Landscapers meet, compete

Landscapers meet, compete
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:50:00 02/15/2009

Filed Under: Construction & Property, Economy and Business and Finance

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—At 45, Simplicio “Simple” Sawey, has remained single partly because he already is married to his passion—landscaping.

“Landscaping and propagating and buying and selling plants are my bread and butter,” says Sawey, a native of Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, who quit an education course when he had only a year left to finish it.

For Sawey, dropping out of college didn’t mean that he would forever be tied to a blue-collar job. Instead, he let his creativity run loose and wound up with a livelihood to which he is totally devoted.

Stress relief

Edna Dollaga, a government employee and a mother, also shares Sawey’s passion for landscaping. But she considers it more of a hobby that relieves her of stress from work.

“I can say that I have less wrinkles than many women my age because of the stress-relieving effect of the orchids and other plants I water each morning,” she says.

But landscaping, as Dollaga has found out, can also be profitable.

Another landscaping hobbyist is Rose Cuilan, an entrepreneur who shares her passion with her husband. Her husband propagates white anthuriums and other plants, including balete, which form part of Cuilan’s landscaping work.

Like Dollaga, Cuilan gets delighted, while the stress of work flows out of her, “as I get to encounter plants with blooming flowers.”

Sawey, Dollaga and Cuilan are among artists competing in a landscaping event under “Market Encounter,” one of the features of the Panagbenga (Baguio Flower Festival).

Extra income

Market Encounter at Burnham Park also offers landscape artists the chance to generate income by allowing them to put up stalls at the park where they can sell plants.

Through Market Encounter, potential clients may get to meet talented hobbyists and landscape artists to help them spruce up their gardens.

The landscaping entries Sawey had submitted in past competitions, for instance, did not only catch the eye of local clients but also resort owners from as far away as Marinduque and other provinces.

The landscaping tilt has two categories: The open and Cordillera.

Under the open category, the landscape artist can unleash her creativity, making use not only local but foreign designs as well.

The second category involves designs patterned after the Cordillera landscape. Apart from the mix of perennial and non-perennial plants, a common thread ties the 11 entries under the Cordillera category—the integration of stone walls that reflect the age-old engineering skills applied on the rice terraces in the region.

Rocks and stones

But the 14 entries under the open category also has something in common with those vying under the Cordillera category: The use of rocks and stones.

“Rocks and stones really play a big part in landscaping,” says Sawey, who has submitted entries in both categories.

Almost all the entries in the two categories also incorporate water—a waterfall or a spring in the Cordillera category, and gushing fountains or wishing wells in the open category.

Salvaged driftwood and old pieces of lumber have also found comfort among the plants in the various landscape entries.

Organized as the Panagbenga Society Landscapers Association, the landscapers and plant enthusiasts understand a common language—plant taxonomy. And in knowing each plant species or variety, they have come to know how to make the right mix of plants in a landscape.

Landscaping and trading plants at an orchidarium in Burnham Park occupy a great part of Sawey’s life and art.

He says he feels fulfillment in pursuing his passion, which also allows him to earn enough to send poor but talented relatives to school.

For Dollaga, landscaping, even as a hobby, has helped her augment her income as a government worker in these hard times.

Since she also incorporates white anthuriums in her landscape entries, Cuilan is promoting the rare plant, which she and her husband propagate in a greenhouse. The Cuilan couple supplies white anthuriums to regular customers in Metro Manila.

The three landscapers, and other participating artists, tend to shy from discussing the income they generate in creating art.

But lawyer Damaso Bangaoet, a Market Encounter coordinator and one of the founders of Panagbenga, pointed to a brand new vehicle parked at Burnham Park, and tells the Inquirer: “Katas ng landscaping yan (That vehicle came from a landscaper’s earnings).”