The greener side of living

By Mae Gianina Cabalida

As A kick-off to the coming Guiguinto Halamanan Festival (Guiguinto Garden Festival) this January, I had a tour to see the pride of the town, as the garden capital of Bulacan. It was a lengthy tour, showing how the gardening business in Bulacan grew and paved the way to success for old-time veterans and homeowners who started of as plant hobbyists.

Greeneries for a living

Landscaping has become across to a bigger market not just for the Bulacan locality, but also for big project sites in Manila; catering to hotels, malls and big establishments.

The Garden City at the Guiguinto Cloverleaf just outside the Tabang Exit, is the municipality?s main tourist attraction. Rene Robles, former chairman of the Guiguinto Garden City Cooperative, is one veteran in gardening and bonsai making. He demonstrated to us how to put up a bonsai and the step-by-step making of topiary; as he says, it?s just all about choosing the right combination of different sorts of ferns, grasses, and shrubs to go with pebbles, small rocks and mosses.

Bonsai plants for indoors or gardens range from P200-P10,000 depending on the variety of plants used and ornaments added for a prettier package. While topiary plants can go as high as P60,000.

From ?rags to riches?

Who would think that a hardinero would turn out to be a rich man one day? That started the gardening business in Guiguinto a key to everyone?s successful livelihood.

Artemio de Guzman, the first chairman of Garden City in 2000, one of the eminent names in the gardening industry, has been into collecting rare palm trees and plants in his own house in Violeta Village, Tabang. He shares that money comes in when they let go of the old collection and start investing for rarer finds.

He introduced to us the Old Man?s Palm, a palm tree which is said to bring good luck when bears fruits. Coco Thrinax Trinita, the botanical name, is a rare tree from Cuba which resembles the Anahaw leaves with white to light brown hairs covering the entire trunk, flowing all the way to the ground. Believe it or not, the said tree standing in front of his house costs for only half a million. Yes, a blonde and hairy P500,000! The said tree generally priced from P360,000-P500,000. As the story goes, he shared to us that he had just sold five younger palm trees that costs P250,000 each, making more than a million profit just in one transaction.

How richer can you get just by digging up some dirt to beautify your house, to filter the air you breathe, to give you therapeutic results? In the end it may even earn you a million or so. That?s not bad at all for a hobby, isn?t?