NParks has embarked on a few pilot projects to enhance your night experiences in our parks and gardens by using ambient lighting. This will be sensitively added so that it will not affect the charm of visiting the parks at night.

 In the Singapore Botanic Gardens, we are enhancing the lighting in two areas: the first connects the Casa Verde cafe with the Palm Valley to create a lighted-up hub of night activities; the second, the new Foliage Garden in the Bukit Timah Core, will greet night visitors from the MRT station.   

  Artist impressions of how the Foliage Garden in the Singapore

We are also considering feature lighting that can double up as whimsical play equipment in the large playground area in West Coast Park.

Public engagement for the CIAG framework is ongoing. Visit www.nparks.gov.sg/ciag to share your ideas. You can also take a look at some of the other contributions.

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Food For Thought at the Gardens is open from 8am to 9pm daily, last orders at 8.15pm.

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A beautifully illustrated book, with colourful photographs showcasing the diversity of orchids, this is a book for the novice who wishes to know how to get started.
Launched at the 20th World Orchid Conference in Singapore in November 2011, The Essential Guide to Growing Orchids in the Tropics is written in layman language.

At the same time, the authors also introduce useful horticultural terms that one should know when cultivating orchids.

The pictures used in the book showcase the most attractive species and hybrids that can be found in nurseries. The reader is well advised to read the captions accompanying the numerous pictures carefully. The authors have scattered nuggets of useful tips and interesting facts in the captions throughout the book.

Overall, this book is concisely written with staple information for beginners. For example, how to choose a good orchid plant for growing at home, cultivation and nutritional needs of these plants, repotting and propagation, etc. Apartment growers will appreciate the section on the challenges of growing orchids in a high-rise environment and how to overcome them.

Notably, the authors have included information on orchid species that will thrive in the tropical lowlands (like in Singapore), and those in drier and cooler environments (such as in the highlands). Beginners who may not be familiar with the types of orchids that will thrive under local conditions will find this section useful, as cooler-climate orchids may sometimes be sold in local nurseries.

Also very helpful is the section on the range of organic pest and disease measures that one can employ. These measures will prove handy for the environmentally-conscious gardener, and people with pets and young children at home.

By Wilson Wong
You can get a copy of this book at the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ retail shops: The Garden Shop and the Library Shop for $30 (inclusive of GST). Or, take part in our contest to win a copy!

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Fast Facts

• At 2.5 hectares, and with a collection of 500 plants with medicinal properties, the Healing Garden is the largest of its kind in Singapore for public viewing.
• Its main focus is on medicinal plants traditionally used in Southeast Asia.
• The Healing Garden is an 8-minute walk from the newly-opened Botanic Gardens MRT Station
• Most cultures round the world have a well-developed system of plant-based traditional medicine.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), herbal treatments are the most popular form of traditional medicine
• Many prescription drugs used in modern science-based medicine are still based on chemicals extracted from plant products.

Betel nut, Thai ginger, nutmeg. What would your reply be if you were asked what they are commonly used for? If you reply that they are good for eating or for flavouring food, you are right.

But did you know they have healing properties, too?

Throughout Southeast Asia, the betel nut is used as a digestive while its roots are used to treat liver disorders. The rhizome infusion of the Thai ginger is used to treat indigestion, skin diseases, fever and even rheumatism, while traditional medicine practitioners use herbal tea made from the nutmeg as an aphrodisiac or as a post-natal tonic.

A visit to the new Healing Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens will throw up these interesting nuggets of information and more.

A thematic display based on the body system
Nestled amid lush greenery, the Healing Garden lets visitors learn of the remedies people around Southeast Asia once concocted, and in some cases still do, from commonly found plants.

The Healing Garden is physically shaped in the form of a crouching human body with its plants laid out thematically according to component parts or systems of the body. They are:

• Head, Neck, Ear, Nose and Throat
• Respiratory and Circulation Systems
• Digestive and Related Systems
• Reproductive System
• Muscle, Skeleton, Skin and Nervous Systems
• Toxic Plants

As you stroll round the Garden, you will be amazed by the many plants that can be used for different purposes, including health remedies. An example is the henna, which is commonly used as a dye for body art. But did you know it can also be used to treat corns, warts, boils and intestinal worms?

