A Corporate Person's Escape
By Claire Drueco-Lopez
(Founder, GreenHearts)
GreenHearts was founded in 1999 by an advertising executive who knew nothing about gardening.
I was having lunch one weekend many, many years ago when I noticed the odd stillness in our garden. Back then, I wasn’t the green-hearted garden shop owner that I am today. At the time, I was just one among the many highly-strung corporate nerve-endings of the working populace. The garden belonged to my mother, and my only relationship with the grass and bushes that grew there was that I passed them every day on my way to the car that took me to work. All I knew about those plants was that they were green when they were healthy. And they turned brown when they died.
Why Are There No Flowers?
I stared out at the greenery and wondered – if everything was so green, why did everything feel so dead? Then it struck me. There were no flowers! There were plants growing in every square inch, and it was a garden that was basking in day-long sunshine. And yet, because everyone in the household was content with whatever grew there, it was simply wall-to-wall greenery. Dark green, light green, speckled green, medium green and green that was neither here nor there. The only flowering plants we had were bougainvilleas which were planted outside the perimeter fence, and even those were appreciated more for their thorny ability to deter burglars than for their display of bright pink blooms which were barely visible from inside the house.
Success with One Rose Bush
Well, I didn’t exactly end up a green thumb overnight. But as the months went by, I slowly took out a few bushes here, a shrub there, and replaced them with an odd assembly of flowering plants. Among the items I bought were several pots of sorry-looking roses which I then planted in the ground.
To my own surprise, one of the roses flourished. It grew into a prolific bush of lovely orange roses that bloomed despite my absolute lack of knowledge on how to care for it. This was how my love for gardening was born. Through the beauty of one rosebush.
Inspired by Flying Guests
And then, one day, I
noticed something even I had not expected or even dimly hoped for. It
was a
barely noticed, hardly-thought-about tidbit and yet such an uplifting reward
that came from flower gardening. Our place was suddenly graced by butterflies!
Unknowingly, by setting certain flowering plants in place, I had been sending out invitations to passing butterflies. And this invitation came in the form of nectar. (Photo above is of an actual flying guest at my former home.)
Since then, I’ve learned quite a few more things about luring these “flying flowers” in. And my interests have expanded to include growing potted herbs of all kinds.
Spreading the Joy of Nature
I am a writer by profession yet I find it difficult to express the kind of emotional release gardening gives me.
To this day, I continue to slave away in the demanding world of advertising and marketing. I'm surrounded by the smartest, most highly-educated individuals from top multinationals and world-class Philippine companies -- and when they hear about my hobby (planting seeds), they go, "So what do you do? Put them in soil? Then what? They just...grow?"
It never ceases to amaze me how MBAs, PhDs, lawyers, CPAs and doctors are often so clueless about little green plants. Funny how I used to be just like them.
These days, I come home at the end of each day to my husband and two kids and breathe a deep sigh of relief. It is such a pleasure to swing my garden gate in, flanked by flowering bushes in shades of pink and purple. Every day, each time I get to glance away from my computer monitor, I look out the window and see my flying guests -- butterflies who grace the flower garden I have planted around our new family home.
GreenHearts was established in 1999 -- dedicated to bringing nature's greenery closer to the urban Filipino. It's my way of sharing with other busy, stressed-out, hard-working people a little secret to pure happiness. Plant a garden. It can be a small collection of pots. It can be an entire garden of flowers. It can be herbs that you harvest fresh and use to flavor your family meals.
Whatever it is, you can't use the lack of time or patience as an excuse. This is easier than exercise. Takes less time than a jog. But its health benefits are beyond any doubt.
The next time nature calls, don't go to the washroom. Go water a pot.
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