"Anybody who gets into the rose business in Manila is crazy," says Maria Perez-Rubio, president of Ponderosa Farms, Inc. and the Makati Garden Club. An energetic, vigorous lady, Perez-Rubio, has been in the rose business for over 20 years. And she’s still crazy over flowers – Ponderosa Farms, Inc. just entered a joint venture with property developer Landco Pacific Corp. The 53-hectare wide property in Silang, Cavite is now in the process of blooming into Ponderosa Leisure Farms, land of gardens, in the hands of property developer Landco Pacific Corp.
"Life’s Garden in Bloom." The Ponderosa Leisure Farms is an exclusive residential flower garden village and Landco Pacific’s second Leisure Farms project. Having held its groundbreaking just last October, Leisure Farms has opened its doors to garden lovers, particularly in the city, inviting each one to have her own hacienda, and a garden of flowers, their own work of art. Gardening, after all, is about the fine art of nature. More than just trimming and sculpting, it involves balance, harmony, using nature’s colors, shapes, textures and density to create a space, place, and picture of the beauty of nature, the beauty of life.
Landco’s first Leisure Farms project, called simply "Leisure Farms," a residential hobby farming and agrotourism community, is targeted mainly at hobby farmers, "the gentleman farmer" who works during the week and comes to his farm to work for leisure. Ponderosa Leisure Farms is of a different nature altogether, as it can function both ways, a second home – vacation home – or first home, as Landco anticipates that homeowners will easily want to make it their first home, either now or in the future, because of the more than pleasant environment and convenient location, just 45 minutes from Makati.
"I think it was in 1977," Perez-Rubio says, recalling the seeds of Ponderosa Farms, Inc. Very fond of flowers, she would experiment on her own, growing "every conceivable plant," she says. "Bulbs, gladiolas, we would import flowers from Holland."
But roses became her favorite. After going through all those other flower species, she decided to settle with roses, among a few other flowers. Despite, or maybe because of, the tedious process involved in growing this most beautiful and poetic of flowers. "Your main enemies are the weather, rain, heat, pollution," which she proudly conquers day by day.
Getting a new rose variety is a tedious process. "You can start with 7,000 (seeds). Then it becomes 300... then 50 then finally around 1 or 2 that are marketable...." she says, describing the steps one goes through to achieve this.