ACANTHUS ILICIFOLIUS VARIEGATED

The original form of this sea holly grows as a back mangrove plant. The variegated form is absolutely unique and beautiful and provides a good texture to any landscape or display.

Even without the flowers, the whorled leaves are just a sight to behold, although one should resist the temptation and refrain from grabbing it as you would be greeted with a grimaced look on your face after being pricked by the heavily thorned leaf margin.

Now that christmas is approaching, this sea holly may be a good decorative plant for the occasion though it should not be displayed where there are curious and running children as they may hurt themselves if they fall on or touch the leaves. Hence, it is also not suitable for every garden.

NB on 3 Mar 11: I forgot to correct the identity of this plant as Acanthus mollis.

STROBILANTHES CUSIA

The photos here do not do justice to this interesting plant which can grow to at least 1.5 m. It is best grown as a single specimen plant in a landscape and should be allowed to tower over the lower plants grown with it to best effect.

The green leaves give character to this plant with its prominent veins. The numerous small pinkish flowers hang at different levels giving it an effect of dangling bells.

Another interesting thing is this plant is a host plant to the butterfly Chocolate Pansy.

ASCELPIAS FRUTICOSA

I came across the Asclepias curassavica (Blood Flower) only when I was planting up HortPark. It is a very gorgeous plant that is also a butterfly host plant to the Plain Tiger and now we have the red and yellow flower varieties at HortPark.

I first saw the white flower variety at Hua Hng in 2008 but due to some miscommunication, I did not buy it. Subsequently it was no longer available.

Then my staff and I came across the interesting fruit capsules as cut flower stalks at Far East Flora. Frankly, I didn't know the capsules were from A. fruticosa until my staff told me. We ended up buying some of the stalks of the fruit capsules and he tried propagating it via plant cuttings.

Most did not grow and eventually only one stalk managed to grow. Finally from it, he managed to propagate a few plants. The flowers are as shown above whilst the fruit capsules are shown below. Both photos were taken on 18 Dec 09.

URARIA CRINITA

The Uraria looked so pretty that I couldn't resist taking more photos of it on 18 Dec 09. Here are the additional photos.

COMPASS POINT

When I visited Compass Point on 17 Dec 09, I was greeted by this 2 sided-christmas display.

But nothing beat the excitement I felt when I saw the beautiful pendulous bells hanging from the ceiling next to the MRT station and the 2 colour-coordinated styles of christmas trees, within METRO, that were adorned with masks worn at masquerade parties! To me, they looked much better and more innovative than the decor along the entire Orchard Road put together.

COFFEE

I must have my daily dose of cheap coffee shop coffee lest I become grouchy and sleepy.

I had one yesterday morning at breakfast and once during lunch. The funny thing was, I spilled the coffee on both occasions. I must qualify that I have not spilled my coffee since I don't know when but I did it twice yesterday.

To mark this occasion, I took this photo of the natural but artistic spilled effect on the table before the auntie fervently wiped it all away. She must be wondering what a weird guy I was.

URARIA CRINITA

Ah, this Uraria immediately grabbed my attention when I walked in to my office nursery yesterday. In fact, it was more compact, had slightly variegated leaves and had more inflorescence spikes than the ones I saw at One Utama in early Nov 09.

It was grown by my staff again and I must really say he knows how to make his plants grow and display them at the right time and place. Hopefully my other bosses are as impressed by his works as me.

Time for me to plan once again where to plant it at HortPark.

NATIONAL LIBRARY

The National Library at Bras Basah Road was constructed to replace the one at Stamford Road. It is definitely a more modern building with garden skydecks and takes on a more systematic approach and stronger theme to the landscaping along Victoria Street, Middle Road and North Bridge Road.

Meanwhile, within the building are pockets of landscaping shown here in the photos taken on 14 Dec 09.

RAFFLES CITY

Raffles City, a place that I have not been for a long while, was already decorated in preparation for Christmas.

I actually love the shimmering effect under the sun and wind and clean silver yellow colour scheme as shown on this photo taken on 14 Dec 09. Unfortunately the words "Glitzy Christmas" did not come up well as there were just too much shimmers!

The tree did not do anything for me as it just looks too bland for a major festive season like Christmas. I guess everywhere the decoration is scaled down due to the economic recession.

SELEGIE ROAD

These old HDB blocks along Selegie Road became an icon only after they were upgraded and painted in red and white.

Just like the blocks in Rochor Centre that were painted green, yellow, blue and red, the blocks never stood out in this cityscape until they were given a of fresh coat of bright paint!

On the left of this photo is a new institutional building and on the right are concrete foundation blocks that tell of a development project that would sprout up in its place.

Would these HDB blocks remain amidst the changing landscape? Would we lose it like our National Library at Stamford Road and National Theatre at River Valley Road? Whilst these blocks do not hold as much heritage value as the former 2 iconic buildings, they hold a place in my heart.

I am sure it holds a much bigger place in my classmate's heart as he was still staying there the last time we were in contact with each other. A few of us used to gather at his place to play board games e.g. Risk, before we go out for our makan or movies etc. It has been years since he spoke of plans to move to a bigger place with his parents and I suppose he no longer stays there?

NEW MRT LINE CONSTRUCTION

The new MRT line construction is underway and trees e.g. Rain Tree, along Rochor Road, Sungei Road and Bukit Timah Road (beside Little India MRT) were felled to make way for it.

Presumably, these trees would be transplanted out to other places? It's sad to see them go as I had a hand in planting some of them.

