What a show!

After attending the Philippine STAR board meeting on Tuesday morning last week, I finally had the chance to pop by the Manila Seedling Bank in Quezon City to attend this year’s Philippine Horticultural Society Show, dubbed "The Garden Event of the Year." This was the first of three visits I paid to the show. The official opening was actually on January 23, but I could not make it then because my son Ethan was performing at a Marimba Concert at Paco Park around that time. Over the weekend, I heard that it was literally a madhouse trying to get to the venue. Lots of traffic, not just on the roads but particularly at the event itself. So I decided to wait for a weekday to visit.

My Tuesday visit proved to be a good one. Less traffic, absolutely wonderful exhibits, and I got the president of the Horti Society itself, PJ Nepomuceno, to personally guide me through each of the exhibits as well as the commercial booths. The first thing I noticed before entering the formal exhibit greenhouse was the great location PJ gave the Philippine Cactus and Succulent Society’s commercial booth – right at the entrance of the exhibit space! What a fantastic location. Two of our Society’s stalwarts, Delia Chuan and Sally Obien, were busy manning our booth. And from the look on their faces, I saw right away that they were happy with the sales performance thus far.

This year’s theme was "Landscapes Inspired by the Sea." Each of the entrants had to create a garden landscape exhibit with the sea in mind. There were some really fantastic landscapes to be seen. I’m not going to describe each one of the exhibits, but will mention a few which particularly caught my eye.

Of course, I’ll start off with The Cactus and Succulent Society’s entry, landscaped by Toto Adviento, with assistance from Delia Chuan, Sally Obien and Mely Sibayan. Toto’s creation was inspired by the succulent gardens in Monaco, which are landscaped along steep garden cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. I’ve been to Monaco once before, but I wasn’t there to look at plants and gardens, if you know what I mean. But I’ve seen the Monaco Gardens in pictures before, and these were quite breathtaking, particularly with the sea in the backdrop. I thought Toto and company did a fine job. They combined numerous succulents and cacti contributed by various Society members, including Dorie Bernabe’s variegated Agave potatorum, Astrophytum ornatum hybrid and Astrophytum asterias "Superkabuto" – all winning entries at the Society show in December and all winners again at the Cactus and Succulent competition category at this year’s Horti Show.

Peter Bangayan contributed some of his Euphorbia millii, Delia Chuan and Mely Sibayan also had some large specimen succulents in the background of the exhibit, and I contributed a large Golden Barrel cactus, not looking too good at the moment because of lack of direct sunlight into my greenhouse at this time of the year, but still quite imposing in its size. I also contributed a very rare Echinocactus horizontalonius specimen and a Leuchtenbergia principis.

One of the exhibit booths that caught my eye actually won first place in the Best Booth Member Exhibitor competition, the exhibit of Fred Salud. What captured my attention was Fred’s use of numerous cacti and succulents to emphasize the contours of his carefully crafted landscaped garden. I don’t know Fred personally but I was told that his cacti and succulents, like his Mammillaria hahniana and the various ferocacti, were all seed-grown by Fred. The mammillarias were in flower and were gorgeously pure white and beautiful. But some Society members were most impressed with Fred’s hybrid creation Euphorbia decaryii x E. decumbens. This plant only came in third in the succulent competition, but it was quite an impressive plant.

Another booth that caught my eye was the bonsai exhibit. I’ve always been fascinated and impressed by these living sculpted creations. PJ whispered to me that some of the plants exhibited were worth several hundred thousand pesos! Which was one reason why security was so tight during the show. Our long-standing member Fely Gupit dominated the Bonsai — Foreign Variety category, winning all three prizes at stake, with her Ficus microcarpa copping first place.

Ialso have to say that PJ and Monina Nepomuceno’s Cycas revoluta variegated, which won Best in Show, was a truly special plant. PJ relates that the plant was originally raised in Japan, found its way to Hawaii, then to Bangkok, Thailand, and eventually under his care. There were numerous other individual plants which caught my eye, not just because of their rarity but, more importantly, because of the way these were cultured into such magnificent plants, from various ferns, orchids, bromeliads, and other ornamentals.

