Bulacan town earns P30M from garden industry

Bulacan town earns P30M from garden industry

GUIGUINTO, BULACAN—This “garden capital of the Philippines” continues to flourish and blossom as its primary industry generated P30 million for the local government in the last 15 years, the municipal agriculturist said.

On Thursday, the local government opened its 26th annual Halamanan (garden) Festival with various programs and competitions, to run from Jan. 18 to Jan. 21, in support of the town’s main economic earner. About 300 garden shops, nursery owners and propagators, including landscape artists, have been providing earnings to about 3,000 industry workers and residents, giving P20 to P30 million worth of taxes and revenues annually to the municipal government for the past 15 years, according to Municipal agriculture officer Roel dela Cruz.

Dela Cruz said the Halamanan Festival tradition continues to develop and harness the plant and garden innovation of the members of the industry through artistic design competition for ornamental plants, bougainvillea, cactus and succulent growers; the five-minute, on-the-spot dish garden design; landscape design; and topiary and figure plant categories.

Guiguinto has been the ornamental center of Bulacan since the 1960s when garden stalls and nurseries sprouted all over in Barangay Sta. Cruz, Violeta Village, Rosaryville and along the Cloverleaf and at the approach of the North Luzon Expressway in Tabang.

Since then, the industry grew to supply the plant needs of gardens in the rest of the country and evolved into the Halamanan Festival started in 1998 by then mayor and now Bulacan fifth district Rep. Ambrosio Cruz Jr.

Halamanan won the best festival award in 2022 and 2023 during the Singkaban Festival, a cultural festivity held in Bulacan every September. It was also recognized last year by the Aliwan Festival, Metro Manila’s festival of festivals, as among the leading local cultural events in the country.

This year, all of the town’s 14 villages took

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