Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Kali-kaliwang Waling-waling

Motorcycles in parade!
The ABS CBN caravan
I just got back from Davao! I spent the past 3 days trying to make the most out of the last leg of the Kadayawan festival. I did not get to see anymore the street-dancing but got there in time to see parts of the floral parade. I did not get to view much because I stayed with the crowd over at the city hall (which was a bad idea), and for over 2 hours, the only thing I saw was maybe half of the motorcycle riding population of the city ( I could not imagine there are a lot of motorcycle clubs in Davao and they all paraded!).   I grew impatient waiting for the parade proper and decided to walk several blocks going to Aldevinco Mall to buy tubao instead. 
The GMA Amaya float
Nice mother and child float
The SM durian and orchid float
While finding my way to Aldevinco, I chanced upon a few floral floats and some TV station caravans. As expected, the crowd pleasers were the Kapamilya and the Kapuso contingents with their reliable and ever bankable stars drawing in the attention (and the screams) of the spectators.  I do not know most of these younger actors and actresses but I got enchanted by Marian Rivera who I think looked awesome in her Amaya costume (forgot to even take a snap of her pic).   But she is not the star who got the biggest media mileage in the festivities. The star of the parade would go to 2 ubiquitous Davao residents, the durian and waling-waling, which both got a lot of expected and well deserved exposure. But between the two, it is waling-waling which has a sweeter-smelling reputation (could not be contested by the foul-smelling durian, hehehe).
The biggest and the most beautiful waling-waling specimen I have ever seen!
Maeven's winning booth
Puentespina's orchid and ornamental display
In the Kadayawan orchid show over at SM City Davao, the waling-waling or Euanthe sanderiana was the more obvious center of attraction.  The plant exhibits displayed the best of their flowering and blooming orchids but the obvious stand-outs were specimens of the waling-waling. They were prominently positioned among other orchid species, cultivars, bromeliads, specimen aroids, ferns and a lot more ornamentals.  Its erect wide petals cannot be rivaled.
A lot of flowering waling-walings
Waling-waling for sale
Another variety
In the commercial areas, a wide array of cultivars were also made available, also very obviously parented by the Euanthe. Different shades of waling-waling lookalikes are interesting to look at and compare. There were brown, reddish, lilac, pinkish as well open, narrow petalled, wide petalled, folded etc. I have never seen so much waling-waling in one place.  It still is presently and pleasantly the darling of Davao and the most beautiful pride of the Kadayawan festival.
The different waling-waling varieties.

6 comments:

Andrea said...

Same here, that is the biggest and most beautiful waling-waling displayed. I wonder who owns those blooms.

metscaper said...

I am not sure. Forgot to take pics of the booth it was mounted on. Can't even remember how the booth looked like. The orchid overwhelmed me.

Grace Servino said...

About how large did you say the biggest waling-waling you've seen in Davao? From the picture, they look ordinary. Wish I can visit Davao too during this Kadayawan festival. Thanks for sharing what you've experienced there. :-)

metscaper said...

About a meter long. It is hard to grow this orchid.

Anonymous said...

You should have seen the Sanderana Alba of my friend which bloomed in his Cavite farm .... it was even better and more outstanding than the Vanda sanderana shown here. It was slightly less than a meter long, had 4 main trunks and all in all had not just 2 but 9 spikes bearing overlapped, pristine green and white alba flowers ..... 2 on each of the three stems and three spikes on the fourth. It was superb! If that plant was brought to Davao and exhibited there, it would have single-handedly won the top prize and beaten the 1 meter waling-waling that won there. I believe that the alba form is probably a variety constance and the flowers were BIGGER and more FULL ROUNDED and OVERLAPPED than the one in your photo. Well, perhaps someday .... ;)

metscaper said...

i hope you could post pics.