NONG NOOCH TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN

a colourful lizard

This photo was from a friend who visited the very beautiful garden in Pattaya, Thailand recently.

THAILAND - NONG NOOCH TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN

This is the last post on the botanical garden for this trip.

The Eucalyptus ptychocarpa is very tall and was sporting beautiful pink flowers. Then a deciduous looking tree with an almost bare crown reminded me of the yellow Delonix or was it just a Cassia tree? Ah, even the tall Schizolobium parahyba was covered with lots of interesting spatula-shaped fruits on its crown.

The date was just after Christmas and near to the chinese new year, hence there were displays of animals e.g. cows, from the chinese zodiac of the lunar calendar as well as reindeers. The beautifully sculpted green topiaries and low hedges reminded me somewhat of the stone hedge. Once again, there was a maze of formal garden low hedges.

There was a rather new addition of a house of artificial ants of the primary colours of blue, red and yellow. Then there was a young elephant ready to carry its next visitor on its back on our way out, which led us to a small nursery outside the garden which carried mostly common plants.

That concluded our day and trip as we made our way to the Suvarnabhumi Airport to catch the flight home. Farewell, Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Gardens. I wonder when I would step foot here again.

THAILAND - NONG NOOCH TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN

The first photo was actually taken at the Bangkok Butterfly Garden and Insectarium.

From the 2nd photo onwards, they were all taken at the Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden at Pattaya located south of Thailand. That was the last stop of the trip and we only had less than 2 hours before we had to leave for the airport, so it was quite a mad rush to go through the huge garden.

I so love this garden very much because it has lots of themes that I absolutely adore.

First up, the rockscape planting was just fabulously beautiful. I do admit it is not a garden for everywhere but it definitely wowed me. It was near the entrance to the garden and I must say I had a good first impression of the place following this.

The formal garden planted with a palette of tropical plants was astoundingly beautiful too. The topiaries of animals were amazing too. It is not everyone's cup of tea and might be contrived but I just love them so much because we have none of such a scale and grandeur back home.

The fountain with the manicured beds of contrasting colours at the Butterfly Hill marked the entrance to the flight enclosure. The height of the enclosure was around 4 m and beside the main entrance was the display case showing the butterfly pupae. However, that was probably the only thing I wasn't impressed with because I found the array of box lids, paper and twigs etc a tad unprofessional looking in terms of its presentation.

It was within the enclosure that I saw the beautiful red-flower Holmskioldia sanguinea and white-flower Antigonon leptopus that we do not have in Singapore. How I wish I could bring them back home.

Although the weather was damned hot, the entire garden was so impressive that I made a mental note to spend more time at this location if I ever visit this place again.