GARDEN SHOW & PLANT SALE. Some of the country’s leading producers of ornamental plants will showcase their products at the First AANI Garden Show and Plant Sale at the FTI Complex, beside AANI Weekend Market, Taguig, Metro Manila.
Leading the sellers will be King Louis Flowers and Plants, the country’s biggest producer of cut flowers and potted ornamental plants. Another is Vic Chin Jr. of Calamba City who produces some of the nicest flowering ornamentals. Many growers from Laguna, Metro Manila, Cavite and others will also participate.
Robin Gamboa, a landscape designer and floral arranger, will also showcase his compositions of a breakfast nook and a garden shower room. He will also conduct flower arrangement demonstrations throughout the duration of the gardening event.
Those interested to participate in the affair may call Pol Rubia at tel. 839-1772 or 839-1782 for more information.
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DRAGON FRUIT FROM SEED. You can plant the tiny seeds from your favorite dragon fruit. They easily germinate but are quite slow growers. Four-year-old dragon fruit plants grown from seed at the Institute of Plant Breeding in Los Baños are only about a foot tall. It is much easier to propagate the plant from cuttings. Use a sandy rooting medium.
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BAG YOUR BALIMBING. While your favorite balimbing fruits are still small (about two to three inches long) bag them using paper bags. That will protect them from fruit flies which produce those small "worms" inside the fruits, rendering them inedible. The fruit flies deposit their eggs on the fruit and when these hatch, these are the "worms" that eat the flesh of your balimbing.
Fruit flies infest many other crops, including caimito, guava, patola, papaya and a lot more. In Taiwan, balimbing growers prune their trees, allowing only the branches to develop to a height that persons standing on the ground can reach so that bagging will be easy.
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GARDENING ON RADIO. Tune in to radio station DWWW, 774 on the AM band, every Sunday from 4:30 to 7 o’clock in the morning. The radio program "Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura" has a segment called "Mag-Garden Tayo With Zac Sarian" which features the latest developments in ornamental horticulture, trends in the plant business, interesting garden people, gardening events such as shows, bazaars and many others.
