Leon dampens flower sales in Baguio

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — The sales of cut flowers like roses, anthuriums and chrysanthemums had been slow in the summer capital as of Wednesday despite having enough supply in time for “Undas”—the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ commemoration, partly due to the unpredictable weather caused by Super typhoon Leon (international name: Kong-rey).

However, Albay province, which was battered last week by Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (Trami), was in short supply of cut flowers as vendors did not receive the blooms they usually get from Baguio because of the flooded highway in Camarines Sur and the locally-grown ones were destroyed by floods, causing a sharp rise in prices.

With a rainy weekend forecast for Undas, locals and tourists were apparently hesitant to visit temporary flower stalls set up at Malcolm Square in the city’s downtown area.

READ: Wet, windy ‘Undas’ seen as Leon approaches

A few buyers, mostly students heading home for the holiday break, picked up bundles of white carnations for P100 and intricately arranged flower baskets featuring red anthuriums for P500.

Despite the monsoon rains and the recent exit of Kristine, flower supplies remain steady, said lawyer Jennilyn Dawayan, director of the Department of Agriculture in the Cordillera.

Mountain farms in Benguet—known for their cool climate conducive to both vegetable and flower cultivation—have continued to produce large quantities of cut flowers.

Early harvests

As of September, flower-producing towns in Benguet, including Atok, Buguias, and Kibungan, have harvested over 5.093 million dozens of flowers, Dawayan reported on Wednesday.

Benguet, already a major source of salad vegetables, also produces an average of 30 million metric tons of fresh flowers annually, with peak demand periods around Undas, the December holidays and Valentine’s Day.

In September alone, Benguet’s towns of La Trinidad, Tuba and Tublay produced 610,049 dozen roses, with La Trinidad leading with 493,762 dozen.

These municipalities, along with others like Bokod, Buguias and Itogon, also supplied markets with 91,368 dozen of gladiolas, 37,956 dozen of white calla lilies and 3.455 million dozen of chrysanthemums, most of which were transported to Dangwa flower market in Manila.

Benguet’s flower farms also cultivate a wide range of blooms, including anthuriums, baby’s breath, carnations, asters and sunflowers.

Spared by storm

Dawayan noted the flower gardens were largely spared by Kristine. But the storm affected 303.49 hectares of farmland, including 228.8 ha of rice fields and 74.59 ha of high-value crops, amounting to a P19.8 million loss.

Before Kristine’s arrival, farmers managed to harvest 28,049 metric tons of rice.

But in Albay’s Daraga town, Wenny Mantes, 54, who typically harvests 500 kilos of baby’s breath each October, lost about P20,000 when portions of her farm in the town’s Barangay Matnog were flooded on Oct. 21.

“Some of the flowers wilted after being soaked in floodwaters that flowed through the river canal,” Mantes, a florist of 30 years who also supplies flowers to vendors at the Legazpi City public market, told the Inquirer on Wednesday.

Price spike

Mantes said she has raised the price of her flower arrangements from P250 to P350 due to limited supplies.

Raquel Loreno, 41, noted they only received bulk supplies on Tuesday, as most deliveries from Baguio City were delayed by flooding along highways in Camarines Sur.

She said only two of the four boxes of Malaysian Mums she ordered have arrived, for P500 per bundle, up from the usual P450.

Flooding along the Maharlika Highway in the towns of San Fernando and Milaor in Camarines Sur prevented buses, heavy vehicles, and trucks carrying essentials from traveling until traffic eased on Oct. 25.