Garden landscape enthusiasts will have a heyday during the opening of the Panagbenga 2025 on Feb. 1 as 12 competitors will showcase their masterpieces at Burnham Park.

Evangeline Payno, chief of staff of the festival’s executive committee, said the landscape entries will be judged after the festival’s opening parade on Saturday.

“The judging of the landscape competition will also be done on Saturday and they will be at Burnham Park as an added attraction for the festival and the city for the whole duration of the Panagbenga,” she said.

Payno said selling areas for potted plants will be available at the landscape competition site.

The competitors have been provided PHP60,000 subsidy by the organizer to encourage them to come up with a beautiful and well planned landscape.

“The foundation provides a subsidy because we want quality entries in all the categories and competition area, including the garden landscaping design competition,” Payno said.

Payno said it is now all set for this year’s Baguio Flower Festival, one of the biggest and highly participated festivals in the country.

Starting Saturday afternoon, the “Baguio Blooms” market encounter at the Abad Santos drive in Burnham Park will formally open.

A walkway featuring different cloth materials also forms part of the attraction at the area, which will feature various stalls selling foods, clothing and other items.

The month-long festivity will also have the traditional “Handog ng Panagbenga sa Pamilya Baguio” on Feb. 9, wherein friends and families will have the chance to paint on canvass, which will be displayed along the parade route during the grand street dancing and flower float parades on Feb. 22 and 23.

The annual Philippine Military Academy alumni homecoming is set on Feb. 13 to 15 and the Floral bouquet design competition and dish garden competition on Feb. 15.

The Department of Tourism sponsored Fluvial parade, where row boats at the Burnham Lake will be garbed with different flower designs, will happen on Feb. 27, while the Session Road in Bloom will be from Feb. 23 to March 2.

The weeklong Session Road in Bloom will have micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from Baguio, Benguet and other regions selling their One Town, One Product (OTOP) specialities and their best produce aside from local and international dishes available on the street while people enjoy a stroll.

Panagbenga, a kankanaey word for blooming and blossoming, was conceptualized as an activity in 1995 to bring back Baguio’s vibrance following the devastation of the 1990 killer earthquake.

It was later tagged as among the top participated and anticipated festivals in the country. (PNA)