WANTON

Under normal circumstances, you will not find me talk about food because I am just not a food person at all. But I cannot resist blogging about this wanton noodle and soup at Rochor Centre. The photo was taken on 12 Dec 09.

I don't know about others but I am simply crazy with this stall's wanton. So far, I don't know of anyone who is as hard up on this as me. I used to eat it

every morning with a colleague before we go to work at Gateway West. The chili and peppered soup are also to my liking and the noodles are usually quite q.

I must eat this every time I go down to the area to collect my comic books, about once every 2 months. Each time, I would order and eat at least 2 plates of dried noodles and a bowl of wanton soup. Even then, at $2.50 or $3 a plate (there are 2 sizes), I feel the serving is too small to quench my appetite as I would finish the noodles in just a few mouthfuls! Usually a week before I plan to collect my comic books, I would get all excited just thinking of the noodles.

RAVENIA SPECTABILIS (VARIEGATED)

The Ravenia spectabilis is a slow growing shrub with green waxy hard leaves and red flowers. This is another personal favourite plant of mine as it is pest free!

Now there is this variegated leaf variety with pink flowers. It is always a delight to see the beautiful pink flowers contrast sharply against the yellowish-green leaves.

It is a plant you will never miss in a planted landscape due to its stirking colours.

BUDDLEIA DAVIDII

This is another Buddleia that has a different appeal of its own. It was propagated by my staff who received the plant from his friend who was overseas.

In fact, this is the light lilac flower variety as there is another darker purple flower variety that we have.

It has a more low sprawling habit compared to the Buddleia asiatica in the background. So far, I have seen various butterflies e.g. Common Birdwing, Common Rose, feeding on the flowers for their nectar. In overseas, it is recorded as a butterfly nectar plant.

This is also one plant that I used in the Garden of Seasons as it gives a more exotic feel to the garden since it is not planted anywhere else in Singapore (at least that is what I think).

Well, so far our propagation efforts did pay off with this batch of sizeable plants but a problem we encountered is the plants start to wilt and die one by one. It could be this plant is susceptible to a fungal wilt disease. Until we are able to propagate a more resistant variety, it may be hard for us to introduce it to our parks and streetscape.

PHYLLANTHUS CUSCUTIFLORUS

This is one Phyllanthus that I really love because of its new flushes of small light pink leaves and the numerous clusters of small pendulous pink flowers that line the entire branch. This photo taken on 11 Dec 09 does not do this shrub justice.

It can grow up to 2 m and when the plant displays the new leaf flushes and is in bloom, it looks magnificent. The contrast of pink leaves against the older lime green and dark green leaves provide a stronger textural feel. To me, the appeal is subtle rather than overpowering as it does not deploy any of those bright colours e.g. red, to grab your attention. The beautiful pink dangling flowers have a soft allure to it.

It should form a beautiful low hedge and I am training it to see if it can be grown as a standard plant.

BUDDLEIA ASIATICA

Ah, this is a lovely shrub. When left to grow without much pruning, it assumes a tall loose habit of almost 2 m and frequently puts out panicles of white flowers that almost always attract insects e.g. day-flying moth, butterflies. This photo was taken on 11 Dec 09.

The fragrance of this flower is overpowering and you can smell it from a distance. It always reminds me of Citharexylum which has similar strings of fragrant white flowers.

It is definitely a must-have for every garden!

NB on 27 Aug 12: I would have posted this before and this plant was previously misidentified as Buddleia asiatica. It is actually an Aloysia virgata.

MOTH CATERPILLARS

My staff showed me these clump or bunch of weird looking yellow caterpillars on 11 Dec 09. This time round, I dared not touched them and only glanced and took photos of them.

We will see what you grow into over the next few weeks!

BELL

After we went for our short morning walk on 15 Dec 09, I thought you were dying and was extremely worried. I thought you finally succumbed to liver failure after taking years of medication.

You did not eat, drink or peed the whole day. You only laid on the cushion or floor and refused to do anything else. You looked listless and tired. Most of the time, your eyes were closed or half closed. Even when I carried you, you didn't flinch or made any attempts to struggle free. You simply laid there as if you had no more energy to do anything.

You refused to come for your usual snacks and wasn't excited when I beckoned you to go for a walk when these seem to be the only 2 things in your life that make you excited and jump for more on normal days.

Fortunately, you woke up better on 16 Dec 09 and I saw you ate and drank lots of water. Otherwise, I would have to stay home to watch over you instead of going to work. Today, you were almost back to your usual self!

And that itself is a huge relief.

RAIN

It started raining last night and it was still raining as I type this. But it seems to have simmered down quite a bit.

Hopefully I can go out soon. Don't get me wrong, I love rain but I have some programmes lined up for today and does not want it to be affected.

FICUS RELIGIOSA

I see this tree along Pasir Panjang Road almost everyday when I go to work. I retained another one of this within HortPark on a slope.

A colleague recently remarked there was nothing special about the tree I conserved at HortPark. I suppose to her, she was only seeing it at face value and it didn't help that the time she saw it was when the tree was almost bald.

This was supposed to be the tree underwhich Buddha attained enlightenment, hence it's name. I love it because when the new flushes of leaves are out, they are pinkish and together with the light yellowish-green leaves, prominent veins and drip-tip, it gives the tree a beautiful look when viewed under the rays of the sun. The photo was taken on 11 Dec 09.

I hope more people would appreciate this tree as much as I do.