What can kill, can also heal
What is perhaps unique about the Healing Garden is that it also contains plants that can potentially kill in its toxic section. This section is only open during guided tours.

If you do get to visit the toxic section, you will find that there are some plants with both healing as well as toxic properties, such as the pong pong. While the seeds are poisonous, some parts of it can also be used to treat rheumatism or skin diseases.  
 
Don’t self-diagnose!
If reading about all the medicinal properties makes you want to rush out and try them out at home, don’t! It is still best to consult a doctor on your ailments than to self-medicate.
 
For those who find the information too much to take in one visit, you can download the free Healing Garden iPhone app. You can then read up the information on the plants at your own time and convenience. An Android version will be launched later this year, so look out for it.

By Eta Lauw
Guided tours of the Healing Garden are available. Find out more on the Singapore Botanic Gardens website.

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NParks has embarked on a few pilot projects to enhance your night experiences in our parks and gardens by using ambient lighting. This will be sensitively added so that it will not affect the charm of visiting the parks at night.

 In the Singapore Botanic Gardens, we are enhancing the lighting in two areas: the first connects the Casa Verde cafe with the Palm Valley to create a lighted-up hub of night activities; the second, the new Foliage Garden in the Bukit Timah Core, will greet night visitors from the MRT station.   
 
Artist impressions of how the Foliage Garden in the Singapore Botanic Gardens looks in the day now, and after lighting is enhanced for a better night experience.

We are also considering feature lighting that can double up as whimsical play equipment in the large playground area in West Coast Park.

Public engagement for the CIAG framework is still ongoing. Visit www.nparks.gov.sg/ciag to share your ideas. You can also take a look at some of the other contributions.

No related posts.

They are often discarded after the festivities. With a little creativity, willow stalks can be transformed into beautiful and unique ornaments by employing simple methods of cutting and wiring used in floristry.

Materials

Materials required include 5 stalks of pussy willow, binding wire approximately 1.5 m long and 1 reel of metallic silver wire. Both types of wires are available from art and craft shops as well as those which supply floristry materials.

Step by Step

Step 1 – Cut willow stems into short pieces approximately 2.5cm long with a pair of secateurs. You will need 30 to 35 pieces to make one ball.

Step 2 – String up the willow sections by coiling binding wire round each piece of willow stem and linking them together.

Step 3 – After a string of about 30 to 35 willow stems has been completed, coil the entire length to form a tight ball.

Step 4 – Use fine metallic silver wire to reinforce the pussy willow ball. This final step is important so as to ensure that the entire structure does not loosen and fall apart over time.

Step 5 – The pussy willow ball can now be used as ornamental stand. In this example, we perched some plastic birds on the balls. You can also spray the balls with various colours and use them in dried floral arrangements, and or even hang them on your Christmas trees!

By Pearl Ho

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Soil-grown plants are usually fertilised through slow-release fertiliser pellets buried in the soil. But application of this method to orchids grown in open media is not practical. Fertiliser pellets would just simply fall through the spaces between the media and out of the pot with time. Besides, coming into direct contact with fertiliser pellets can burn and damage orchid roots!

As a result, most gardeners resort to using water-soluble fertilisers. Such fertilisers come in solid or liquid form, and are first dissolved and diluted in water before they are applied either as a spray on  leaves as a foliar fertiliser, or poured into root zones as a drench. This method of fertilisation, as one can expect, requires the gardener to follow a regime to ensure his plants are fed regularly.

Innovative way to fertilise orchids

A recent visit to orchid nurseries revealed innovative ways to feed epiphytic orchid plants using slow-release fertiliser pellets. These growers use porous holders to keep fertiliser pellets in place. These holders allow water to seep into it and dissolve the nutrients in the pellets. The resultant fertiliser solution then flows on to feed the plants.

Method 1

The first method features a plastic net pot, traditionally used to house fertiliser pellets for aquatic plants. It has a lid which can be opened and closed and a stake at the base to anchor it. The stake offers the advantage of ensuring that no orchid roots come into contact with the fertiliser pellets by elevating them well away from the roots.

