I’m pretty sure the title Moulin Rouge brings back scenes from Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 jukebox musical romantic drama starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. But no, I’m not talking about what is best known as the birthplace of the modern form of the Can-Can Dance originally introduced as a seductive dance by the courtesans which led to the establishment of cabarets across Europe.
Instead, the Moulin Rouge I am going to share with you is a unique variety of sunflower that’s stealing stares from gardening enthusiasts and anthophiles. Why? We are all used to the common bright yellow and golden yellow sunflower varieties, right?
My first encounter with the Moulin Rouge was when I visited for the first time the cut flower farm of my friend Pau Lopez in Don Salvador Benedicto. I was there to shoot a vlog in her sprawling garden of sweet smelling long-stemmed roses. I never knew then that she was also growing sunflowers until my attention was caught by this variety with burgundy red petals.
So glamorous and classy! The Moulin Rouge can grow to 4 feet and its petals are said to be resistant to fading from the sun. Pau’s friend sent her seeds of different sunflower varieties including the Moulin Rouge.
“I started planting sunflowers when a friend of mine sent me sunflower seeds and other flowers from Belgium back in 2013. I couldn’t believe that there were other sunflower colors aside from the usual orange color we mostly see,” shared Pau.
She brought the seeds to her “test” area in her farm up in the mountains and had it planted there. “I was surprised when I saw sunflowers in different hues! The colors were amazing! I was so happy to see sunflowers in cream, black, brown, maroon and even pink and peach in my garden. I couldn’t stop smiling when I saw them for the first time,” she added.
Aside from what is said to be the most sought-after variety Moulin Rouge, another favorite sunflower variety of mine that blooms in her flower farm is the Chianti – one of the darkest sunflowers because of its deep red wine colored petals. Chiantis can grow to about 4 to 6 inches tall and produces multiple flowers per stem. This variety is pollen-free.
She also grows Little Becka sunflowers, a variety that is uniquely beautiful too because of the orange “halo” effect of its petals.
And what’s so funny was finding out the name for the small sunflowers that I and my childhood friends used to call “bisaya” or native daisies: Sundance Kid. This discovery made me wonder why it’s named after the title of a 1969 film that starred Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy) Robert Redford (Sundance Kid), the setting of which was in the Wild West. What an interesting name for a flower! The Sundance Kid’s petals by the way, fade from red to yellow.
Then there’s the Earthwalker! Don’t you just love their names? If these were women, I’d say they are a bunch of unique, beautiful and empowered ladies! Earthwalkers have autumn-hued petals. It’s like having planted and grown fall — the season— in your garden in a tropical country like the Philippines. Earthwalkers can reach 9 feet in height and have petals with dark, earthy hues like brown, gold and red.
“What’s there not to like about sunflowers? I love them because they are so easy to grow. They’re happy flowers! They just overwhelm you with cheerfulness and love. So when I saw them growing beautifully in my garden, I couldn’t resist the urge of planting more sunflower varieties,” shared Pau who has devoted a hectare of her farm to sunflowers alone.
She said her late Dad, an anthophile, had a big influence on her. She holds a degree in Physical Therapy but opted to put up a flower shop and run a cut flower farm that now supplies different cut flower in Negros and other parts of the country.
“Missing my late father made me go beyond my limits in order to sustain his memory even if it meant rebuilding his house from scratch and putting up a flower shop business that I knew nothing about. But I did it because I wanted him to have fresh flowers at the cemetery,” she added.
Pau’s out-of-the-box floral arrangements make her creations stand out as she does not want her arrangements to be conventional and predictable. Aside from her unique bouquets, she makes bud boxes and sympathy halos. “In the middle of arranging flowers, I would ask myself: if I would give those flowers to my father, would he love it? He really inspired me to pursue this love for growing flowers and arranging blooms,” she continued.
And whenever she misses her Dad so much and melancholy visits her, she leaves the city and heads to the farm to seek comfort in the midst of beautiful blooms. But when she badly needs cheering up on a day when she can barely smile, she knows exactly which part of the farm she must head to – where the cheerful, vibrant and sunny flowers are!*
