THE INDESCTRUCTIBLE SUCCULENT PLANTS LOVER
I first met CSSP’s official architect cum landscapist the very first time I attended and eventually joined the Cactus & Succulent Society of the Philippines, Inc. 12 November, 2006.
After the meeting, Kuya Bimbo or officially Jesus Vergara, invited me to come over his house and visit his garden but I was so shocked that a very friendly member who only met me this moment would open the gates of his abode to me wholeheartedly. Nevertheless I declined.
That was a mistake I never forgot and today, whenever Kuya Bimbo opens his house to me for a private visit or as venue for CSSP meetings, I never ever turn down the opportunity. It was his “Sky Garden
Kuya Bimbo has been collecting succulents since the 1970’s (according to our Chairman Kevin Belmonte in his Philippine Star article about the CSSP’s participation in the very first Flora Filipina dated February 25, 2006, pages E1 and E2) and because of his knowledge and sagacity in succulent rearing, he is already almost in his 9th year as a board member in the organisation.
This man always extends his hands to help the CSSP set up its booth in the numerous garden and plant exhibits of the Philippines
Because of his architectural sagesse in setting up the plants for exhibit, CSSP garnered the most number of awards during the Horticultural Society of the Philippines
Also, a trophy was awarded to CSSP’s Cactus and Succulent Booth at the first Flora Filipina Internal Exposition held in Intramuros, Manila from February 26 up to March 3, 2006. The CSSP booth which he commandeered was 32 square kilometres inside the ruins of an old church. He conceptualized our booth as a blend of Filipino and Mexican cultures perfect for the ambiance that the place naturally exudes. Erected bamboo towers in thabo blue-coloured blue, green and white on top represented the Moorish style of Mindanao . To high light the old houses in the Visayan region, he used lattice boards with walls in terra cotta just like they were during the Spanish era. Narra (Pterocarpus indicus) woodcarving bears distinct Mexican influence, heavy carved canopy beds from Bulacan like the papag in the garden also have unmistakable Mexican influence. Meanwhile, the bangko, small hallway tables and loveseat chairs are reminiscent of Balinese styles.
I’ll always remember Kuya Bimbo as a very zany person. No one defeats his whacky jokes! Also for his small to medium potted plants that never will fall off from their pots! Turn them upside down, incline them, roll them, water them then juggle them still they will all stay in place but that is a secret of him I’ll keep until the day I die!
During my first CSSP Christmas Party attendance in 2005, he was selling some of his plants and I bought around two or three for the more-than-down-to-earth price of Php 25.00! These plants are still with me and I’ve even already exhibited one of them during the 2009 CSSP Garden Show and Exhibit to which Kuya Kevin (CSSP Chairman) commented, “This plant is so well potted and exhibited!” Now, that Euphorbia decaryi Iexhibited is around nine plants-strong from the original mother plant that I bought.
Another unforgettable plant I bought from him-the most expensive I bought from Kuya Bimbo-is a Php 250.00 single-headed Lophophora diffusa also in 2005 but still survives. It has outlive the swarm of ants, the aphids, scales, mealy bugs, tasting of rats, pricking of bird beaks, endured heat, drought, wetness, and torrential downpours, experienced growing in the windowsill inside the house, outside the house with other succulent plants that shaded it heavily before, fell from its pot several times and now happily growing and very plump as a hanging plant in my Mandaluyong Tengoku no Kokoro-Hagetaka garden!
Kuya Bimbo’s garden is aptly christened “Bimbo’s Sky Garden” by our Chairman Kevin G. Belmonte. Here he has propagated thousands of cacti and succulents mainly Agaves, Sansevierias, and Tillandsias. He has also somewhat profited from selling offsets and pups from his propagations.
Recently he donated a lot of his Agaves and other succulent plants to the Cacti and Succulent Botanical Garden in the Halamanan ng Mga Bulaklak at the Quezon Memorial Circle as well as helped in the artistic/architectural planting and designing of the said botanical garden. This man reserves a thousand kudos!
His recent craze is to make bonsai out of some suitable succulent plants and also collecting Ficus species that he also crafts into bonsai plants!
Another passion of this agave-cum-aloe-cum-tillandsia sage is drawing the plants he takes very good care of specially when they are in flower. His canvasses are exact replicas of the living plants he has. That is the reason why his plants and drawings/paintings are ever popular to the members of the CSSP and to his friends even newly met acquaintances who have seen his works of art.
Soon Kuya Bimbo shall be registering the Agave hybrid he has created in the National Seed Industry Council of the Bureau of Plant Industry wherein the late Dr. Simeona V. Siar is head of the Ornamentals Technical Work Group. This Agave hybrid has broad variegated leaves with saw-like teeth on both leaf edges (serrated) that are around one to two inches apart from one another. He has even already produced a maturing pup!
Truly, a plant reared by Kuya Bimbo is indestructible!!!
The Master Architect Bimbo Vergara again shone brilliantly
through his perfect execution of the CSSP Exhibit at the Horticultural Society
of the Philippines 2012 Garden Show.
“Modern Gardening” was the chosen theme for this year’s show
and Kuya Bimbo was so ingenious in creating a modern design out of antique
furniture by executing an unorthodox art-noveau: circular structures that could
be highly utilised by garden lovers. The
top of these circular structures could be used to feature a large plant that
the owner would like to give emphasis and be a good conversation piece.
Since the circular pergola-like art-noveau is roofed, it
could serve as shelter for delicate plants like cacti and succulents from the torrential
rains or be furnished with hammock, pillows, a table or something else and
presto! A unique place where the weary
soul can relax.
The wooden grills and the roof eaves can accommodate hanging
plants whose cultures require better ventilation.
