Having Plants and Loving It

Having grown in a household where her parents are plant lovers themselves, it is no wonder that plants, or anything of that sort, have a special place in Maribel Torre's heart. So much so that whenever she travels around the country and abroad, she makes sure to pack her bags with new plant varieties on her return home. Sometimes, she evens gets on a guilt trip upon realizing that she attends to her plants first before her morning devotions.

She has collected so many plant species and has been actively propagating them to beautify her home in Bacolod City. But when people would come to visit her, many of them would ask for a pot or a cutting, so that Maribel eventually thought of making a business out of her hobby.

Thus began her sojourn in the horticulturist's milieu, gathering the newest varieties, propagating them, and retailing them into smaller and more affordable plants. Once the market is saturated with a certain plant kind, Maribel is sure to have something new coming up. Maribel likes anything with flowers and ornamental foliage, but we noticed that she has a special fondness for clinging vines with exotic and colorful flowers that are mostly blue or purple. These climbers are especially prominent in her garden where she has installed trellises of different shapes and sizes for her plants to saturate.

At present, Maribel is propagating 30 colors of water lilies that she has imported from Bangkok. She grows them in several ponds at her farm just across her home, and each pond is labeled according to the colors of the flowers. She is also specializing in the variegated bougainvillea with magnificent flower color combinations that she sells for about P3,500 per plant. Aside from these flowers, she also has a liking for topiaries, which are not necessarily bonsais, just small trees that she trims for specific shapes. She sells her plants during occasional garden shows as well as at the Negros Garden Center in Bacolod City, where they display her plants all year round. She also does some landscaping for friends and some offices, but she is not quite confident about it, especially designing for big spaces. But of course, her many clients are to be the judge of that.

Surprisingly, Maribel does not keep an accounting of her business, but she knows that it is earning its keep. Whatever she's earning is enough to sustain her farm, her personal garden, and her never-ending appetite for plants. And she may also have a little extra on the side. She is also fortunate to have the support of her husband Joaquin "Wax" Torre, a prominent figure in the medical industry and the political field, who has also eventually developed an interest in plant collecting. "He is even the one who sometimes encourages me to buy certain plants as long as I can propagate them," Maribel beams.

Maribel has such a comprehensive collection of flora and other ornamental plants that a half-day tour around her barely a hectare farm is already a cramped schedule. There's just so much to explore, so much to see, and definitely so much to appreciate. And like a fashion designer, people are sure to regularly expect something new from Green Pastures Gardens by Maribel Torre.