Cordillera flower farms meet ‘Undas’ demand despite erratic weather

FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD Baguio flower vendors spent the days turning chrysanthemums, mums, carnations, roses and other cut flower stocks into bouquets for this year’s All Saints’ Day weekend. Vendors expect sales to pick up on Oct. 31 as families prepare for their traditional cemetery visits to pay respects to their departed kin. —VINCENT CABREZA

BAGUIO CITY—Bracing for the weekend rush, flower vendors here have been busy transforming stocks of chrysanthemums, carnations, roses and other blooms into vibrant bouquets and garlands for this year’s “Undas” (All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day) observance.

At flower stands along Carantes Street—called Baguio’s “living street”—five long-stemmed anthuriums were selling for P180, while early buyers picked up Malaysian mum varieties such as “radus” (P100–P150 per bundle) and “remix” (P300 per bundle). Flower baskets sell for P300 to P500, about the same price range as last year.

Most of the city’s cut flowers come from the Benguet towns of Atok, Bokod, Buguias, Kibungan, La Trinidad, Tuba and Tublay.

As of October, production had reached 6.2 million dozens, enough to meet the traditional “Undas” demand, according to lawyer Jennilyn Dawayan, Cordillera director of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

From January to October, Benguet and other Cordillera growers produced 62.05 million dozens of cut flowers, with the biggest harvests in September (4.13 million dozens) and October (4.11 million dozens), largely made up of chrysanthemums, Dawayan said.

The region’s 2025 flower production is higher than last year’s, she noted. Agriculture in the region in 2024 grew by 1.1 percent, breaking a four-year streak of negative growth in the Cordillera’s gross regional domestic product.

El Niño impact

However, upland farms endured the impact of the dry spell brought by the El Niño phenomenon in the first half of 2024, Dawayan said.

Despite this, most flower gardens survived the subsequent onslaught of monsoon rains and typhoons that battered parts of the country during the wet season.

Dawayan said seeds for marigold (merflores) and sunflower were unavailable in 2024, but this year gardeners were able to plant and harvest 1,640 dozens of marigold in October (or 14,240 dozens since January) and 39,647 dozens of sunflower this month (or 333,423 dozens since January).

Because of abundant supply, prices have generally gone down, Dawayan said. Wholesale prices for long-stemmed roses dropped from P400 per dozen in 2024 to P380 this year, with growers producing 861,459 dozens of roses in October and 8.65 million dozens since January.

Anthuriums, however, saw a slight price increase—from P400 per dozen in 2024 to P450 this year—amid October production of 462,491 dozens, or 4.64 million dozens since January.