HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF THE PHILIPPINES’ GARDEN SHOW & EXHIBIT 2012

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF THE PHILIPPINES’ GARDEN SHOW & EXHIBIT 2012

The “Horti show 2012” was a huge success owing to the meticulous preparation of the officers and members.  After having a very weak presentation for the past two or three years, the Horticultural Society rebounded to set up an excellent exhibit with the theme of modern gardening.

Exhibitors did not just do modern gardening displays but they incorporated elements of old gardening that created really scenic and ideal garden landscapes. Truly, one cannot put forth the best without looking and incorporating stuff from the past.

January 28, 2012, Saturday, 9:05 am I went to Quezon Memorial Circle riding a bus while I was reading the criticisms on the classic novel Moby Dick and my travel wasn’t a boring one today.  I hurriedly went to the exhibit booth and took a lot of pictures (Php 20.00 entrance but free for plant organisation members if they have a landscape exhibit inside).  The show was held at the Charito Planas Garden.

The Horti Show 2012 was better compared to the 2010 exhibit but for me the best plant in show was another plant and not the variegated octopus aka umbrella tree (Schefflera actinophylla).  My choice was the multi-headed cycad near the octopus tree as best plant in show.

Strategically placed among the ornamental displays was the Cacti & Succulent Society of the Philippine, Inc. landscape exhibit which was wonderfully executed by no other than Master Architect Bimbo Vergara. 

For the first time, I saw the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, Inc. did a landscape exhibit of endemic and indigenous trees that were with proper labels and other essential information about them and conservation.  All other exhibitors should emulate that step taken by the PNPCSI so that the Filipino nation would be more aware of their environment, protect and conserve our very own natural wealth!

The theme “Modern Gardening” of this year’s show brought out the ingenuity of the exhibitors and the apex among them is the modern Wardian Case.  It was made of a “gigantic” round glass rather than the traditional quadrilateral case and the media stratification was clearly seen. 

Another is the aquarium with a landscape that goes beyond the top of the aquarium which is really something striking.  It would be a very good centerpiece in a brightly lit receiving room.  The effect of the gurgling waters, the darting fishes, and greenery all refreshes and relaxes the weariest of minds…

The best thing in Horti 2012 is the bonsai driftwoods with Tillandsia andreana used as its leaves.  They looked like real living pine or other coniferous bonsai plants seen in China and Japan!

Something I could not believe is the forest-like commercial area. I haven’t seen that many commercial growers since Flora Filipina I.  Neither was it surpassed by the next succeeding plant shows months after the Horti 2012 show.  It just shows there is something mutual that the HSP and the commercial growers have reached.  I easily got lost among the commercial booths!

There was also a booth dedicated to the memory of the Philippine Hoya exponent, Dr. Monina Siar with Hoya siarae which was named after her, as the focal point.

Thank you very much Dr. Siar for being very generous to us whenever we visit you at UP Los Baños.  Thank you for all the happy memories, your cheerful laughter, your words of wisdom, and sharing of information regarding the cultivation of Hoyas.  You really made this plant popular and acknowledged throughout the world.  No wonder, THE PHILIPPINES IS THE CENTRE OF DISTRIBUTION OF THE GENUS HOYA!!!

Mr. Nanding Aurigue of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute introduced me to his friends John and Nerissa Smith-Dodsworth from Koromandel Peninsula, New Zealand.  John is a pteridologist who has already published three books about ferns.  Nerissa works in a well-known garden store in Koromandel Peninsula.  No matter how much they love to purchase some plants, they could never bring it inside New Zealand since according to them the equivalent of the DENR in their country is very serious in controlling the introduction of foreign plants.

I toured them also at the Xerophytic Botanic Garden inside the Halamanan ng Mga Bulaklak and even inside the Gazebo that houses some of the more delicate and exotic cacti and succulents.  As a last treat, I let them taste the miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcifera) and taught them of its miraculous properties. 

Then I toured my classmate around the garden show and exhibit area.  I have been persuading her to come and thank God she appreciated the Horti Show so much!  She even bought a Copiapoa mollicula and an Echinofossulocactus (I still prefer that name over the now generally accepted Stenocactus) for me as present! She bought two “penis” cacti (Echinocereus spp.) out of curiosity. 

This is a great God-given day for me as I am celebrating my birthday today.  A lot of people in the horto-botanical world greeted me and there’s no sweeter greetings from the people who also shares the same passion!  Sir Nanding Aurigue even promised me a Hoya greenii as birthday present. Thanks in advance Sir!

January 29, 2012, Sunday, I toured two of my classmates at the Horti Show and the ambience of the place was so serene and relaxing that we decided to make their thesis there.  A place like this refreshes the mind.  Next time I’ll always do my most important works in a garden show!!!

One of my classmates can’t resist buying some cute plants from Unigreen: a Sansevieria tirucalli (now already with a plantlet), and another plant which I am familiar with but not its name; it is always sold with twining branches and regarded as a lucky plant.

Before the day ended, we saw another classmate who also being a plant aficionado was taking pictures of the entire Horti Show.

February 03, 2012, Friday,  again my classmate and I can’t resist going to the Horti Show and this time we attended the free lecture at the exhibit area which was entitled “Modern Orchid Growing”.  I asked my classmate that we take a video of it since it would be very important for us as guide to growing orchids since her mom always kills their plants.  The speaker was a former Philippine Orchid Society president, Philippine Horticultural Society board member/official, discoverer of Hoya lazaroi, and a CSSP fellow member, Mr. Carlos Valeriano Lazaro, known among his friends and acquaintances as CV. 

CV is a soft spoken man; always ready to help in whatever way he could, very approachable, and always cheerful.  His lecture went for some two or three hours and we captured all these in two videos.  We were very lucky!

After the lecture, there were some plants raffled and I won a Mickey Mouse plant that looks more like an Ochna spp. Rather than the real Solanum mammosum but nevertheless I was happy I won!  My classmate was luckier: she won the Aerides odorata as well as Jeorge Sagun, assistant to Sir Nanding Aurigue.  Then somebody asked who among us would waive their paid raffle tickets and receive Platyceriums in return.  I was the first one to raise my hand.  I won a Platycerium-my very first one!  Mang Met also won a Platycerium.

I am very happy that for the very last time I was able to have a video of CV as he had joined our Creator shortly after Flora Filipina III. 

CV you are a big loss to the horto-botanical world but what you have shared with all of us shall remain alive in our hearts and in our minds. Thank you for letting us into your life and for making us a part of you.  May you eternally enjoy the blissful life promised by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

          This article is dedicated to you…