A part of modern succulent gardening is also featured when
he used lawn grass incorporating amidst them succulent plants that tolerates
moderate to heavy watering such as Sansevierias, Adeniums, Plumerias,
Kalanchoes, Opuntias, Euphorbias, etc.
Underneath the lawn grass media of various materials could be used to
ensure maximum drainage and prevent the plants from having wet feet.
Kua Bimbo chose the centre of the exhibit area where he did
his landscaping. The effect was really
surreal. Amidst the ornamental landscape
around that used almost the same media materials and plants, a succulent garden
would stand out because of the natural architectural beauty of these group of
plants!
Sir Nanding Aurigue, a researcher and holticulturist
acquaintance, introduced me to his plant enthusiast friends, the couple John
and Nerissa Smith-Dodsworth from Koromandel Peninsula, New Zealand. John is a pteridologist who had already
published three books on ferns in his home country and Nerissa is a Filipina
that works in one of the well-known garden stores in New Zealand. I toured and interpreted to them the concept
behind the CSSP landscape exhibit which they really found matchless and so they
brought home with them hundreds of pictures of it!
During Flora Filipina III, an event only held every three or
four years, another feat was accomplished by Kua Bimbo. He never runs out of ideas. His designs are always refreshing to the eyes
and to the mind.
The theme of the third Flora is “Gardening is More Fun at
Flora”, emulating the newest tourism promotion of the Philippines: “It’s More
Fun in the Philippines”. I enjoyed and
highly appreciated the exhibits as they represented the various provinces of
the Philippines. Abra, Palawan,
Pangasinan, Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Negros Occidental, Zamboanga, and
Davao were all regally presented as well as Bacolod City and Boracay which were
the only two cities represented separately.
Kua Bimbo did not subscribed to this regional representation
but rather made a landscaping that would singularly cater to the tastes of
Filipino plant lovers wherever they might be.
This time, he was in tandem with Botchik Canicula, our fellow CSSP
member and chef by profession in making a landscape exhibit. Botchik doesn’t distinguish or categorise the
plants he takes care of but mostly they are ornamental. He’s also into commercial growing that’s why
he has a lot of beautiful cultivars.
When their landscape was done, it was a bizarre and odd
marriage of ferns, Aglaonemas, Neoregelias,
Sansevierias, Agaves, Philodendrons, Tillandsias, Cacti, Euphorbias, and
other plants you never expected to be all in one place exhibited happily beside
each other. The media was a little bit
elevated and that is one way of making the drainage better for the succulents
and encouraging ventilation in the plants’ root region.
The best thing about this set up is that the plants can
exhibit their distinguishing features without competing with each other for
attention-a truly harmonious blend.
Aglaonemas have colourful leaves, Philodendrons have perforated leaves
and massive bodies, the ferns that were exhibited have prominent variegation
and unusual leaf forms, the succulents blend in with their architectural beauty
and some curious-looking flowers.
Architect Bimbo used again his circular pergola but this
time, he placed wooden panels that were strategically placed to look as if they
open wider than the one in front of them giving one the idea of wings spread on
either side.
It was a delight when I saw the plants he was selling they
were labeled with the names of the countries where they have originated. Kua Bimbo used the old and colonial names of
the countries! Ever heard of Bechuanaland,
Basutoland, Nyasaland, Tanganyika, and French Territory of the Afars and
Issas? Today these are the sovereign
countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania, and Djibouti.
He also sold cute porcelain pots and dishes and I was not
able to resist buying several of them for my own charges!
The most recent landscape exhibit he engaged in was at the
Philippine Alliance of Bonsai and Suiseki (PABS) Exhibit May 2012.
This time, it was an exhibit that was totally radical: there
was more garden art paraphernalia and the plants became the background instead
of being the centerpiece as was the common practice. There were multi-layered wooden stands for
plants but around one to three plants were shown per layer only and these were
interspersed with suiseki that brings out the beauty of the plants
further. He also used a retinue of
wooden furniture suggesting the ideal provincial setting of satisfaction and
healthy living that all Filipinos dream of.
There were chairs, tables, stands of different designs, round woven
baskets and sabah bananas on a sarong and a Buddha head that were all
cohesively utilised and the result was stupendous!
The plants he used were those he was training to become
bonsai or do already look like bonsai like his succulent Euphorbia golisana
tree, the dried bonsai-looking driftwood that was cropped with Tillandsia
adriana all over to serve as its “leaves” making the driftwood come alive
again, the caudexed Adenium obesum that he has propagated over the time, some
Sansevierias and Opuntias to serve as background and side designs.
But the main attraction of his exhibit is the stones which
he himself had hand-painted. They draw
every visitor’s attention and passed for real small bonsai plants if not
carefully gazed upon.
Again he sold some of his plant propagations, furniture, and
garden paraphernalia which are all highly irresistible and highly covetable.
Recently Kuya Bimbo won in the following categories at the 2013 PHS Exhibit/Show: Best Cactus for his Crested Cereus, 2nd place for his Columnar Cactus, 2nd place in Succulents for his Agave, 3rd place in Succulents too for another of his Agave, and five more special prizes for his succulent plants. Congratulations to my good and close friend, the architect and golden boy, Bimbo Vergara!
Sporting his white hairs proudly during the Philippine Orchid Society 2013 held last August 30 until September 9, 2013, this down-to-earth man bagged two major awards: Best Cactus in Show for his Euphorbia stenoclada and Best Succulent in Show for his Agave potatorum 'Kishoukan'.
At his commercial booth,
he "hawks" unique items such as antique Chinese porcelain wares,
glazed wares, and his unique custom-made wooden furniture which
are irresistible for anybody wanting to make their houses the talk of the
town!
His latest offerings are kusamono or plants in
very small pots which are so cute! He also have episcias in tray dishes which
are perfect centerpieces in any table.