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| CHERRYLYN BAGARIS with Daeng Amphorn Philodendron |
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BOBBY BAGARIS and the bestselling
New Orange Philodendron. |
There’s a
remarkable nursery up in the mountains of Lucban, Quezon, where one can find
ornamental plants of the highest quality but which only a few plant traders
know. The plants are not only remarkable for their high quality, they are also
remarkable for their very affordable price.
For instance, bromeliads like Neoregelia
Perfecta in bloom are priced at only P150. In Manila weekend markets and plant
shops, the same could be selling double that price.
Another remarkable thing about the ornamental
farm is that the fellow who is running it is not a horticulturist but one who
learned the fine points of ornamental plant propagation through self-study and
trial and error. Now, he has mastered a fast way of multiplying the varieties
they are producing in large numbers.
The ornamental plant nursery is the May-it
Flower Farm in Brgy. May-it, Lucban town. The fellow who is running it,
together with his wife Cherrylyn, is Bobby Bagaris, 39, who finished a course
in marine engineering. He chose not to pursue the profession he studied in college and instead
opted to work for his American brother-in-law who is married to his sister Vivian.
First, he served as his brother-in-law’s driver and eventually manager of the
nursery put up by his sister’s husband, Ralph William Miller.
May-it Flower Farm specializes in just a few
varieties that are particularly suited to the growing conditions in Lucban
which has a milder climate than most other parts of the country.
The main ornamental plants they grow include a number
of philodendron varieties of the self-heading type (not the climbing type that
needs a stake to grow on). They are also growing a lot of flowering anthuriums
which are mostly small but which are sold at very affordable prices.
Then there are a few varieties of bromeliads,
particularly Neoregelias. Also grown in fewer numbers is a variety of dwarf
dieffenbachia imported from Thailand which is produced as indoor décor.
At first glance, the knowledgeable visitor
would say that the plants are grown from tissue-cultured plantlets. But no,
they are grown from suckers of mother plants that have been topcut.
Many gardeners will usually topcut their
philodendron when they are already full grown. In the case of Bobby, he topcuts
the three-month-old plants which are still very small. He has observed that
the young mother plants will usually produce three or more suckers. He
separates the young suckers and grows them in plastic trays. After they have
grown bigger, they are transferred to a bigger hard plastic pot, eventually to
be transferred to a pot with a mouth of about a foot in diameter. Three or four months
later, they are already ready for sale to traders and plant shop owners who buy
them in big numbers (sometimes by the truckload). Many of the plants find their
way to the weekend markets and plant shops in Metro Manila.
Bobby says that his system of propagation is
very fast. For instance, the 1,000 young New Orange philodendrons they imported
from Thailand became more than 10,000 in less than a year. That’s because the
first batch of suckers are ready for topcutting in just a few months, and
also the original mother plants continue to produce new suckers.
The same technique is applied to the
flowering anthuriums being propagated in large numbers. The mother plants were
sourced as tissue-cultured plants from Holland. Again, the young plants are being topcut for multiplication.
Each batch of mother plants is usually a
thousand seedlings. With that number, it is quite fast to attain a big number
of propagations.
The philodendron varieties that they are
producing by the thousands include New Orange, Daeng Amphorn, Cherry Red, Black
Cardinal, Green Congo, Red Congo, Moonlight, Sunlight (tricolor) and Red
Imperial.
The current bestseller, according to Bobby, is
New Orange at P210 each. Moonlight is also catching up. All the others are also
selling well. There are times when they have to sell the medium size at P100
each because the bigger stocks have run out.
In the case of flowering anthuriums, the
bigger ones with flowers sell at P100 but there are smaller sizes with flowers
that may sell for just P50. The varieties include Small Talk Red, Small Talk
Salmon, Small Talk Pink, White Queen, Robin J and Red King.
Of
course, one very good reason why May-it Flower Farm can produce high quality
ornamentals is because the plants are grown under a high-tech greenhouse put up
by Bobby’s American brother-in-law whose business in the US was installing watering and climate control systems in greenhouses. At May-it, watering
is by automatic sprinkler system. Also automated is the application of fertilizer.
NEOREGELIAS AT ONLY P150 EACH.
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| FLOWERING ANTHURIUMS AT P100 EACH |
