Gardens open to the Public > Good gardens to visit (Singapore)
Singapore Botanical Gardens
ideasguy:
These broadcast message are great for renewing old friendships.
I received a message from Jessie in Singapore. I asked permission and I'm doing this posting on Jessies behalf as she says:
--- Quote ---When I am more proficient, will certainly write in the forum..
--- End quote ---
Here goes:
--- Quote ---Had been very busy lately. I have also signed up with Singapore Botanical Gardens in helping them with specimens recordings and specimens photographing and maybe trying my hands with
Botanical drawings. Am working with this guy from Edinburgh's Botanical Gardens named Mark Hugh .
Still at the elementary stage of collecting specimens of the rainforest and keep learning from those people who has long departed but leaving their hand print behind, like Sir Henry Ridley and few others...
Saw his specimen date back 100 over years.
If you guys want to know something about rainforest and related vegetations, will be more than happy to share.
Will write when more interesting stuff comes up .
Cheers and best regards,
--- End quote ---
Well, to me, thats full of interest.
then a follow up email:
--- Quote ---Anyway.. I always like to steal time as it was never a luxury... So I steal time to help out in the Botanical garden as volunteer , taking Rainforest guiding also helping out in the Herbarium - trying to understand the specimens and I will manage to squeeze out some time on Sat.. will try to start my passion..
Botanical drawings of leaves, fruits of the rainforest...Actions speak louder.. embarrassing , so can't show much till I have enough work.
The Botanical Gardens usually organizes talks and also specimen collecting in the forest and perhaps jungle.. if I can I will tag along.. in touch with nature and what better way of enjoying it
when I have experience botanists there to guide me and explain to me how to recognize a calyphyllum or a memecylon or a melastromoteceae.. so mind boggling...so this is the
best way to learn... how to differentiate them..
Cheers,
catch up again.. and you have a good weekend. !
--- End quote ---
NightHawk:
George I was born in Singapore!
My Dad was in the Army (47 years man and boy) and we had two postings to Singapore. 1st posting was in the late 50's
then again within 3 years.
I have lots of memories, but as I was only 6 when we left I have forgotten too much which is sad..
I do remember what I think was the botanical gardens, my abiding memory is the large number of monkeys. We used to take peanuts in the shell and fed them ;D
I don't think there will be very much left surviving on the island from our time there. They were reclaiming swap land and dumping huge amounts of earth to enlarge the island.
Kathy :-*
ideasguy:
Maybe thats where you got you love for gardening, Kathy. Hopefully Jessie will join in and tell us more.
3fren:
Hi guys.. frustrating... I spent half hour writing about Singapore and when
I pressed the Post button, it tells me in the face.. " sorry , you exceeded your time "
Let me organize my thoughts again..and hmmmmm I found a brilliant idea... I will
write on my Words and copy and paste ! wow ! Failure is the Mother of Success !
Heard from me soon.. I will be back !
Cheers !
3fren:
Ah ..ha.. got it !
As far as I knew, forest with natural vegetation are plenty. There were tigers before the WWII, mousedeers, civet cats, wild boars, monkeys, crocodiles etc. Now we only have monkeys and squirrels. One day we spotted a huge turtle in the rainwater canal and we ?adeptly? called it the ?Lock Ness ? monster !.
Our kampong folks, when escaping the Japanese soldiers, hid in the jungle.
My mom saw a pair of ? lights? at a distance.. she knew it was a
tiger and prayed for it to go away. She also encountered ?green jumping lights?
and said these are ?ghost? lights, perhaps it might be the spirits of the forest.
Interesting thing they did, they started plucking the grass under their feet and
the lights get lower and lower till it disappeared..
In the early years, we lived in single storey houses , these are not ?slumps? as we read about Indonesia or India.. but houses with own ?compound?. Several
such compounds will form a village or we called it ?kampongs?.
Kathy may have stayed in special compound, we called it ?Black and White? and are preserved houses. They are very popular with expats here ? not cheap though. Rental can be from Euro 5,000 to 10000 a month.
Kathy, can you tell me where you stay and I will seek it out.. It may still be around.
Gillman Heights used to be populated by English Army personnels.
Houses back then are constructed with dried palm leaves (known as atap leaves) as roof and real timber for pillars, beams and wall ? these are painted white. Our floors are plain cement and we fill it up with one or two pieces of traditional furniture from China. ? it is very valuable antique now ? I still kept one.
Within the compounds, we would have our fruits trees such as durians, rumbutans, mangoes, mangosteen, bananas, custard apples, soursops, and many more. We have our own home grown greens , farm poultry and diary,
fresh fishes are plentiful cuz we are surrounded by sea.
Treatment for ills:
For constipation, we would gather some weeds and grass, boil with brown sugar,
down 2 to 3 times, and it was gone.
Stung by bees ? easy fix.. get the honey and rub on it.
Skin disorders, boils .. gather some herbs and weeds, boil it and bath in it
several times and it subsided.
Cancer, diabetics, kidney problems, all these are unheard of . sounds like a dream? so distant.. no? it was real?recollecting my childhood days.
Now, all these kampongs are gone. In it places are all the highrise.
up to 50 storeys ? housing, offices-cum- shopping.
Our gardens and playgrounds are on the.. maybe 10th or 30th floor
or the roof top of the shopping centre.. there is always a niche somewhere
up there for the office workers to relax and have a stick. .
Our National Library, located in the city.. about 16 storey high, has many gardens , 2 are opened to public .
The roof top of commercial buildings are converted to rooftop gardens for
relaxation.
The National Park Board (Npark) has done a fantastic job. Many specimens
from all over the world are brought in and planted on all roads and every parts of the island. We are testing the stress level of these trees and flower shrubs when planted beside the heavy traffic.
These migrants, gets very complacent here, plenty of sunshine, water and clean air.. they just grow fat and green but refuses to flowers and fruits. The Npark is facing the challenge to make them procreate.
Singapore Inc Is very business savvy?we had exported our knowledge to the
Arabian peninsula, starting with Dubai and moving inwards.
Cheers !
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