After so many years, I got to re-visit this place in Manila referred to by everyone as the Dangwa Flower Market or Bulaklakan ng Maynila. It's called Dangwa because it was originally located beside the Dangwa Transport, Inc. bus station. When I was a kid, we used to pass by sometimes to buy flowers for the dead. My paternal grandparents are both buried in The North Cemetery which is close by.
I was surprised to see how much it's grown since then. There are tens of dozens of vendors in the area, most of which now own air-conditioned stores. You can tell that these are the ones that have been around long enough to see their business flourish.
We went there on Mother's Day because N's sister wanted to buy floral arrangements for their Mom and her MIL. I took advantage and instead of buying flowers for my own Mom at the mall, I got her this humongous bouquet of paper roses for probably 1/3 of its mall price
The bouquet was heavy and fat and it definitely looked like it was worth a lot more than the P850 I paid to get it (arranging fee included). I got a smaller bouquet of colorful summer/spring flowers for my Tita for just P300. Two lovely bouquets for the price of one? My wallet rejoiced! (and so did my Mom and Tita who loved our Mother's Day gifts)
I could've stayed all day inside the store we went to. It's not everyday that I'm surrounded with beautiful flowers. In fact, I don't get to see so many of them in one place very often.
If I could have fresh arrangements all over my house all the time, I really would.
The Dangwa Flower Market is located at Dos Castillas and Laong Laan Streets in Sampaloc, Manila. Just take the famous Espana Boulevard and you will find these streets very near the area of the University of Santo Tomas. If that still doesn't help, try Google Maps :)
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