Chito Bertol

“Gardens are not made by singing,
‘Oh, how beautiful!’
And sitting in the shade.” — Rudyard Kipling

My garden in Tagaytay is growing nicely. Thank you, soil, sun, rain, and dewdrops!.

With the occasional showers that April traditionally brings and the “magsasaka” (farmer) touch of Dodong, I have a blooming  “rosal” bush, a jasmine vine clambering over an arch, angel eyes, yellow bells, “mil-flores," ground orchids,  and other  plants (whose names I don’t know but are pretty to me).

It’s an informal, two-tiered garden, and the plants selected to grow there were chosen on whims by Hubby and me. As I wrote before in this corner, “love grows in my garden,” and more important, anyone who comes to visit always lingers on our stone bench feeling “cocooned” and at peace. Hubby pruned, cut and directed Dodong, up until he was already in a wheelchair and minus seventy pounds.

Truly, as an anonymous author wrote, “ a garden is a form of autobiography.” I know mine is.

* * *

Thirty years ago, I met a “gardener” I now pay tribute to – Luisito “Chito” Bertol  who turned 67 years old last April 14. He headed what was then a government-created agency, the Manila Seedling Bank, with a mandate to help care for the county’s environment through reforestation, seed propagation, and conservation of our natural resources.

He was an accountant by profession and a dedicated gardener in his heart. He has guided the MSB through the  years of changes in the administrations and the contraction of the agency, depending on the environmental concerns of the powers that be.

Today, the MSB is an Environmental Center, serving as Quezon City’s  “lung” on its original area, the corner of EDSA and Commonwealth Avenue. It had been threatened with eviction during Estrada’s days with  businessmen pressuring City Hall to make room for more malls!

But nowadays, the MSB Environmental Center is staying put, serving its institutional and private clients with its programs and nursery outlets like  King Louis Gardens, The Flower Mart, Purificacion Orchids, Vic’s Orchids, Fuenstespina, Bonsai Park, Mega Orchids, Green 2000, and Jose Villa Garden. They offer wholesale and retail plants, garden equipment, and landscaping services as well as cut flowers and plants.

I love visiting the center and haggling for ornamental plants. I was able to buy a fountain set there that we installed in Bella Vista.

The center, of course, does more that just sell ornamentals and garden accessories. It is a haven for those who want to “forest” their properties, big or small. Chito estimates that the center has planted some 14 million nurse tree seedlings  like the ipil-ipil, acacia mangium, and A. auriculiformis as well as three million mahogany, narra, molave, and other indigenous forest and fruit species.

He also offers services like tree-balling, pruning, composting, and charcoal-making from the twigs harvested from pruning jobs.

The MSB center , ironically, is not utilized properly by government agencies that could use help in reforestation and seed culture like the DENR but it uses its research facilities and expertise in those agencies who go to them.

For instance, for the  national headquarters of the Boys Scouts of the Philippines, Chito and his staff put up a greenhouse and model garden to be replicated in other BSP properties. They aided in the reforestation of the La Mesa watershed and the PCSO Quezon City property and helped put up the campus park in Miriam college.

Chito can really be proud of all the “gardens” he has helped to flower and bear fruit. He credits his lean and dedicated staff for the continuing power and success of the MDB. But really,  I  believe that  it’s his unstinting commitment to “green” the country that makes the center thrive!

Chito is a Saint Padre Pio devotee. He also hosts a weekly radio show that plays nothing but Elvis music.

That’s the other side of Chito, the compleat gardener. He’s the founder of the Elvis Presley Fan Club of the Philippines, and yes, he sings like The King, too! His Elvis memorabilia and original records are something to see. 

He has visited my garden in Bella Vista and gifted me with ornamental plants on special occasions. His verdict: “I love your garden! It feels so welcoming!”

Now, that accolade from Chito is worth the hours of care we put into my garden!

“The best place to search for  God is in a garden. You can dig for Him there.” ­- George Benard Shaw.