This was also the first time I saw the craze in stones…yes, special stones of all shapes, colors and sizes. There was a stone competition as well, and the Suiseki Judge’s Choices went to, who else but Dorie Bernabe again. Her "Eye of Eternity" and "Sphere of Life" entries won first and second prizes respectively. I hear some of these stones can fetch several thousands of pesos as well! Adela Ang, owner of Green 2000, this year’s principal sponsor for the event, also had a wonderful stone exhibit adjacent to her shop. I got a stone from Adela and had George Yao, past president of the Philippine Horticultural Society, evaluate and explain it to me. It’s now my good luck stone!

I must add that one more exhibit that clearly caught my eye was Chat Alejandro’s exhibit of flowers and plants on stamps. Philately is my other passion, and I was particularly pleased to see Chat’s extensive collection. It was also here that I first saw the Philippine Postal Corporation’s eight stamps commemorative of the 25th Anniversary of the Philippine Cactus & Succulent Society. Four of the eight stamps depicted are plants of mine captured on photo by Johann Espiritu. It’s quite an honor, both for Johann and myself, to have these plants featured on Philippine postage stamps. Johann is particularly excited. He’s finishing his Master’s of Law at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. I will be sending him a few sets of his work shortly, and will use the stamps as postage for the shipment.

My second visit to the show was to deliver a lecture on general cactus and succulent care. I brought my wife, Rose Anne, along as she was interested in looking for new additions to our garden. I must say, I was quite surprised and pleased with the audience turnout. I didn’t expect to see so many interested growers in cacti and succulents on a Thursday afternoon. I also didn’t think I would be lecturing for almost two hours, but that’s what it took, including the extensive Q&A session that followed.

For my lecture, I took along a few of my plants as examples for the audience. Ninety percent of these plants were of the rarer species, as these are my passion. After the exhibit, Rose Anne told me I should have brought some more common plants as well, particularly since there were a few beginners and newcomers in the audience. Maybe next time….

I also learned a few things about succulents from the audience. First is how cacti can act as an anti-radiation protection when using a computer. If you place a cactus plant near your computer, this would absorb any radiation emitting from your computer. The second is how cacti can act as an anti-fire shield. One of the members in the audience pointed out that during a forest fire in the US, one home was completely left unscathed (while others nearby were burned down) because the owner had a hedge of cacti all around his home!

My third and final visit to the show was to the commercial growers, to buy plants and horticultural supplies. The Benguet C&S growers were there in full force, and my oh my, they had dazzling, great-looking plants, many in flower. Aling Elaine, her daughter Charlotte and niece Desiree had some beautifully grown plants indeed – numerous species of mammillarias (those cacti with the cute small flowers forming a crown around their tops), gymnocalyciums, notocactus, frailea, rebutias, echinocactus, haworthias, and many others. Needless to say, I made a few purchases here.

The C&S Society will be visiting the Benguet growers later this April to see firsthand what microenvironment and culture regimen has produced such exquisite C&S. We also have to figure out how, after purchasing these beauties, we can grow these optimally in grimy ol’ Metro Manila.

I also visited Adela Ang’s Green 2000 shop and purchased a bunch of beautiful ceramic pottery at quite reasonable prices. And for P200, you can become a lifetime member of Adela’s store and get significant discounts on her items. I’ve started to repot some of my wards from their plain plastic pots and into Adela’s ceramics. Rose Anne noticed the difference immediately and commented how my plants looked so much better in the ceramics. I guess it’s not just one’s plant that matters, but how one presents the plant gives the overall impact and effect. Presentation is critical. And many thanks to the Philippine Horticultural Society and president PJ for a wonderful presentation of the 2004 Horti Show!

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E-mail the author at succulentophile@yahoo.com