From My Library: Vanishing Treasures...

It's deeply satisfying to know that every once in a while, a scientifically-researched, artfully-photographed, informatively written, brilliant gem of a book about the country comes along. Coinciding with the Philippine Centennial in 1998, the highly-renowned Field Museum of Natural Sciences in Chicago published this handsome yet informative collection of astounding facts about our beloved islands and our even more astonishing flora and fauna. Formerly unpublished data from their extensive on-site researches are presented through new paradigms, like valuing our endemism and biodiversity compared to stereotypical samples like the Galapagos (below), which only became popular because of Charles Darwin's visit. In fact, our archipelago would have been a more staggering laboratory for his studies, and he would have arrived at his evolution theories faster than he did in Ecuador.

It's page after page of plants and animals that populate our few remaining rainforests: from spotted deer to rufous hornbills, glorious Philippine orchids, endemic plants like the Kapa-kapa and the Jade Vine, and even more exotic animals like cloud rats and leopard cats (right). But as the book says, the most precious jewel of all that must be protected, cherished, and treasured is the forest itself.

A truly remarkable find, let me know if you find another copy.

The Return of the Native

There is now a landmark resource book, striking that there has never been a publication, that writes and informs about and advocates planting Philippine Trees! It is not some drab academic material but in fact, an engaging read with evocative stories, accurate and beautiful photography, reliable scientific and practical information, so much that I completed reading it in just one day. It's a valuable storehouse of our natural heritage that each Filipino must have access to. Our local trees and plants make up so much of our identity yet, I bet any man in the street will not even be able to correctly name three local trees in the first place. And to think we have more than 3,600! Even more crucial, 67% of that is endemic, occurring naturally nowhere else in the world but the Philippine Islands.

It's also timely because a lot of good-natured groups and individuals who venture into greening efforts and reforestation are actually planting trees that hardly contribute to our local eco-system. Local tree advocate and blogger Patrick Gozon's story, The Silent Forest is a great read for a start.

I'm fortunate to have been invited to contribute articles and photographs; I wrote about Lipá (yes, it's a tree!) and Lumbang (right), which is the pair of trees I planted in the parking area outside the farm.

From My Library: For the Birds

Now it never occured to me I will ever come across a recipe book to make avian dishes! Gee, the titles one can find in the good old US of A... but, I'm not complaining. A lot of it actually make sense to me but I still cannot help but be amused and find quite preposterous to make a book out of it. I guess the mere fact that I purchased one makes me just as eccentric (and admittedly gullible), hahaha.


Anyway,I will lap up anything that will help increase my bird traffic. The heck, I'll try anything once! Although the birds featured here are North American, a lot of the recipes and its "ingredients" can be transposed to a local tropical setting for our own native species. Now I'll keep this short as I still have to go to the grocery :)

From My Library: Bawa: The Sri Lanka Gardens

I have long been a fan of the Sri Lankan architect, Geoffrey Bawa. One of the reasons is that his designs almost always incorporates plants and landscaping into his structures, which are so organically designed that they look like they grew out of the land. 

Along with his brother Bevis, he unknowingly set a new direction in tropical landscaping, which style evolved through years of experimentation, invention, and a lot of thinking out of the box. Both of them were foreign-educated but came back to what was then Ceylon and started seeing their country and its lush landscape with all its exotic plant life through new eyes.


This book, "Bawa: the Sri Lanka Gardens" showcases their respective estates, Lununganga and Brief. Apparently, both places are still maintained the same way until today, despite the fact that they have both passed away many years ago. I have had a guide book to Sri Lanka for some time now; I should make plans to see these gardens for myself.

From My Library: Tropical Garden Plants

I've had this book for years, I remember buying it in the old free-standing, kiosk-like Bibliarch store outside Power Plant in Rockwell, way before it was Fully Booked. It's a reliable reference to help identify plants and has surprisingly accurate and handy growing tips how to care and propagate. So far, this book has been the most helpful aid to make me understand tropical plants better.

The articles can be quite generic and the photographs tend to illustrate more common ones, but what's impressive is it reads like a well-researched reference guide without sounding scientifically-difficult and still laid-out looking like a simple and casual coffee-table book.

It is also gardener- and landscaper-friendly; the plants are grouped according to its function and blocking in a garden. All flowering trees are on the first section, followed by shrubs and hedges. A chapter is devoted to foliage plants, then ground covers are grouped together later, just as vines.

There is a big section on palms that show the immense variety not just in Southeast Asia but in tropical countries elsewhere, from Egypt to the Caribbean.

This may be out of print already by now; I searched on amazon.com but couldn't find even a used copy. But the author, William Warren came up with a new title in 2006 called Tropical Plants for Home & Garden, still with photographs by Luca Tettoni. It may be just as good.

From My Library: Flora Mirabilis

I would periodically browse through amazon.com's site and window-shop for good deals, enjoying going through some selected pages as if I'm leafing through real books in a bookstore. I'd put them on my shopping cart after  but won't actually purchase until I'm certain someone can bring it here to the Philippines if I have it mailed to family in California. Sometimes, the deal gets taken and their system will replace it with a pricier equivalent.


For some reason, this National Geographic book is one that's been parked for a long time and never made it to the virtual check-out counter. I've not been to the US for some time, for one. I guess I've also just forgotten about it. But to my sheer excitement, I found a clean and marked-down copy some months back in Book Sale in my neighborhood grocery!

It is sumptuously illustrated, with awesome botanical prints in every single turn! It is a romantic gardener's prized book, with rare and delightful visuals that would fascinate you just as much as the plants themselves. Since I had it, I've been trying to get another copy with the intent of tearing off the pages and framing them as wall decór!

The author, Catherine Herbert Howell selects important historical plants that shaped our present culture and lifestyle today: wheat, rice, sugarcane, tobacco, tomato, cannabis, and orchids, just to name a few. It explains the plants in the context of parallel historical events to help the reader better understand and appreciate just how important and influential plants really are in our daily lives. There are even timelines (below), sidebars with historical notes, striking quotations that would make us see history from a new point of view.

From My Library: Ferns of the Tropics

I periodically do business trips to Singapore and I am always awed by their massive yet well thought-out urban landscaping. But one of my most favorite hangouts is not a garden nor a park but the old Borders bookstore in Wheelock Place, at the corner of Orchard and Scotts. And a great book I picked up on one trip is this: a reference book partial to Southeast Asia, by a Botany professor from the National University of Singapore. It's actually full of information that's not overbearingly scientific but largely practical and clearly understandable to hobbyists and enthusiasts.

In simple language, he writes easy steps to propagate and care for ferns. There's also a section about its science, its place in history, and simple identifying methods. The second half is devoted to a fairly comprehensive catalog of species, each with clear photographs in their natural habitat.

From My Library: Tropical Garden Design

"Mádě Wijáya" is actually a professional, adopted name of an Australian who was so enamored by tropical plants and gardens that he moved to Bali and began a second career as a landscaper. He has since been recognized as one of the first career landscapers who developed a "Tropical Asian" look that finds its roots in Balinese gardens but has come to foster a lot of un-Asian thematic, even theatric schemes in gardening.

Undoubtedly, many people have preceded him and may have even been better, but it is to his credit that he made it popular, systematic, and recognized in other parts of the world. Many people still call this style Balinese, both the landscaping and the architecture, but it is really a mishmash of many influences that have evolved to the present-day style.


Tropical Garden Design is a good reference book for aesthetic design and the visual side of landscape architecture. The photographs are sumptuous and inspiring, priming your creativity to re-do your garden or buy new pots or just do anything to make you keep up with the remarkable gardens in the book.