Above is an example of how this method can be used to feed plants that are mounted on fern bark or wooden slabs. When you water, make sure you water through the net pot to dissolve nutrients from the pellets. This will ensure your plants are fed each time.

The net pot method can also be used to feed plants that are grown in pots of charcoal.

Method 2

The second method employs a bag made from plastic netting to hold fertiliser pellets. This bag is then tied to the wire holder of slab-grown orchids. Note that this method should only be used if the wire holder leads directly to the slab at the end. Dissolved nutrients from the pellets will flow along the wire and down to the roots growing on the slab.

A final note, it is vital to use fertilisers that are formulated for use on orchids. A common ingredient found in many fertilisers for garden plants contain urea, which is not well absorbed by orchids.

By Wilson Wong

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It was half my lifetime ago when I last heard the term. I was an inattentive, unexcited student of geography. My teacher, Mrs Kalinga, was trying hard to interest my class in the workings of rainforest ecosystems. Alas! Her enthusiastic efforts were met with the kind of boredom only properly expressed through the yawns of fourteen-year-olds, who felt the natural world had nothing to teach them.

And at 9.30am on a Saturday morning, waiting for Paul’s tour (“A Walk in the Ancient Forest” is what it was called) to begin, my 28-year-old self yawned and thought the same. What could I possibly learn this time?

As it turned out, quite a bit, actually. Firstly, every write-up on Primary Rainforests will tell you of their extraordinary biodiversity; rainforests house rare and endangered species of flora and fauna. It’s true, but it means nothing if you don’t go see it for yourself.

How lucky that I did do just that. As soon as we kicked off the tour, Paul pointed high into branches of a berlinjao tree to a mottled ball of fur that looked like a cross between a lemur and a bat.

Greyish-brown in colour, the Malayan Colugo, or Flying Lemur (a wrongful nickname as it is an entirely separate species) is a tree-dweller who travels the forests by gliding from tree to tree. Not everyone who comes to the Nature Reserve may get a glimpse of this rarely-seen nocturnal.

At the start of the tour, we were told that Primary rainforests are the oldest forests around, and their trees often have trunks over 2 metres in diameter. So this, I was expecting and indeed, the trees did not disappoint. What was unexpected were the lianas. Lianas. You know, the thin, feeble-looking, creeper plants. Well, at hundreds-of-years old, they are no longer thin or feeble-looking, but as thick as buttress roots.

After speaking to us about betel nuts that stain the tongue, elephant yams that in days past were used for feeding pigs, selfish trees that have evolved to benefit directly from their fallen leaves, and rattan plants (not just for beating children! said Paul), Paul showed us the plant that I probably learnt the most from about ecosystems and how nature forms symbiotic relationships between plants and animals.

The Mahang, or Ant plant, has hollowed shoots and stems that provide passageways and living space for the critter colony it derives its name from. These ants patrol the plants leaves and provide security from caterpillars and other smaller leaf-eating predators. In return for the favour, the plant makes starchy sugars that feed the ants.

So, how much can the natural world teach? I think the lessons to learn and knowledge it has to offer is as countless as its leaves.

Mrs Kalinga would be proud.

By Valerie Wee

Whether you prefer to explore with a guide or strike out on your own, schedules of guided tours and route maps for Bukit Timah Nature Reserve are available online.

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As testimony to his conversion, 13-year-old Ng Jia Wei became the youngest recipient of the CIB (Community in Bloom) Ambassador Award, given out last October at the launch of Clean and Green Singapore 2012.

It all started with a chat
Jia Wei had long been interested in plants and nature. His parents recalled how when he was younger, he would ask them for the names of plants he saw.

But his interest in community gardening came about when he was walking his younger sister to school one day in 2010. He came across a group of women tending to the Woodgrove Zone 2 RC community garden and stopped to chat with them. Mr Kelvin Khoo, the gardening leader, found out about his interest and invited Jia Wei to join them.

But it wasn’t easy at first for the Jia Wei to convince the older gardeners of his sincerity. “They thought I was there just for the fun of it,” recalled Jia Wei.

