Hazelyn's Passion: Cactus and Succulents

For some people, cactus is considered an unfortunate plant because of its prickly spines. But not for Hazelyn Guerrero of Bacolod City who has probably more than a thousand plants both in her home in Bacolod City and in her farm in Sitio Mambucano, Brgy. Cabatangan, Talisay City, Negros Occidental. "I've known of people who have been unlucky in their personal or family lives and yet, they don't have single cactus plant," Hazelyn sadly notes. She also mentions that she has a lot of Chinese customers who even believe otherwise. As we all know, the Chinese are very keen observers of customs and traditions.

So as we usher in this New Year, this is an appropriate feature to dispel the superstitions that cloud the beauty of these unique plants and that prevent plant lovers from collecting them for fear of the mystery that's connected with it.

Hazelyn had been actively collecting cacti and succulents for the last 20 years. She continues her acquisition but she has already stopped counting because she couldn't keep track of how many kinds she already has. She explains that the general term for these dessert plants are succulents because their bodies can hold water. However, those that have spines are commonly known as the cacti and those that have smooth juicy parts are called succulents.

As a young child, Hazelyn recalls that her first cactus encounter was during the days she spent at her maternal grandmother's greenhouse where the latter kept a more famous variety better known as Queen of the Night. When it was time for the plant to bloom, they would wait patiently into the night just to catch a glimpse of this elusive blossom as well as a whiff of its unique perfume.

But Hazelyn only started her collection when she became a housewife. "I was getting bored doing nothing but household chores. I wanted an activity that can entertain me," she narrates. But she was constrained with lack of space at their nesting place so she thought of the small cactus plants that she may collect by the pots. Thus was the start of her small collection that eventually became a relentless search for new varieties. She often bought new plants in garden shows of in her travels around the country and abroad. Sometimes she would find varieties from other people's gardens and she would offer to buy them. If these were not up for sale, she would come back and offer a bargain of plants that the owner could not refuse. "I just couldn't take no for an answer," she laughingly recalls. She would go to great lengths just to get the variety that she doesn't have yet. But she is yet to visit Kevin Belmonte's collection in Manila, which she has been dying to see for a long time now but doesn't get the chance.

Going around her succulents green house is like a maze of prickly walls ready to sting with one wrong move. But oftentimes, Hazelyn would stop and exclaim, "Ka-guapa! (Beautiful!)," and ask that a picture be taken of the plant that caught her fancy. At the center of her greenhouse, she has arranged her large barrel type plants and one friend noted that the layout looked like the tall buildings of Manhattan in New York.

Hazelyn then learned to propagate her plants either through plantlets, cuttings, and seeds. She soon sold her plants in garden shows and has slowly made a name for her comprehensive collection of cacti and succulents. But now, she is already a mainstay at the Negros Garden Center where she sells her succulents and other ornamentals all year round. Generally, a pot costs P50 for the more common kinds. Recently, a new demand for her succulents has evolved-as wedding giveaways. During this interview, she was preparing for a shipment of 200 small potted plants to Manila for a wedding reception. As her business continues to grow, she has used her earnings to acquire newer varieties that she can propagate. She has also able to set up her garden farm in Talisay City where she grows other ornamentals, flowering plants, cut flowers, cut foliage, pine trees, and even vegetables.

But one problem that she laments having and that she probably shares with most plant growers is the bureaucratic red tape in importing plants. There is so much hassle and she has experienced confiscation a couple of times for very minor reasons. Nevertheless, this doesn't stop her from pursuing the hobby that she has loved so much and has grown to be a big part of her.