Cee’s Flower of the Day: Outside Baclaran Church

Self flew back to Manila last night, just in time to catch Wednesday devotions at Baclaran Church.

Her family used to live in Malate, just around the corner from Baclaran Church, and this is where she and her faily used to attend Sunday mass.

Since then, Baclaran Church has grown in stature and has become a pilgrimage site for devotees of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. The last time she was here, she was with Dear Departed Mum. The church was packed with people crawling to the altar on their knees. Since then, they’ve banned this particular form of devotion and the atmosphere is much less chaotic.

Just outside the church is a shrine to St. Thérese of Lisieux, enclosed by an iron fence. Today, the statue of St. Therese was draped in flowers. There was a beautiful bouquet of roses and lavender hanging to the right.

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Cee’s Flower of the Day: Flowers for Tita Gloria, on her 95th Birthday

Self flew to Bacolod for this. Her Tita Gloria, the last surviving member of her father’s generation, who married self’s uncle Mario when she was just 18, turned 95 on 17 April. There was a big celebration to mark the occasion. Self was so glad she was able to make it!

The theme of the party was “Hawai’ian” so everyone wore printed shirts and dresses and were given leis.

Tita Gloria’s daughters-in-law ordered the beautiful flower arrangement.

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Flower Bed, Filoli

A few weeks ago, self, her friend Lillian, and Lillian’s husband Bruno paid a visit to Filoli. We saw tulips galore! In pots, in the ground, everywhere!

Here’s what one of their flower beds looked like:

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Cee’s Flower of the Day: Golden Trumpet

Another flower that was growing near the Villanueva mausoleum in Bacolod City Cemetery:

I wasn’t sure what the name of the flower was, so I asked for help on FB and the answer came from, of all places, Belfast, via artist Clinton Kirkpatrick:

Golden Trumpet

Otherwise known as:

Yellow Bell * Buttercup Flower * Brownbud * Golden Allamanda

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Cee’s Flower of the Day: Gumamela (Hibiscus)

Monday, self was visiting her cousin Anabel’s farm, in Murcia. That was where she spotted this spectacular hibiscus (She grew up knowing it as gumamela)

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Cee’s Flower of the Day: Container Gardening, Philippine Style

Today, self went to visit the site of the former Santa Fe Resorts, which was built by her grandfather in the 1930s, in Barangay Granada, a short distance from Bacolod City. It was the first-ever resort built in the central Philippines, and was in continuous operation until two years ago, when it was sold.

Her cousin Anabel managed to salvage a little collection of plants from the resort before it closed. Today, when self visited the site, she saw a row of discarded tires, now re-cycled into containers for growing carnations.

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Cee’s Flower of the Day: Santan

Self is sure dear blog readers are relieved that this is not another post from The Escape Artist — not exactly the most edifying reading material, at least not for Holy Week! However, reading it does make self appreciate how great the struggle was, way back then, and how we must never forget.

Today, she asked a cousin to take her to her father’s grave in the Bacolod City Cemetery. No one else was around, just us two. Her father’s grave was in the same niche as that of his brother, Tomas Claudio, who died eight months before her father was born. As children, we used to scare each other by saying the body of this unfortunate brother was buried under one of the marble bathtubs in the Daku Balay.

Around the mausoleum was a bush of santan. That’s what self grew up calling this flower, though she is sure that’s not its botanical name. A much showier yellow flower was growing alongside, but it’s the santan she remembers most clearly: as a child she enjoyed sucking the pistils of the flower, one by one.

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Spring at Filoli Gardens

It ia spring, which means Filoli must be full of tulips. Lillian, Bruno and self visited yesterday; oh, the splendor! Filoli is so beautiful in the spring.

Self was in awe. There must have been hundreds of tulips in pots, a dozen at least in each pot. So that’s how they need to be planted: right next to each other, not spaced like self did when she started her daffodils.

The pots were massed on every step, every corner, every square garden plot. Some arrangements were white and pink, some were in shades of lavender and purple (why are there no blue tulips?). She took lots of pictures of the massed pots.

Alas, self learned that just because massed tulips look great, does not mean that pointing and clicking will lead to equally great shots. The ones that came out best were the ones she took of the pots on the side terrace of the main house, around mid-afternoon. Luckily, the rain held off until today. It was a gorgeous day.

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TIP: Tempting as it may be to spend all your time in the gardens, don’t skip the main house. It is wonderful to see the rooms and imagine yourself in a bygone era (the guide yesterday afternoon, Megan, was only too happy to answer our questions about the artwork, especially one black-lacquer, twelve-panel coromandel screen in the main hallway)

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Cee’s Flower of the Day: Side Yard Miscellany

Self’s side yard is pretty neglected these days. The fence is split in a lot of places, and she has no privacy. When she saves up enough, she’ll get a new fence. Every spring, plants just show up. Next to the osteospermum are these gorgeous, tiny, vibrant flowers whose name she keeps forgetting. They just show up, every spring, even though she never waters and never fertilizes.

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Cee’s Flower of the Day: Osteospermum (African Daisy)

One good thing about the constant rain of the past few months is that flowers are so vibrant! Self’s side yard, where she hardly spends any time, has these pretty little flowers, osteospermum.

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