Photo taken by Jon Van Tango (Flickr)
Are you visiting Singapore? Welcome to our tiny red dot.
Are you going to be here long? No? Just in transit? What a shame. There are lots to see and explore here. Well, never mind, there's still some interesting places to see in one day. There's the Singapore Zoological Garden, or if you want a relaxing stroll in the city, you can try our Botanical Gardens.
The Singapore Botanical Gardens is opened from 5 am to midnight daily, so you might just want to begin the day with the birds chirping and the sun rising over the trees.
Its history
An Agri-Horticultural Society founded one of the oldest gardens, if not the oldest in Singapore, the Singapore Botanical Gardens at its present site in 1859. It then evolved from a leisure and ornamental park under the Society, under which flower shows and horticultural fetes were organized, to having a scientific mission when the colonial government took over management and care of the Gardens in 1874. Kew-trained botanists and horticulturists were then sent to administer the Gardens.
The Gardens have gone through many stages of changes in its history due to its dedicated administrators or directors.
One of its most well-known directors was Mr Henry Nicholas Ridley who came in 1888.
Ridley was the man who introduced the rubber trees to the Malaya's planters. He devised successful propagation methods and found a way to harvest commercial quantities of latex without harming or killing the trees during the 1890s and early 1900s.
His persistence persuasion of the Malaya's plantation owners to grow rubber trees on a large scale was generally ignored until the early 1900s when their coffee plantations were devastated by disease and these plantation owners desperately needed a new cash crop. It was also at this time that the automobile industry boomed, resulting in an increased demand for rubber.
Due to Ridley's foresight, the Singapore Botanical Gardens was ready when the rubber rush came. The Gardens had a ready source of seed supply since Ridley had turned the Gardens forest clearings and wasteland over to rubber plantation. The Gardens' revenue multiplied as the region became a major market for the rubber trade and the plants at the Botanic Gardens became the basis for Southeast Asia's rubber industry, an industry that generated fortunes.
Directors who came after Ridley had also each contributed their own marks in making the Gardens what it is today, a centre for research, education and conservation.
What to see at the Gardens?
The Singapore Botanical Gardens has many paths winding through its many gardens with different themes. Seats are provided at intervals for when you need to take a rest. Public facilities and amenities were also well provided.
Singapore Botanical Gardens can be divided into three main cores.
There is the Tanglin Core where one can find the Swan Lake and where the Vanda Ms Joaquim is displayed. The Central Core, where the Palm Valley is located with more than 115 genera and over 220 species of palms are on displayed, is also where you can find the “only piece of original jungle left on the island”. More than 314 species of tropical vegetation jostle for space in this 6-hectare of primeval forest.
Spreading over 3 hectares with over 60,000 colourful orchids on display, the National Orchid Garden is also situated in the Central Core. If you don't have time to visit other parts of the Botanical Gardens, you should at least visit this Orchid Garden. There is a small entrance fee but it is well worth it. The Orchid Cool House is also within this garden - a glass conservatory display of orchids and other plants from the tropical highlands.
The VIP Orchid Garden boasts of hybrids that are named after heads of states including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and Lady Margaret Thatcher, celebrities and dignitaries.
The Bukit Timah Core is relatively new compared to the other two and it lacks the tall majestic trees you can find in the Tanglin Core and the Central Core. Here is where you can find the Children's Garden, bamboo, medicinal plants, fruit trees and other cash crops.
Photo by aymanshamma (Flickr)
Beautiful sculptures like the Girl on Swing above are scattered throughout the gardens to be enjoyed by visitors.
New attractions, such as the Ginger Garden, Evolution Garden, Coolhouse and the Children's Garden are being added to keep the Gardens relevant as a tropical botanical institution of international renown, a key tourist destination and a flagship park.
So, come, come and enjoy our beautiful gardens.
