BAY EAST

These photos were taken recently at Bay East. Some of the beautiful plants featured here include:

• Canna cultivars
• Duranta cultivars
• Cyanotis cristata
• Carphalea kirondron 

HUB

I think plants are sometimes being misunderstood by humans, but so are humans.

Anyway, I like these photos taken at the Hub, which is otherwise known as the Canopy, and the silhoulette in the first where the regal Delonix regia stood out in the center with its beautiful trunk and fine leaves and the Cloud Forest conservatory on its right. The various shaped earthen pots, planted with Eichhornia crassipes (common name: Water Hyacinth) arranged in the front cast shadows on the bed of purple-leaved Cyanotis cristata.


Pink and purple are the main colours of this garden. This is a sight to cherish.

SEA OF PLANTS

This is a sea of plants, beautiful plants to be exact. 


Frankly, I love Bougainvilleas and can understand why they are so popular, especially with their versatility and multiple uses in the landscape e.g. border plants, bonsai plants, climbers. However, their popularity waned here as more and more new plant species and cultivars are introduced over the years to replace these overused beauties. 


I personally feel very motivated to use them in my landscaping whenever I see this sea of colourful flowers. In fact, I planted some of them in HortPark previously and am now introducing them to the newest garden that I am managing. How can anyone not be in love with them?


As for the Cyanotis cristata, it is a wonderful plant to be used in rooftop gardens because of its ease of maintenance and interesting physiology. Under strong intense light or dry conditions, the leaves tend to be more purple. But when there is a lot of rainfall or there is high soil moisture, the leaves turn more green. A sea of its small purplish flowers with bluish stamens and yellow anther caps look so adorable when viewed close-up. I am now trying to use it as a bed of groundcover and I know it works because it was successfully implemented to replace the former Ruellia brittoniana on a rooftop above the F&B outlet at Admiralty Park. 

VANTAGE

These photos were taken from the little known rooftop garden at the Hort Centre. This is the highest vantage point at HortPark.

The entrance was located at an obscure corner of the building and to get up, one has to climb up 3 flights of stairs. That also explained why I have not been up there for a while.

But on that day, I needed to get away for a few short minutes and at the same time, I wanted to check out the growth and performance of Cyanotis cristata and other plants etc.

So anyway, as expected, the Cyanotis was doing very well at this very sunny location. Some other beds had lots of weeds which crept onto the white panel towards the walkway. From this view, one can see the dense forest cover at Kent Ridge Park, parts of the Silver Garden and Floral Walk, as well as the construction of the curved buildings at the new Reflections at Keppel Bay.