5 Things You Need to Know About the Celosia Craze in Cebu

If you’re always online, there’s a big chance that you’ve come across photos of friends excitedly posing in a field of yellow, pink, orange, and fiery red flowers. These photos are usually accompanied by the hashtags #Celosia and #MiniAmsterdam.

In case you’re wondering, these selfies and groufies were taken in a flower farm in Barangay Sirao – a highland barangay in Cebu City. After some of the very first Celosia selfies became an instant hit online, the trend quickly caught on. Now, throngs travel to the mountain barangay daily to see the flower field up close and personal. And of course, to take a selfie.

Here are 5 things you need to know about this latest ‘craze’ in Cebu.


1. Official Sinulog Flower

Due to its colors (red, orange, yellow) which are prominent in the cape of the image of Señor Santo Niño de Cebu, the Sinulog Foundation, Inc. labeled the Celosia as the Official Flower of the Sinulog celebrations. The flower was named the Official Sinulog Flower by the Cebu City Hilly Land Management Board on October 21, 2011. (source)


2. #MiniAmsterdam

Aside from the labels “Little Baguio” and “Little Holland,” the Celosia fields of Barangay Sirao are also often referred to as Cebu’s very own “Mini Amsterdam” due to its resemblance to the tulip fields of the Netherlands. Coincidentally, the first seeds of the Celosia were brought to Cebu by a group of Cebuanos who visited Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands in 1991. (source)


3. 20 Pesos

The flower fields are located in the mountain barangay of Sirao. To get to Sirao, you can either take a private vehicle or get on a habal-habal. Round-trip fare for each person usually ranges from 150 to 200 pesos. To access the flower fields, visitors are required to pay 20 pesos each.


4. Helping the Farmers

The sudden influx of visitors has been very advantageous to the local farmers. Instead of spending for delivery and all other necessary fees to transport their goods, they now get to sell their fresh produce right in their own front yard. A lot of flower stands have also been erected near the actual Celosia flower farm since the trend exploded a few days ago.


5. Harvest Postponed

The Celosia flowers were scheduled to be cut last October 27. However, due to the demand for these beautiful Celosia (local name Burlas) as a selfie backdrop, the farm owners have opted to postpone indefinitely the cutting of the flowers. It is said that they now earn more from visitor fees than from actual flower sales.

MORE PHOTOS
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Visit the Celosia Flower fields now!

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4 Responses

  1. Takdol says:

    The flowers do make beautiful backdrops. I’m very happy for the farmers (and their flowers make customers happy, so sounds fair to me).

  2. The flowers are surreal!!! Awesome!

  3. elah says:

    Hi do they still have flowers after holyweek. please reply planning to visit this on our trip this coming march 29 2016. 😉

  1. August 22, 2020

    […] the Celosia Craze in Sirao broke the local internet, more farms opened its doors to the selfie-loving Cebuanos. Some of the […]

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