Death and greening

This weekend millions of Filipinos will journey to cemeteries north and south to visit the dead. They also will go to eat millions of value meals, buckets of chicken, bowls of pancit, along with countless liters of soft drinks and bottled water.

In Metro Manila, water is needed by everyone mainly because of the extreme heat and the lack of shade in its many cemeteries and memorial parks. This was not so before the Second World War, however, mainly because our cemeteries were not so full (not very many people had died yet) but also because of a little known fact. The city cemeteries, especially the Cementerio del Norte, were the city’s nurseries for shade trees and landscaping material.

Manila’s original cemeteries in the Spanish colonial era were in church and convent grounds. When Intramuros became crowded, the city started burying their dead in nearby cemeteries. The nearest of these to the Walled City was Paco cemetery, a circular complex that is today a popular park and concert venue.

The second nearest was also circular but when the Americans came they demolished it and re-buried all the remains in the South Cemetery. That demolished cemetery is now known as the Remedios circle (which was not a traffic rotunda since it was not really at the crossroads of streets).

Our old cemeteries were also architectural wonders. It made dying an elegant affair.

The Americans hired Daniel Burnham in 1904 to turn Manila into a modern capital like Paris. His grand plan was started the next year and a key part of that plan was the greening of the city with shade trees along all the streets and large parks scattered all over the city; again, just like Paris and Washington DC (which has one of the largest areas of park land in proportion to its population).

Put in charge of the greening of the city was John C. Mehan, a volunteer soldier who came over with the troops and stayed. He was given the Spanish-era Jardin Botanico as his initial park and nursery. The Jardin was quickly developed and immediately became popular and crowded. Mehan needed to move the city nursery somewhere where there was ample land and water.

Mehan was also in charge of sanitation and cemeteries. The city established two cemeteries, of which Mehan was the designer of the first and larger one—the Cementerio del Norte. Mehan designed the place both as a cemetery and as a botanic garden and nursery. An article from 1915 by the famed botanist Dr. E.D. Merrill of the Bureau of Science and the University of the Philippines shows how successful Mehan was in establishing the gardens.

The article of Merrill was actually a piece on “Philippine shade trees and ornamental plants—their planting and care.” The botanist wrote the piece in the Journal of the Bureau of Public Works (in those days public works officials understood the merits of tree planting and greening).

Our cemeteries were sparsely populated so they were very green.

Merill states, “It is quite impossible to overestimate the value of well-shaded roads, but these can be secured in the Philippines by well-planned and persistent efforts. …At the present time there are definitely known in the Philippine Islands approximately 2,500 different species of trees …but not all …can readily be (procured) and in indefinite quantities …the list of those suitable for extensive planting is limited form 12-15 species at the most.”

Merrill continues, “The only place in the Philippines today that can boast of an adequate supply of well-formed trees for shade and ornamental purposes is the city of Manila. This is due to the persistence and foresight of Mr. John C. Mehan, under whose inspiration and direction the city nursery at the Cementerio del Norte was established.”

The botanist goes on to elaborate the qualities of good roadside and park trees that are found in Mehan’s nursey/cemetery. He states, “The first essential is that the tree should be evergreen …or it should …possess the quality of producing fresh foliage immediately after the fall of the old leave. The second essential is that is should have a spreading crown …the trunk should be upright, with a clear length of at least four to five meters to the first branches when the plant is mature. Other essential considerations are that the plant should be strong enough to withstand the ravages of typhoons, and should have a powerfully developed root system …other things being equal, trees with attractive form, foliage, and flowers, and so far as possible immune from the attacks of insects, should be selected.”

Merrill then lists a number of recommended trees, all of which were found being propagated in Mehan’s Cementerio del Norte. This included ( I will use the common names in the interest of saving space in this article) rain trees or acacias, sampaloc, mango, pili, various peltophorums or yellow flames, cassias, mabolo (actually a relative of the Persimon), cupang, albizias, and palomaria. Mehan also had several species of palms including royal palms, betel nut palms, anahaws, buris, Manila palms, fishtail palms and travellers palms (ravenala madagascariensis).

Aside from noting the variety of trees and palms Mehan had in the nursery, Merrill also outlined the proper way to prepare trees – pruning and balling them—along with how to plant them, space them and then maintain them so they grow to their best height along city streets and city parks (shade trees for streets and palms mixed with shade trees for parks).

The street trees of pre-war Manila were grown at the city nursery in the Cementerio del Norte.

Today many landscape departments in Metro Manila (or their contractors) do not know the first thing in street tree planting; from selecting the proper species to preparing the tree holes (too small) to maintaining them (they don’t). No wonder Manila was greener before the war compared to today. Another factor is that almost no city in the Philippines uses the services of trained parks designers or landscape architects for streetscapes (Burnham had consulted Frederic Law Olmsted Jr., a noted American landscape architect and the Manila plan was overseen by architects with some training in landscape architecture including Juan Arellano).

John C. Mehan appears to have died in the Philippines. The Jardin Botanico was renamed Mehan Garden in his honor. Juan Arellano continued the work of greening the city based on the original intent of Burnham (and the model for greening established by Olmsted). Manila before the war was clean and very green. The acacias along Taft avenue and the fire trees along P Burgos were prime examples of great street planting. Other streets were planted to narra, sampaloc and pili.

The war burned and killed most of these street trees. Few survived. The North and South Cemeteries survived and the trees and palms planted there grew back but the increasing population of the dead competed for space. The meandering roads of Mehan still survive but much of the park-like planting and landscape design is gone.

When we go visit the North and South cemeteries this weekend we should also mourn the passing of the green and shady Manila of old. Every day though we all mourn the continuing death and disappearance of trees, green and open spaces is the metropolis. If we do not take the effort to re-green our cities then we contribute to our own slow but sure urban demise.

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Feedback is welcome. Please email the writer at  paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.

The Cementerio del Norte gave birth to the cities trees and flowering shrubs.