Plants and the city

The signs of urban living fatigue are all there. If you’re a keen observer, you’ll note that more and more people are starting to flock to places located far, far away from the dusty, gray jungle. In the past decade or so, residential areas built in locales characterized by sprawling patches of green, wide farming lands (specifically targeted for the "gentleman farmer" who are retired professionals wanting to commune with nature, finally, after years of being a "slave" to the corporate world), quiet and natural surroundings where birds chirp cheerfully, butterflies fly freely, and the breeze blows ever so softly, have sprouted like mushrooms.

Also, many people are spending more time in parks — or whatever available patch of green there is. Just look at how various parks and open spaces in the metropolis, especially Makati City, are teeming with people. No matter how little, the green spaces are precious such as in Salcedo Park. The tree-lined roads of McKinley are also a refreshing sight. In Quezon City, the same goes for the UP campus where shady acacia trees and green grass soothe a harried urban dweller. Add to that the popularity of Greenbelt Park, where children play at the fountains, parents sit on benches shaded by those huge palm leaves, and couples exchange sweet nothings amid a lush, tropical setting.

Over at Bonifacio Global City, it’s fascinating to see the young and old flying kites, or engaging in bird-watching activities – a telling sign that people are going back to the basics and enjoying the simple things in life. Certainly, human beings will always seek solace in the comforts offered by natural surroundings. If we’re going to be very literal about it, it is ironic that people set out to the city to look for greener pastures when all things green and living are being wiped out by the creeping vines of progress. Good thing that there is a natural check-and-balance system at work here that allows nature to still hold fort (though Gaia’s turf is becoming smaller and smaller, mind you) in the city. Otherwise, horror of horrors, the only green thing people are going to see in the city if ever is the "go" traffic light.

God bless the souls of whoever brought nature back into urban planning. For a time, during a building frenzy, it looked like the city would be transformed into the dark and dreary kingdom of Isengard in Tolkien’s Middle Earth, where all the trees have been uprooted and the logs used for fuel, which resulted in the whole area being a wretched wasteland. The lesson is for people to come to their senses and begin thinking long-term.

At One Serendra in Bonifacio Global City, for instance, wide open spaces filled with lush greenery and landscaping are in the offing for those who wish to enjoy an easy nature escape right within the city. One Serendra residents will have a natural sanctuary – a secret garden, if you will – that envelopes their homes as a ready refuge when urban life becomes too crowded, too noisy and too polluted.

The surprise? One Serendra is a residential condominium development. Greenery in a condominium setting is a revolutionary proposition only Ayala Land Premier can come up with.

But having a garden or park is both an art and a science it itself; one can’t just plant grass on that dry patch of land and cultivate all sorts of plants and trees you can think of. A garden – and we’re not just talking about huge ones in private residential areas here but also in your own homes whether it be a posh mansion, a condominium unit or an apartment — needs to follow natural laws if you don’t want to end up more harassed than before you put up one.

First of all, you need to know how big your patch of Eden will be. Obviously, you can’t plant acacia trees in a tiny space. It’s best to use plants with non-invasive root system. Based on experience, houses planted with big trees end up with cracks on the cemented floors of porches or garages. One can’t put a lid on nature for sooner or later, it’ll find a way out.

According to Tibo Arejola, McCOMM Phils., Inc. (Plant Exportation and Land Development) export consultant and a landscape horticulturist from UP Los Baños, selecting plants to suit a particular house is easy…if you know what to do.

Some plants that are good for keeping indoors, says Arejola, include palms like ex raphis, and seifritzii due to their low-light tolerance. "Some factors to consider are the low humidity due to the air-conditioning, low light exposure in terms of intensity and duration, presence of reflected glare from glass which dehydrate plants easily, and limited water reservoir due to small pots," he explains.

City living usually translates to dust – lots of it. Now, if you don’t have the time or the patience to clean or wash your decorative plants every day, then it’s better to get plants with shiny leaves. No, we’re not talking about gabi leaves here (that one is better off in your backyard), but of plant species such as philodendrons, which has thick, waxy leaves that repel dust. Among the more popular philodendrons are selloum and xanadu.

"These plants also have succulent stems that allow them to survive longer in low water conditions," says Arejola, who has a landscaping company called Hortus Gardens.

If you’re a cactus and succulent enthusiast, then you won’t have any problems dusting them. Sometimes, all you have to do is wipe these with a damp cloth and they’re as good as new. Neither are they candidates for dehydration land if you don’t water as often.

