Bamboo and Ferns

I tagged along with fellow Mabuhay Guide Yael Fernandez yesterday to the Intramuros Administration office to see Architect Augusto P. Rustia.

Architect Rustia is the man behind Intramuros' Bamboo Garden (located aross the moat of Baluarte de San Gabriel) and the Fern Garden (located at the Puerta Real).

The man is a green thumb! Ask him about the varieties of fern they propagated for the Fern Garden and he'll tell you exactly which ones they are. It's amazing just how many varieties of fern they found all over the country. Some are very easy to propagate while the other varieties take a lot more care and precaution to grow. Some grow in water, others grow in soil while other types are just happy to thrive in between mossy cracks of walls.



The Bamboo Garden is a fairly new addition to the Fort Santiago. Newly planted, the garden shows great signs of promise as a serene area amongst a riot of flowers in Plaza Moriones. The garden is dedicated to the victims of the bombing of Manila in WWII which happened 65 years ago.

Mrs. Bambi Harper, tireless head of the Intramuros Administration, in her speech recalls the selfless sacrifice of innocent lives to liberate Manila of the Japanese forces in 1945. The idea of bamboo for a garden is indeed a fitting idea. Serene and pliant, the bamboo has an extremely high tensile strength and yet has a graceful languid quality that draws one to rest amongst its foliage.

So While you're walking in Fort Santiago, you might want to drop in on its new attraction. It is a work in progress as the newly planted bamboo need lots of nurturing (and in this summer heat) lots of watering. Wait a few months when the bamboo starts becoming lush and green and a little more mature.

Then you get a glimpse of the lowly grass that's now becoming an exemplary sustainable resource for green earth advocates...From t-shirts, floor boards, chopping blocks and rugs... Yes, the bamboo has come of age!