“Why flowering trees and why not fruit trees? You can’t eat those flowers.”

Mom asked me this question last year when she saw the labels on the polybags where I’m growing the seeds of the flowering trees. Well, Mom had a point. So, I just smiled.

But in my head, the answer was simple: the pollinators. It is because of these pollinators that’s why I am planting the flowering trees. No pollinators, no fruits, no food. These small creatures typically go unnoticed, but they actually play a vital role in our environment.

But if you’re going to ask me, why not choose flowering plants instead? I had climate change in mind when I thought about what type of plants to propagate on our farm. The probability of delicate flowering plants surviving the effects of climate change as it worsens year after year will be very low.

Flowering trees, on the one hand, have deep root systems and will have better chances of surviving periods of extended drought and strong typhoons. They will also provide sufficient shade when intercropping and will serve as a home to other species in the ecosystem. Not to mention that their beautiful flowers are such a lovely sight to behold, especially if there are plenty of them.

Let The Flowers Bloom

Last year, I bought 8 kinds of seeds of different flowering trees before coming to Bicol. Out of the 8 flowering trees I planted, I was able to successfully propagate only 3 of them. They are the Palawan Cherry Blossoms, Fire Tree (a favorite home of fireflies), and Golden Shower.

Only 11 of the 15 seeds germinated, and we transplanted them last week on the farm. As much as I would like to plant a thousand of these trees now, I really don’t have much of an option. Because we need to take into consideration first where we will plant them inside the farm for future landscaping purposes.

These are tall and huge trees that should be planted 1-2 meters apart. I intend to grow only a few for each kind so it will be easier to get seeds once we propagate them later on.

God Makes Them Grow

Upon checking them yesterday, so far all of them were doing well except for the Golden Showers. I am praying the Golden Showers will survive. If not, that means I have to try propagating them again and again.

In every project of mine, I make sure I follow it through from start to finish even if I fail somewhere along the process. This way, I get to maximize my assessment on where I made a mistake and what areas I need to improve on to get my desired results next time.

By the way, the province of Sorsogon here in Bicol currently has a “1 Million Trees Challenge,” which is part of the LGU’s 7k Program. It is my prayer that the local government will not just target planting 1 million trees, but will also make sure that all 1 million trees will grow, survive, and thrive so generations after generations will benefit from them.

Back to the farm, I got a little bored during the latter part of the day yesterday so I decided to drive our old Innova around and started circling our Mango trees. When Dad saw me, he suggested I drive to the bushy part to flatten the tall weeds (I don’t see the importance of this prior to mowing, sorry Dad 😃) because he was planning on having them mowed later that afternoon.

Unfortunately, heavy rains poured so Dad had to postpone mowing the lawn. The good thing though was that somehow a huge portion of the weeds were flattened.

If I know how to drift, I would have drifted the Innova to make sure all the weeds really flattened out. But well, drifting an automatic car is quite a challenge, and I know Dad will make me walk home should I decide to do it. lol Just a little trivia about me, I have a need for speed that’s why I don’t drive. 😀

I’m a very impatient driver, and if you see a car that’s parked diagonally and all the rest of the cars are parked vertically, that’s probably mine. lol I think I was born to drive main battle tanks so I can easily ram it anywhere should the need arise. 😂

A Flowery Road

But thank God, there were no scratches and dents in any of our cars while I was the driver. That means I’m still a good driver, right? If my Mom’s still here though and saw me driving around in circles at a fast speed, I would’ve gotten about an hour long of her reminders and “whatnots” (love you, Mom).

So, let’s try to connect driving and the 1 million trees, shall we? lol Just try to envision driving down a winding road lined up with flowering trees. Ah yes, that would be such a splendid and a pretty romantic sight, don’t you think? I would love to see this as a reality one day, God willing, one tree at a time. ❤

“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:26