine Bonsai Society Inc. is ongoing, and had actually started one week ago and will end two days from now!


I had to adjust my schedule and beg off from work in order to go to the Exhibition. I usually make it a point to go to the first day of plant shows in order to catch the plants and flowers at their best form. Otherwise, from sad experience in the past, the plants and flowers on exhibit have already deteriorated after a few days and I certainly don't want to photograph them with fading flowers and drooping brown leaves.

I was hoping the bonsai specimens were still in good shape. It was a hot early Friday morning and the area was practically deserted. Fortunately for me, the bonsai plants were all in good condition. Just when I thought that the gods were favorably smiling down on me that day, disaster struck! The labels indicating the plants' name and owner were all smudged and unreadable when the labels got wet during watering of the plants. There were no officers or members of the PBSI in the exhibit area to ask about the winners. I just had to make do with noting down the award won by a particular bonsai.

So I hope my visitors will forgive me when I don't have a complete information for this year's winners in the 5th Bonsai Show. I promise to be more vigilant to the schedule of future horticulture events and not to be caught up too much with my work!

Variegated Phalaenopsis aphrodite

Hey, the 29th of February comes only once every four years, and to mark the occasion, I went to the Annual Show of the Philippine Orchid Society today to look at this year's crop of winners.

Almost swallowed up by the many blooms of orchids in the booth of Purificacion Orchids were two awarded Phalaenopsis aphrodite plants, each bearing a spike with eight white flowers measuring 6cm in width, which was typical for the species.

However, the plants didn't win a blue ribbon for the flowers. The award was for the variegation in their leaves, with a yellow band encircling the edge of the leaves. The leaves reminded me of a dwarf variegated Sansevieria.

This is the first time I've seen a variegated Phalaenopsis, although I have come across pictures of variegated Phalaenopsis in the Internet. Imagine if this desirable trait for variegation could be transmitted to other orchids. In this way, even if an orchid plant is not blooming, it is still beautiful to look at because of its variegated leaves.

Is this trait a spontaneous mutation and can the trait be inherited? Or perhaps this variegation is due to a virus infection. I hope more variegated (virus-free) plants can be produced in the future.

There are moments in one's life when one's breath is taken away by an event, an emotion, or a sensation. The sight of these variegated Phalaenopsis was one such moment for me. (Remember that song from the Tom Cruise movie (Top Gun) that goes "Take my breath away..."?)

April 2007: Trip to Los Baños

I woke up early this morning for my daytrip to Los Baños from my home in Quezon City. April is vacation time for students, so there wasn't too much traffic along the streets of Metro Manila towards South Luzon Expressway. Still, it took me three hours to get to the University of the Philippines campus in Los Baños where the 2007 Annual Garden Show of the Los Baños Orchid Society was being held.

Today is the first day that the show is open to the public, so there weren't too many people around. I am always slightly amused by the vintage background music being played within the grounds, ranging from instrumental waltz pieces to Matt Monro. (If you don't know Matt Monro, then you are probably not of the Baby Boom Generation.)

What I appreciate most from the organizers of the Los Baños Garden shows is the large signs they put up to indicate the booth and plant winners, and not just placing ribbons and trophies helter-skelter in the booths, which is what I sometimes encounter in the garden shows of other horticulture organizations in Metro Manila. In addition to being able to enjoy the walking around the displays with a guide to the visitor on what to pay particular attention to, the signs also help me single out at once what plants to photograph for my pinoyhorticulture.com website.

The booth displays are not the only attraction to far-away visitors like me to the Los Baños Garden Show. The commercial section of the Show draws me back to Los Baños yearly because it is a good place to look for really dirt-cheap plants to add to one's collection. Since a lot of nurseries and growers are based in Laguna and Quezon, the plants are cheaper because of lower transport costs when compared to plants bought in Metro Manila. However, one must realize that the plants sold here are usually older varieties and thus are available in larger quantities, unlike the newly-introduced rarer plants one can find in Metro Manila outlets.

I bought a grafted two-foot Mussaenda 'Doña Eva' bearing many scarlet-red flowers. I would have preferred to get a five-foot plant but it was too big for me to transport back home. There were other desirable must-buys but being alone with a long trip back, I had to settle with carrying just one plant with me back to Metro Manila.

Come to think of it, I spent more time travelling to and from Los Baños than the time I spent in the Show, but it was worth the trip.

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.

My generous vanda

Ten years ago, I bought a six-inch tall orchid mounted on a wood branch from a wandering plant vendor in the busy streets of Divisoria, hoping that it would be a rare species.

At home, I attached the plant to the trunk of a palm tree at the back of the house where it got full sun the whole day. Eight months later, it bloomed and checking my orchid books for its name, found out that it was Vanda lamellata var. boxallii, a rather common orchid found in the lowlands of Luzon.

Although disappointed that it didn't turn out to be a rare find, I nevertheless continued to care for it. It was a robust grower, sending flower spikes regularly, usually at the onset of the rainy season in July and lasting up to January of the following year.

In its third year, in addition to flower spikes, the plant began to give out vegetative shoots (keikis) which I would allow to grow beside the mother plant. In time, several of the offshoots would also give rise to their own keikis and it came to a point that two-thirds of the trunk of the palm tree was covered with the tangled mass of vanda leaves, roots, and flowers.

At the height of its flowering season, the fragrance emanating from the small white flowers could be detected as far away as ten feet from the palm tree. I must have given away at least fifteen keikis to relatives and friends in order to control the bushy growth of the plant. It doesn't seem to mind being treated this way, because it has continued to give me flowers and vegetative shoots on a regular basis.

As much as I would like to share it with other people (perhaps, to exhibit in an orchid show), I am prevented from doing so because the whole thing is attached to the trunk of the palm tree. And the only way I can share it with others is through this post. So there. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed taking care of it through these years.

Sabutan

Last week, I went to a museum to look at copies of old photographs taken in the Philippines during the late 1800's and early 1900's.

One photo that stuck to my mind was of a Filipino man dressed in fine Western clothes beside a tall stand of bush leaves which I thought at first were sugarcane leaves or overgrown pandan leaves. The caption indicated that the photo was taken in October 1911 somewhere in Tanay, Rizal and the man was standing beside Pandanus sabotan.

I was familiar with sabutan (Pandanus sabotan Blanco) as a raw material for hats, placemats, handbags, mats, baskets and other export items.

I also knew that sabutan is now becoming rare and endangered because of planting of coffee and citrus in its native habitat in Aurora Province (once a part of Quezon Province) and over-harvesting of its fine-textured leaves for the export items. I recall reading somewhere that agriculture researchers are trying to develop technologies to mass-propagate sabutan.

I hope they succeed soon, otherwise only old photographs like the one I saw in that museum may be all that will remain of the once-plentiful sabutan.