Be wowed by floral and garden displays by award winning designers

Be wowed by floral and garden displays by award winning designers as Singapore Garden Festival returns

Singapore Garden Festival returns after four years with display at popular shopping malls ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City as well as Singapore’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site

SINGAPORE, 29 July 2022 – The eighth edition of the Singapore Garden Festival (SGF) makes a return after four years. The festival, which opens to the public tomorrow, will be held at the heart of the city, Orchard Road, at ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Singapore Botanic Gardens. An awards ceremony for the highly competitive Show Garden Competition and Community Garden Edibles Competition was held this evening at ION Art, graced by Guest-of-Honour, Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister & Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies. The event was hosted by Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development and Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration.

Organised by the National Parks Board (NParks), this year’s festival will be taking place across two locations, Orchard Road and the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The two locations will make the festival much more accessible and allow the festival to reach a larger audience. SGF runs till 7 August at the malls located at Orchard Road and till 9 August at various locations within Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The Singapore Garden Festival supports ongoing efforts, which were first announced in 2019, to rejuvenate Orchard Road as a lifestyle destination and a lush green urban corridor. Under the first thrust, Orchard Road will offer new, differentiated experiences beyond retail to cater to various interests. The second thrust is to ‘Bring Back the Orchard’, where greenery along Orchard Road will be enhanced to form a lush green urban corridor with pocket parks, gardens, and multi-layered planting of shrubs and trees, showcasing a range of herbs, spices and fruit trees. The festival is part of these efforts and brings a differentiated concept to the precinct while enhancing the area’s appeal to both locals and tourists.

Be surprised by towering floral and garden displays at Orchard Road

Visitors can begin their journey as they exit from Orchard MRT station at ION Orchard, a venue sponsor for SGF. Visitors can head over to ION2 L1 and be greeted by two life-sized floral installations by local award-winning floral designers Harijanto Setiawan (Boenga Flowers) and John Lim (This Humid House).

The “Echoes of Almeda” by Harijanto echoes the dream-like experience of walking along a serene pathway – utilising bamboo accents, a fiberglass pond, and flowers to instil a sense of tranquillity and allow visitors to have their own interpretation of the piece. John and his team from This Humid House present the “Vessel Garden” display, inspired by archaeology and the relationship between vessels and flora. It features vessels that are significant to Southeast Asian cultural and anthropological heritage, accompanied by aquatic plants, subsistence plants and more that will bring forth the kampong spirit.

Be inspired by the community’s best grown edibles

With a growing interest in gardening since the pandemic, visitors can check out what other community gardeners and hobbyists have grown at the Community Garden Edibles Competition located at ION2 L1. More than 400 entries were submitted by gardening enthusiasts across all 10 categories – namely Tomato, Cucumber, Pumpkin, Melon, Gourd, Beans, Lady’s Finger, Brinjal, Root Vegetable and an Open Category.

This year’s competition brings the entries one notch up as instead of only focusing on the largest or the longest, the displays were assessed based on quality of harvest such as its condition, colour, presentation standard, difficulty of growing and more. Participants in the open category are also judged on uniqueness such as unusual characteristics, form, colour, texture and uncommon cultivar or species.

The most popular categories were the Lady’s Finger and Gourd, which each received around 60 entries. In the Open Category, the top three winning entries were a Marrow Courgette Primula, a Silver Skin Onion and a Romano Sweet Pepper.

Please refer to factsheet on Community Garden Edibles Competition for more details.

Competitive garden displays by award-winning designers

Head over to Civic Plaza, Ngee Ann City to view the competitive Show Garden Competition entries. As a world-class premier international horticultural show, SGF draws award-winning garden and landscape designers from around the world. Only landscape designers who have won awards in their own country are invited to participate, adding to the prestige of being part of the festival. As many countries transition to living with the pandemic, this year’s event saw designers from Australia, France and the United Kingdom flying into Singapore to compete against some of Singapore’s best designers.

Amongst the six competitive plots, local designers Eliam Eng and Andy Eng have clinched a Gold Award, and the Best of Show and Best Construction Award for their garden titled “The Orchard Bridge”. The garden design was inspired by the history of Orchard Road where it was once lined with pepper farms, fruit orchards and nutmeg plantations, which has now transformed into a bustling boulevard. Their implementing partner is Nyee Phoe Flower Garden Pte Ltd. 

Australia designer Christian Jenkins also received a Gold Award for his creation titled “Inner Growth Garden” together with implementing partner Tropic Planners & Landscape Pte Ltd. This eye-catching garden highlights the possibility of a luxurious tropical escape within an urban landscape while also giving visitors time to reflect, meditate, and appreciate the richness of the natural world. United Kingdom designer Tony Woods together with implementing partner Limelite Productions Pte Ltd picked up the Horticulture Excellence Award in addition to a Silver Award for his display titled “Green Rise”.

Please refer to factsheet on Show Garden Competition for more details.

“It is very exciting for garden designers from all over the world, including myself to congregate in Singapore after so long. Singapore Garden Festival has established itself as a must-attend event, not only because it takes place in a tropical environment, but also because it brings together la crème de la crème of the industry! This year, the organisers have outdone themselves by bringing the festival to the middle of the city, at Orchard Road. The unique venue of this year’s Singapore Garden Festival, in the middle of Singapore’s main shopping street, will create an extraordinary atmosphere and public visibility that has never been achieved before,” said Mr Pascal Garbe, Head Judge of the Show Garden Competition and Singapore Gardeners’ Cup.

Unusual plant displays by National Parks Board

A six-metre-tall display garden featuring a cascading waterfall structure titled “A Botanical Fantasy” created by the NParks team will be at the front and centre of Civic Plaza, Ngee Ann City. This exhibit brings visitors through a range of landscapes, from a wind-swept coast to an inundated marsh, before transitioning to a lush rainforest and a misty mountain. Visitors will be able to discover a diversity of plants that exist in a variety of habitats. Some interesting and unusual plants on display include a fascinating array of carnivorous plants in the bog garden, such as Sarracenia (Trumpet Pitcher plants), Dionaea (Venus Fly Traps) and Nepenthes (Monkey Cups).

Other highlights at Singapore Botanic Gardens

The Singapore Botanic Gardens will also be hosting the Orchid Competition, at the National Orchid Garden, co-organised with the Orchid Society of South East Asia (OSSEA). Visitors can look forward to an array of over 400 rare and exquisite orchids from all around the world.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site is also the host location for the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) Landscape Design Challenge and the Singapore Gardeners’ Cup at Eco-Garden, Bukit Timah Core, and a physical MarketPlace at Tyersall Coach Park, Central Core featuring over 50 retailers. The Singapore Botanic Gardens Heritage Festival is held in conjunction with SGF this year.

For more details on live programming happening at the event sites, do visit Singapore Garden Festival at https://sgf.nparks.gov.sg/ and Facebook.com/SGGardenFest. Visitors can vote for their favourite display at Orchard Road and stand to win shopping vouchers and/or vote for their favourite display at Singapore Botanic Gardens and stand to win a home hydroponics system.

For those who prefer to shop from the comfort of their homes, they can also visit the exclusive e-marketplace on Shopee at https://sgf.nparks.gov.sg/show-highlights/singapore-botanic-gardens/marketplace.

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