The Romantics: Antonio and Gema Garcia on Decades of Floral Craftsmanship, “Love Is Painful”

For over 30 years, Antonio and Gema Garcia have turned meticulous care, natural cycles, and decades of trust into a floral sanctuary in the heart of Makati.

Walk into Mabolo Flower Shop in Makati and it’s easy to lose your bearings. Flowers press in from every direction: stalks piled high from floor to ceiling, buckets clustered close together, petals and greens brushing past one another under low, warm light. The air carries a layered mix of scents that doesn’t resolve into any single note.

The space is full and intimate, and at first glance, it’s hard to grasp its full scale. Only as you move further in do the walkways begin to open, unfolding into narrow corridors lined with shelves and worktables, before leading into the back room, filled to the brim with blooms sourced from sister farms in Amsterdam, Colombia, and other growing regions.

Here, Antonio Garcia is in his element. Wearing an olive green polo marked with sweat, he works through generous bundles of garden roses flown in from Ecuador. Predominantly white with a faint blush of soft pink along the edges, the blooms open, their long stems tapering into downward-pointing thorns. “You actually [have to] handle this with leather gloves, but I don’t care,” he shrugs, before breaking into a smile. “Love is painful.”

For over 30 years, Antonio Garcia has run the flower shop alongside his sister, Gema, who handles the operations behind the scenes. An architect by profession, he first took an interest in floriculture during frequent trips to the University of the Philippines Los Baños in the 1970s. “I began with Philippine flora and fauna first: trees, shrubs,” he says. “I got into habitats, then Philippine flowers.” The interest escalated naturally, and around 1995, he decided to look into flowers more seriously.

“From then, it happened by accident,” he recalls. “We opened a little shop, which was just called Mabolo Flower Gallery in San Antonio. I just thought people would walk in and buy flowers.” Instead, the shop quickly became busy. Balancing architecture and the flower shop was near impossible, so by 1997 or 1998, Garcia gave up his architectural practice and focused on Mabolo full-time.

One might imagine a florist’s work as slow and idyllic. At Mabolo, the romance is found in relentless care, hard work, and attention to detail. The shop uses no plastics, fertilizers, chemical agents, or GMOs. “Now we’re doing soilless,” Antonio explains. “In our farms, everything is inert. We create our own carbonized mix, so there’s no spotting.” Air filters also regulate the space, and even the water is controlled. “Our water system has to be at a 9.2 alkalinity level.”

“And no forced flowering!” Antonio adds. “We always work with the natural blooming seasons.”

Mabolo plans its sourcing strictly around natural cycles, mapping the year by season rather than demand. All flowers are flown in and handled under controlled temperatures from harvest to arrival. Once in Manila, they are sorted and acclimatized immediately, often overnight, to stabilize them after transit. “You have to be dedicated,” Garcia says of the meticulous process.

This commitment to care extends beyond the flowers themselves. Many of Mabolo’s clients and staff have been with the shop for decades, some since the early 1980s, forming a rapport built on long-standing trust and familiarity. He speaks of these relationships the same way he speaks of plants: something that requires consistency and presence. “We, as Mabolo, focus on ourselves and our service,” he affirms. “Even when we’re tired, we smile.”

Working with flowers, after all, is rooted in this simplicity. For Antonio, arranging flowers becomes a form of personal storytelling, guided by joy rather than excess. “I teach people to be more expressive by simplifying. It’s not about the quantity or the size. One flower can give you the same joy as having 20 stems,” he shares. No one can dictate what resonates; learning to pick and arrange flowers starts with knowing yourself intimately. “At the end of the day, it’s a call. It’s a call to you.”

By BIANCA CUSTODIO. Photographs by GABRIEL NIVERA. Beauty Editor JOYCE OREÑA. Talents: Antonio and Gema Garcia. Art Director: Jann Pascua. Multimedia Artists: Mcaine Carlos and France Ramos. Videographer: Angelo Tantuico. Producer: Mavi Sulangi. Hair: John Alrey of Toni&Guy. Photography Assistants: Sela Gonzales, Jason B. Sevilla, and Shemuel Lopez.