To show he was serious, Jia Wei and his family set about improving the garden. They contributed cabinets and helped index the plots, which belong to different gardeners, to make the garden more organised.

His family now helps out regularly at the garden. His father, a police officer, assists other members to build their plots using eco-friendly materials. His mother, an administrative sales manager whom he describes as a perfectionist, tidies up the garden and maintains the administrative records. His little sister, who is seven, helps water the plants and cultivate new ones.

Jia Wei, who enjoys nature photography, regularly posts pictures of the garden on the Woodgrove Community Garden Facebook page and website. Sometimes he also posts pictures or share links from the NParks Facebook page. He also started a computer club, which created a buzz of excitement among the gardening members.

The butterfly lover – his favourite is the orange Plain Tiger – has also started breeding butterflies and caterpillars. He sells the caterpillars he rears, and the proceeds have helped WCG purchase more compost.

Making new friends and gaining new converts
In addition to making new friends online, Jia Wei actively champions the gardening community at Hua Yi Secondary School where he is currently studying.

Last year, he started a garden in class by bringing in plants from the community garden. He and his classmates took turns to tend to the plants. His classmates became so enthusiastic that they even asked their form teacher to buy more plants for the class garden!

Fresh from receiving his CIB award, Jia Wei now hopes to get more residents in Woodlands involved in the community garden and bond over the joys of gardening.

By Azza Dina

If you are interested in learning more about plants, you can check out our Flora and Fauna website. Or, if you prefer, learn how to breed butterflies for your own garden.

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Next to the youthful looks of the lady manning the booth, the floral and nature prints on the products looked oddly old-fashioned, almost 19th century, with their inked designs and letterpress feel.

As it turned out, that’s precisely because Michelle Yu and her partner, Ng Yin Shian, printed most of their designs using old-fashioned letterpress machines back at their studio, The Gentlemen’s Press.

“Willful, immortal children”

While most people imagine printing press machines to be manned, well literally, by men in greasy aprons, this shop has three, and only two young ladies to run them.

The work may be tough, but both Michelle and Shian, enjoy using the large and heavy letterpress machines, which they compare to “willful, immortal children”, as that’s one of their shared passions.

Michelle (left) and Shian using the Chandler and Price platen press, one of their three letterpress machines.

At their shop cum studio, they offer a range of hand-pressed paper products (all designed in-house) and tote bags, in addition to bespoke stationery for events, book covers and business cards, as well as graphic design and illustration services.

Falling in love with the letterpress

The two met when they were studying visual communication at Temasek Polytechnic’s Design School; they graduated last year.

While on a holiday in New York, they visited a letterpress workshop where they learnt the art form. At the end of the workshop, in their words, they were “completely taken with these machines and the art they produced.”

After graduation, with the support of their parents, they managed to buy three old but working letterpress machines. While the actual ages are unknown, one of their platen press machines was patented in 1845, while the other could have been manufactured between the 1920s and the 1990s. Their third machine is a galley press.

Michelle (top) and Shian (bottom) showing how the Vandercook SP-15 galley press, another of their letterpress machines, works. First, colour is applied to the mould(s) before the paper is rolled over the mould to imprint the design onto the paper.

Galley press work by using moulds placed on the tabletop, then running the paper through the press with rollers to create a deep, inked impression on the paper. Platen press use a vertical clamping system, where the paper is laid on top of the mould and then they are pressed together.

A shared passion for nature and the arts

When it came to the designs for their products, it wasn’t a difficult choice for either Shian or Michelle. Both pet lovers who enjoy the occasional visit to a park, they relish exploring the complexity of nature and interpreting it for their work.

In particular, they have a soft spot for flowers as the pair had to draw them when they started out as art students. Thus many of their designs have floral prints, hand-drawn by them before they are hand-pressed onto the paper products.

By doing both design and print by hand, they give their work both an old-world charm and a personality – no two pieces are alike, thanks to subtle colour shifts and smudges that are the hallmark of letterpress printing.

So, if you ever go by Neil Road, do drop by The Gentlemen’s Press and check out the antique machines and the two ladies at work.

By Ng Li-San

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