Travel, Photography #46 – Sirao Gardens, ( Little Amsterdam ) Cebu city, Philippines

by : Bacardi Gold
10/Nov/2020

Visited by local and foreign tourists, this charming and lovely garden in Barangay Sirao, Cebu started with four gardeners which ballooned to thirty industrious care takers. From a small number of local visitors, it now caters to a thousand to two thousand visitors at peak months of the year which include Asians, Americans, Europeans and other nationalities.

A number of other gardens have also opened in the mountainous areas of Cebu which posed competition and challenged this original field of floras. The owner built interesting structures to support and enhance its charm to the fore. She took the lead in growing additional kinds and species of flowers coming from abroad but one never gave a chance of growing in the local soil. Tulips. It failed the owner of making a locally grown European beauty. It needed a negative temperature to emulate the icy condition of Europe. Instead, vegetables were grown , such as, giant peas, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, and taro.

 Sunflowers (seeds from Canada, Amsterdam, and the United States), dahlias, China stars, chrysanthemum, salvia, and begonias are abundant in this area. Along with those varieties, the area also features Cape Plumbago, Catharantus Roseus, pink queens, millions, birds of paradise, gadiolas, and orchids.