Singapore Botanic Gardens

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A little while ago someone I know was planning a trip to Singapore and asked if I could recommend going anywhere.

I’d only been on a short visit several years ago so I’m probably not the best tour guide, lol, but still had to say “Yes, you have to go to the Botanic Gardens!”.

I got my photos out to show them and it brought back some lovely memories. It was 12 January 2004 that I was there so I thought I’d use that as an excuse to turn them into a blog today :)
… and besides, there’s not much of interest going on in my garden right now to share …

I’m afraid I can’t name or tell you anything about each of the plants, so instead I will add snippets of info about the Gardens as I go along.

The first “Botanical and Experimental Garden” in Singapore was established in 1822 by Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore and a keen naturalist. The Garden’s main task was to evaluate for cultivation crops which were of potential economic importance, including those yielding fruits, vegetables, spices and other raw materials. This first Garden closed in 1829.

It was not until 30 years later that the present Singapore Botanic Gardens began in 1859, when the Agri Horticultural Society was granted 32 hectares of land in Tanglin by the colonial government, which had obtained it from the merchant Hoo Ah Kay, known as Whampoa, in exchange for land at Boat Quay.

Laurence Niven was hired as superintendent and landscape designer to turn what were essentially overgrown plantations and a tangle of virgin rainforest into a public park. The layout of the Gardens as it is today is largely based on Niven’s design. The Agri Horticultural Society, however, ran out of funds and, in 1874, the colonial government took over the management of the Gardens.

The first rubber seedlings came to the gardens from Kew in 1877. A naturalist, Henry Nicholas Ridley, or Mad Ridley as he was known, became director of the gardens in 1888 and spearheaded rubber cultivation. Successful in his experiments with rubber planting, Ridley convinced planters across Malaya to adopt his methods. The results were astounding; Malaya became the world’s number one producer and exporter of natural rubber.

Another achievement was the pioneering of orchid hybridisation by Professor Eric Holttum, director of the Gardens from 1925 to 1949. His techniques led to Singapore being one of the world’s top centres of commercial orchid growing. Today it also has the largest collection of tropical plant specimens.

During the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945, Hidezo Tanakadate, a professor of geology from Tohoku Imperial University, took over control of the Singapore Botanic Gardens and the Raffles Museum. At the beginning of the occupation, he ensured that no looting occurred in the Gardens and the Museum. Both institutions continued to function as scientific institutions. Holttum and Edred John Henry Corner were interned in the Gardens and instructed to continue their horticultural work. The Gardens was also renamed as Shōnan Botanic Gardens. Later that year, Dr. Kwan Koriba, a retired professor of botany from the Imperial University of Tokyo, arrived as Director of the Gardens, a post he held until the end of the war.

After the war, the Gardens was handed back to the control of the British. Murray Ross Henderson, curator of the Herbarium before the war, succeeded Holttum as director from 1949 to 1954.

The National Orchid Garden is the main attraction within the Botanic Gardens. The three-hectare site has a collection of more than 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids of orchids.

They were stunning and well worth the visit!

The Singapore Botanic Gardens has a small tropical rainforest of around six hectares in size, which is older than the gardens itself. The rainforest and its bigger cousin at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve are located within the Singapore’s city limits. Singapore is one of the only two major cities with a tropical rainforest within its city limits, the other being Tijuca Forest in Rio de Janeiro.

Located next to the National Orchid Garden is the Ginger Garden, a one-hectare garden which brings together members of the Zingiberaceae family.

The Botanic Gardens has three lakes, Symphony Lake, Eco-Lake and Swan Lake.

I can’t remember which of those lakes these little guys called home though!

There is also an Evolution Garden, a Children’s Garden and Botany Centre.

And a couple of other shots out and about in Singapore …

The Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot and national personification of Singapore. Its name combines “mer” meaning the sea and “lion”. The fish body represents Singapore’s origin as a fishing village when it was called Temasek, which means “sea town” in Javanese. The lion head represents Singapore’s original name — Singapura — meaning “lion city”.

It was the run up to Chinese New Year while I was there, so there were lots of decorations up in the streets and various New Year things for sale like these decorated orange trees.

• 12 Jan, 2013
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