Lush life at Manila Orchidarium

LIFE in Manila is hard. It is a daily series of assaults

to the environment, the senses and personal health. As

an escape valve to urban travails and summer heat,

the Manila Orchidarium is where to experience the

lush life and take a breather from Manila.

Most Manileños are sure to ask, "What is an orchidarium?" It is obviously a

place where orchids are found in abundance. Orchids are the main attraction

but the reason for going there is that the Orchidarium is one of those few

undiscovered spots that bring back contact with nature that is lost while living

in Manila.

The Manila Orchidarium is an improbable

1-hectare of green tucked into the edge of

Rizal Park between the National Museum

and the Museum of the Filipino People,

situated across the park from the Museo

Pambata and Intramuros. The location is

easily accessible but the aversion of the

Pinoy psyche to museums, parks and

cultural destinations makes accessing the location highly improbable to most.

Its anonymity actually works out for the better. The few visitors who have

been enchanted by the Orchidarium want to keep it a secret because there

are so few peaceful places to de-stress mind and body in the center of

Manila.

A former parking lot within the Rizal Park Complex was turned into an

enchanting repository of orchids, other exotic blooms, attractive ornamental

plants and fishes in manmade ponds. To start off the Orchidarium, the

Philippine Orchid Society and the Fern, the Nature Society of the Philippines

and friends donated the initial collection of plants.

Surviving against all odds and the highly polluted urban environment, the

garden flourished. It evolved into an urban haven for flora and fauna and now

includes a butterfly sanctuary, with added sports and leisure attractions like

fishing facilities and rock wall climbing, an art gallery and a fine dining outlet

aptly called Lush Life.

From the entrance gate that faces Agrifina Circle, a path welcomes visitors

under a trellis with waves of vines that sets the mood for the Orchidarium

experience. Everything is lush from that point onward. Exotic tropical plants

endemic to the Philippines can be found at the paved walk that meanders

through the small park.

Rich source of orchids

A visit to the park reveals that the Philippines has the reputation of being the

richest source of orchids in the world where there are 944 identified species

in 130 genera with 74 percent of the species found only in the Philippines.

Orchid blooms are seasonal, so depending on the time of year there could be

a chance to see Vanda sanderiana, the waling-waling that is known as the

Queen of Philippine Orchids, the Grammtophyllum walisii, called the King

of Philippine Orchids whose arrangement of flowers could span up to 2

meters long.

Palm Beach is another stop in the walk through the garden where the

landscape groups a collection of palms featuring the anahaw, chosen as the

national leaf of the Philippines because of its beauty and symmetry. Other

palms in the collection include the Fishtail, Blue Palm, Pinanga, Majestic Palm

and the MacArthur Palm.

There is an impressive collection of vandas, cultivated orchids that are

considered to be the most magnificent genus of the orchid family. Vandas

bloom with large, long-living flowers that bloom several times a year.

Although vandas are ordinary orchids seen everywhere in the country, the

visual impact of seeing so many gathered together makes an unforgettable

impression.

Satisfying experience

The flitting colors of butterfly wings in the Butterfly Pavilion give the illusion of

flowers taking flight. A rainforest within the enclosed pavilion places

butterflies in their natural habitat where city dwellers can observe how they

evolve from eggs to caterpillars, then to sleeping pupae until they their wings

develop into artwork of natural forms and colors.

There is much more to the Orchidarium: a collection of hybrid mussaendas

named after each of the country’s First Ladies, hybrid gumamelas of all

types and colors named after 11 courageous women who struggled for our

freedom during the Philippine Revolution, beds of bromeliads, themed plant

pockets with fiery red blooms or scented blooms.

In a city like Manila where there are so few places where jaded urbanites can

reclaim contact with nature instead of experiencing air-conditioned nature in

the window displays of mall flower shops, the Orchidarium deserves a visit.

Escape the summer heat, take a walk around the plants at the Orchidarium,

see butterflies, go fishing or rock wall climbing, or just sit on the deck of Lush

Life restaurant and shut Manila out for a few hours.

If nature is not your trip, trip on food at lunch or dinner at Lush Life

restaurant. That’s a satisfying experience.

The Manila Orchidarium is a project of the Clean and Green Foundation

headed by former First Lady Amelita Ramos. It is open daily except Monday

from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entrance fees: adults at P100, students and seniors at

P60. Additional fees: rock wall climbing at P50 and fishing at P25.

[ Museo Pambata Wiki ]