since feb 7 was a school holiday, i volunteered to drive mom to the manila seedling bank for the last day of the horticulture show.
there was not much truly exciting at the sale booths, but at the exhibit area i loved the display of the philippine native plants conservation society. aside from the beautiful plant display (native philippine plants i presume!), they had wonderful posters of philippine hoyas, pitcher plants and mistletoe plus a fibreglass rafflesia. and of course a lovely tribute to the late prof leonard co.
another booth which caught my attention had a wall garden of succulents. it looked like a pretty hard maintenance job to have one in real life but i loved all the kalanchoe colors they displayed.
I love gardenias (otherwise known as rosal).
Beautiful creamy white flowers, dark green, shiny leaves and a scent that reminds me of home.
And best of all, they are easily grown in the garden, bushes constantly in bloom.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a whole front yard of gardenias?
There are so many choices of plants for the garden now, new hybrids, and like fashion, there is always old being revived. Even in horticulture there is something that's uso.
But gardenias, like the classic gumamela and the santan, the scentless rubia and multi-petaled gerberas, remind me of old gardens. Bushy, half-wild gardens full of surprises, cared for by mom.
I like those.