Says Chat Alejandro, director of the Philippine Horticultural Society, "Cacti and other succulents can store water and among these are agave, euphorbia, bulb plants or lilies. Some plants, like ficus or rubber, are sturdy and can also survive with little watering."

Now, if you have plants like begonias, African violets, ferns, alocacias, to name some, you need to water them on a regular basis. You wouldn’t want to turn your African violets into shrinking violets now, would you?

If you do decide to keep them indoors, choose plants that can stand long hours sans natural light. Hardy plants like the haworthias should be good choices. According to Alejandro, soft-leafed and soft-bodied plants prefer more shade, and would turn brown quickly when exposed to direct sunlight. Among these are aroids, ferns, gloxinias, geraniums, gerbera, begonia, flowering gingers, to name some. "These plants can be grown indoors with artificial lighting," he says.

A person cultivating plants in the home is motivated by different reasons. Apart from the fact that just having plants around the house brings in lots of cheer and positive energy, plants serve different purposes as well. People who want to beautify their homes tend to choose flower-bearing plants such as roses, gumamela, santan, kalachuchi, as well as annuals like petunia, portulaca, vinia. Remember the colorful crotons, more popularly known as San Francisco, growing profusely in your grandparents’ homes? Or the blushing Doña Aurora, known among horticulturists as mussaenda, and bougainvillea? These are favorite beautifiers commonly found in Filipino gardens, whether rural or urban.

Famous natural "air fresheners" which we’d like to see more of in the city wracked by pollution are the ilang-ilang, champaca, calachuchi, sampaguita, rosemary, basil, to name a few. For those who may claim this is difficult to achieve, at One Serendra these are already about to become a reality. The pioneering condominium development will feature unique themed gardens with plant varieties that are not commonly found or used in traditional landscaping. In fact, it will feature a scented garden with those types of flowering and fragrant plants.

Its shrubbery will utilize calamansi plants, doubling as an element of its orchard together with chico, caimito and santol trees. Other breathtaking themed gardens will include an orchidarium with exquisite varities of vanda, among others; and a quaint herb garden truly reminiscent of relaxed suburban living – how exciting would it be to wake up in the morning and pick fresh herbs for a healthful breakfast?

And did you know that some plants are good pollution absorbers? According to Alejandro, NASA, in an experiment, found that such plants as ferns, palms, agave, euphorbia, cacti, anthurium, and aglaonema make very efficient air cleaners.

City living can spell trouble, what with undesirable characters lurking about and ready to swoop down on unsuspecting souls. In order to drive these people away, Alejandro suggests planting varieties that protect homes. Among these are agave, bougainvilleas, roses, giant cacti and "other spiny, rough-barked plants, and also those that have irritating sap scale or hair." But you don’t want to place a thorny plant where you have kids going through a terrible two’s phase. Neither would you want to plant a bunch of delicate flowering plants with a very playful dog around, or else you’d be hard put to replant each time a dog massacres a bed of blooms. Either that, or you send your beloved pet to training school.

When it comes to outdoor plants, Arejola suggests planting trees that have glossy or shiny leaves which are effective in repelling dust and pollution. Among these are the ficus family, or the balete and most tropical palms. "Another consideration is that they are deciduous or shed leaves at least once a year such as the narra and mahogany," says Arejola. "The logic is that the pollutants accumulated on the leaves are shed by the tree periodically, allowing them to grow new leaves." As mentioned earlier, those with huge roots could spell trouble as they could get into sewers and utility lines.

"Shrubs or smaller plants basically depend on water availability. But one can do better with those that have colored leaves as our environment does not encourage flowering, unlike in Singapore where bougainvilleas bloom profusely because they have better air quality," says Arejola. "If only our cars don’t pollute our air that much, we would have more choices of plants to grow.

Among the shrubs we could plant are spider lilies, bougainvilleas, San Francisco, song of India, Fukien tea, heliconias. Ground covers may include peanut plant, white grass, silver wall. Carabao grass, by the way, seems to tolerate the urban landscape better than other grasses," adds Arejola.

Whatever your choice of plants for urban living, it’s best to keep in mind that plants have a right to be here and should be treated like you would another living being. People tend to forget that plants, which are always taken for granted, give so much in exchange for so little, in many cases, just water, light and some appreciation.