MANILA, Philippines -- No orchid show held in the country is complete without a showcase by Purification Orchids. At exhibits held at the Quezon Circle or the Quezon City Hall grounds, the orchid-growing company always gets to win a prize. So orchid show time means it's also time for Anna Purification, the proprietor of Purification Orchids, to pick up a prize. In fact, at the recent Mid-Year Orchid and Garden show organized by the Philippine Orchid Society, Anna bagged two awards. Two of her entries, the Oncidium leucochilum and the Phalaenopsis Sogo Yukidian "V3," were named the best in their respective categories by the board of judges.
Winning a prize may already be ordinary for Anna Purification, but the awards she won last month may be a consolation of sort. Nearly all the flowers on display at the show were battered and ruined by the heavy rains. "We had to get most of the flowers out of the show before they all died," she says.
Nevertheless, there's always the next show and it's going to happen on February 2012 at the World Trade Center. The event: the third Flora Filipina International Expo.
Ask Anna her secret to growing thousands of beautiful, award-winning orchids, and she would simply reply: "Just be consistent in taking care of them," she says. "Never forget to water them when it's time to water them. Fertilize them when it's time fertilize them. You should never be lax or lazy. They need your attention. Strictly follow the schedule."
Anna says roughly half of the orchids she grows are exported to Europe and parts of the Far East. Without the export market, she says it would be difficult for the company to survive these hard times.
Purification Orchids has two showrooms at the Manila Seedling Bank Foundation grounds in Quezon City but the orchids are grown in a sprawling nursery in Alfonso, Cavite. The store, which is constantly abloom with various species of orchids, looks like a magical garden. With this abundance of colorful flowers, one could forget the fact that the busy, polluted thoroughfare called EDSA is just a few meters away from the store. "The pollution in the city is something we have to live with," she says. "But the orchids cannot. The plants are shipped in almost daily from Alfonso and if they're not sold in three or two days, we ship them back to Alfonso and replace them with fresh stock. They could survive but we have to make these precautions to ensure their health."
Although an expert in growing orchids, Anna actually used to be an architect. After finishing college, she briefly practiced architecture. "It was my brother Eric who was into orchids. He had a passion for these plants," she recalls. "My mother (Corazon Purification) liked to garden a lot so she and Eric grew them. Eric studied the science of growing orchids in Hawaii and in 1986, we established Purification Orchids."
The Purifications were based in Novaliches and they turned a nearby property they owned into a nursery. But they needed more space and an environment that was more conducive to growing plants. Thus, the nursery was moved to a property they acquired in Alfonso. Anna designed and built a house within the compound. Today, it's the house where her mother resides.
Tragically, it was during this time when Anna's brother was killed in a car accident. With Eric gone, Anna had to take his place and help her mother run the company. So the career in architecture took the backseat. To expand their market, she joined international orchid shows in Singapore and the USA. "At the first international show we joined, visitors who attended the show asked if they could buy the plants on display," she recalls. "Since we didn't know how to discard the plants after the show, I told them they could buy the plants on the show's last day. I even sold the plants of the other Filipino participants who had gone home ahead. We all made a nice profit!"
When Anna joined the next international show, she attracted wholesale buyers from Europe. This was thus the beginning of the company's export business. Anna realized the importance of being present in these shows. "But it's very expensive to take part in these shows, and some of the other local growers simply can't afford to rent a booth abroad. So what we do sometimes is share the booth," she says.
Anna says Taiwan is the biggest competitor of Filipino orchid growers. "The Taiwanese growers are very aggressive and they're supported by their government. When they participate in shows abroad, the Taiwanese government helps them shoulder the cost of renting the booths," she notes.
Would the Philippine orchid industry flourish as an exporter if the government helped out in a similar way? "That what we're hoping for!" says Anna with a smile
