When sisters Nena Vargas-Tantoco and Tina Vargas-Quiroz entertain their friends at home, they're sure to get "wows" from guests because of their elegant spreads and classy home decor.

Asked where they get such tasteful centerpieces and ornaments, however, most are surprised by their answer - they get them right from their own backyards.

Tantoco and her younger sister Quiroz, both scions of the wealthy Vargas clan in Bacolod, have made an art form out of harvesting natural materials like twigs and roots and transforming them into ornaments worthy of a designer home.

Rather than spending on expensive home decorators, they chose to adorn their abodes with home-made creations like vases of grass or big bowls of foliage, which they can constantly change and re-arrange to give a different ambiance every time guests come over.

"We do things in our home, and I guess our upbringing has really been home [centered]. In fact, we are home enthusiasts. In Nena's house, you go there one day and you'll see it like that and the next thing, [you ask] 'What did you do here?' So I was taught that if things are not static, good energy flows," said Quiroz, a New York-trained interior designer.

These tips and tricks were passed on to them from their mother, who established Vargas Kitchen, a leading homemade food business based in Forbes Park, as well as their aunt and grandparents. Although Tantoco and Quiroz both studied and spent most of their time in Manila, they still fondly remember their childhood spent playing in fields or gardens and enjoying nature.

"We're so aware of nature and we like to create. For other people, it's trash, but for us, it can really help. So even the lowly cogon grass, which grows wildly, is used in our creations because we realized that we have so much of it all over the Philippines. Nothing goes wasted," said Tantoco, wife of Rustan's president Rico Tantoco, Jr. and creative whiz of the luxury department store.

Tantoco confessed that she keeps a pair of scissors in her car, which she uses to cut portions of plants that she spots on her trips to the countryside. Some of these plants have even found their way into the Rustan's department store upon the insistence of Tantoco, who professes to dislike artificial plants and ornaments.

"It doesn't cost much, but look what it has done to this place," she said, gesturing to the tall cogon plants and sugarcane stalks adorning the store's windows, during their home decor workshop at Rustan's on May 27. "The store is full of life and it is a happy place, a happy store."

The workshop, which honored the Vargas sisters' Visayan roots, was held in lieu of the month-long Filipino Heritage Festival last May.

Nature's bounty

It is amazing what you can do with a variety of natural materials, which you can mix and match according to your taste, Tantoco and Quiroz insist. Pandan, iris plants, banana leaves, mango leaves and brightly-colored San Francisco leaves can be used for lining on vases or serving dishes. The San Francisco leaves can even be used to line the outer side of candle holders, giving off a soft glow when the candle is lighted.

"Fashion designers should look at San Francisco leaves, because it has awesome colors. And even the combinations are lovely," Quiroz said. She added that old glass candle holders can be re-used by freezing to make the melted wax slide right off.

Cogon grass, which Tantoco described as "a crazy plant," can be put in tall vases or flower boxes. When dried up, the grasses turn into a lovely chocolate brown color and can be bundled and tied with ribbon. Wood, twigs, and raffia (the root of a balete tree) can be used as accents or for bundling and tying things together. Lemongrass or "tanglad" can be used as an ornament, infused into herbal tea, and can even be boiled to make your kitchen smell better. This can also be used in cooking, as stuffing for roasted chicken or as flavoring for aromatic rice.

Sampaguita flowers, which Tantoco prefers to buy from streetchildren, can also be piled in a shallow container, along with Golden Shower buds, red ginger, corcoma (a soft pine-cone looking plant), Bunga Tsina, cogon flowers, and other tropical flowers that can last for weeks just soaked in water. Fishtail palms or "pistil" drop beautifully sculpted brown stalks, which you can stick in a vase along with sugarcane stalks (which the sisters admire for the vibrant mauve stalk), and fig or vines.

Aside from fresh juice, coconuts can be halved into shells or used whole as centerpieces on a bowl. Rattan balls, sipa balls weaved from leaves, or even plastic balls from Divisoria can be used as accents on the centerpiece or can be wrapped in leaves using raffia. All of these ingredients can be placed in bowls or "sabsaban" (a long wooden bowl) with just a little water to keep the ornaments flowing naturally.

"It's very simple, you can just put it together. And it's beautiful because it comes from nature, and we can never copy what is in nature," Tantoco said.

Green thumbs up

Ipil-ipil buds, meanwhile, can be made into wreaths along with cypress leaves - perfect for Christmas decorations.

As a testament to the plant's aesthetic appeal, an owner of a Christmas decor export business who attended the workshop even shared that her American buyers from Pottery Barn, a furniture and home decor retailer, had chosen a Christmas tree made of ipil-ipil leaves for their stores.

"What I do with these ipil-ipil leaves is that I spread them and dip them into natural dyes so that they achieve different colorations. I bundle them and tie it with a wire at the end so that they [are secured into place]. If I am lucky, then the [ipil-ipil] tree will be the harvest tree for Pottery Barn in 2011," said Carmencita Leung of Tamilee Industries.

Leung, a good friend of the Vargas sisters, said that although she was already familiar with the plants used at the workshop, she still learned a lot. "I learned a new aesthetic sense. Many don't have to buy things, you just have to pick it up from your garden. And it's also ecologically friendly instead of using plastic flowers and others," she said.

In an economic crisis, simple gardening know-how and cost-efficient ways to spruce up one's home is a definite plus. "You can transform your home. We did this [workshop] to show most housewives and people who feel they need a decorator or a florist, [that] you don't need them. Just use your imagination," Quiroz said.

Quiroz owns a garden in Laguna while Tantoco keeps a garden in Subic, and both said that they hardly spend for imported flowers anymore, in the belief that everything they need for their home is in their backyard. "I always have the assumption that my garden will provide me with everything I need. I don't want artificial plants. They have no life," Quiroz said.

The Vargas sisters' love for native plants and products reflects their overall appreciation for the country's culture and its rich resources. In line with Filipino Heritage Month, a portion of the Rustan's Department Store in Makati was filled with native banigs of all designs and colors. They have even set up a special section at the store called OVO (Our Very Own), exclusively featuring local handicrafts.

"Now is the time to discover the Philippines, and there are so many beautiful things happening here. Instead of traveling abroad, we can visit the different regions in our country. Let's begin to love and appreciate our country, our culture, our crafts, and everything in it," Tantoco said.