The members of the Ayala Alabang Village Garden Club recently held their annual garden show titled “Cascading Garden in a Spa.” This year’s theme focused on the garden as a healing factor in the preservation of health.

The event was held at Narra Park in Ayala Alabang Village. It opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Yuko Ishikawa, wife of the Japanese ambassador to the Philippines, and Rufina Joaquin, wife of Ayala Alabang Village Association (AAVA) president Epifanio Joaquin. Joy Balatbat, president of the garden club, and Ria Almendral, chair of the garden show this year, presented them with baskets of chrysanthemums.

The special guests were then given a brief tour of the exhibit. Joaquin and Ishikawa happily posed for photographs with club members, the pocket gardens serving as backdrops.

Waterfall detail

Six of the club’s competing teams vied for this year’s awards, including Best Cascading Plant and Best Ornamental Plant.
The gardens were products of the imagination of the club’s members. The winning team, led by Cel Bernardo, crafted a Japanese-style spa designed by one of its members, architect Mel Santos. It included two waterfalls flowing into several quaint-looking wooden boxes built against a wall in cascading fashion. The water was powered by a strong submersible pump.

The group also used bromeliads, tillandsias, all kinds of ferns, ground orchids, bulbs and grass to create a three-dimensional effect.

There were incentives for members to demonstrate their gardening skills. Cecille May’s Clerodendron Indian Beads won the Best Cascading Plant Award. The Best Ornamental Plant was a pot of bougainvillea that had trishaded blooms in lavender. It belonged to Jojo Medina.

The guests sat down at tables that had bamboo centerpieces holding this season’s flowers and foliage in full color. The bamboo table decoration was patterned after the stage backdrop of bamboo fountains.

Before the sumptuous meal was served, a short program opened with a lively dance number rendered by members Lily Agamata, Emely Stewart and Mia Ibarra. All eyes and ears were on young musician John Benedict Oliveros, who played his bamboo flute before a very appreciative audience.

The fine evening was then capped with a Pinoy meal of pancit luglog, lumpiang ubod and pan de sal with chorizo and carabao cheese.