Another worthy tree to highlight is the famous and magnificent timber tree, Tectona gandis (Family : Verbenaceae) or better known as Teak or Jati, found growing in Lawn L (near the Plant House). Tectona is derived from the Greek “tekton” meaning “carpenter” and the latin species epithet “grandis” means “large/grand”. Truly the botanical name describes the tree so perfectly!.

Tectona grandis

Tectona grandis - flowers & fruits

The Teak is a large deciduous tree about 40m in height. The light yellow-green leaves are simple, large and scruffy. This big tree has surprisingly very tiny white flowers that are born on large, open panicles. If you happen to see some strange looking greenish to brown bladder-like bulbous things scattered around the teaks - well, these are actually the fruits! The fruit is about 3cm long , enclosed in an inflated papery calyx that turns from pale green to brown. Teak is distributed from India to Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Java and Philippines.

Tectona grandis - leaves, flowers & fruits

Teak is one of the most valuable and best-known timbers in the world. Its wood contains a kind of scented oil that renders any teak furniture repellant to termites and other insects. It also weathers well and resists rot. Teak wood is popularly used for furniture, flooring, joinery, doors, panels, cavings, musical instruments, boat masts and decks, railway sleepers, mine props and even fuel. The trees can also be used as ornamental and shade trees. The Teack wood has also been used medicinally to treat headaches, swellings, skin inflammation and stomach-aches. The leaves can yeild a kind of dye used to colour clothings, mats, etc, and also used as food wrappers. In the old days, the rough leaves were even used to polish certain wood. Much of the world’s teak is now exported by Indonesia and Myanmar.

Have a closer look at the Teak next time you pass it and try finding its tiny white flowers and those strange fruits!

- by Nura Abdul Karim

Do you know where this is? It is one of the first Community Gardens in Singapore, and its success gave National Parks Board (NParks) the confidence to encourage gardeners to start up gardens in public open space in residential areas, schools and organisations, and Community in Bloom was born.

Still cannot guess where? Here is a clue - the “woodlands” in the background were landscape by my good friend, a Japanese Architect, Ren Matsui, who worked in Singapore in the 1980’s. His vision had been to turn this huge kampong and graveyard (yes, that is what it had been!) into the setting for the flats. His was a “City in a Garden” vision long before that idea became fashionable!

Still struggling to guess where? The community garden (at the bend in the path) is tended by some of Singapore’s pioneers. These are the true heroes of Community in Bloom. People who pitched in and helped.

Do you live near Bishan Park? You could garden too… Ren Matsui’s dream is coming true!

- by Simon Longman

Above : Magic Bean growing kit.

I am sure that many of us are familiar with the “Magic Bean” which hit the shelves of many gift stores of Singapore in 2006. For those who do not know what it is, the “Magic Bean” is actually a large, pink coloured bean that had been etched with short messages such as “I love you”.

The seed is stuffed inside a decorative tin can and together with some vermiculite, which it is to be grown in, the “Magic Bean” was marketed initially as a gift item for Valentine’s Day that shy individuals could use to convey their feelings.

By just adding water and a short wait of a couple of days, an over-sized bean seedling wakes from its dormancy and reveals the secret message on its gigantic cotyledons to its recipient.

Chinese New Year greetings and a lucky lottery number that were etched on to the seed

The words were reportedly etched onto the seed using a laser bean. Beans encoded with lottery number or festive greetings can now be found on sale in the market.

The original tin cans have made way for innovative yet attractive containers like those seen during the recent Chinese New Year this year, where beans bearing auspicious slogans are contained inside gold-painted plastic or clay eggs.

The large trifoliate leaves of the grown-up Magic Bean

The bean seedling usually sheds it message-encoded seed leaves within a fortnight and is discarded thereafter. Some sentimental individuals feeling for the innocent, weak-looking seedling would transplant it into a large pot or into the ground to grow. The seedling will put out its large trifoliate leaves and the vine that eventually result with twine around any support it can find.

The Magic Bean is a rampant vine

Given the right conditions, the seedling will turn into a large, vigorous climber in about 2 months. From the third month onwards, it should produce arching sprays of red or white coloured flowers. These will form into long green and flat been pods. When allowed to mature and dry on the vine, the pod, when split, will yield the familiar-looking pink beans, and of course, sans the laser-etched words.

So what is the actual identity of the ‘Magic Bean’?

See if you are able to guess the correct answer.

- by Wilson Wong

What a view!

As if living on a rooftop (well, nearly) wasn’t enough, I actually have a garden up here! The view is lovely (especially at night) but with the plants in the foreground and Singapore as the backdrop I have to say that the view is amazing. It’s spectacular and the novelty never wears off. Every time I look out from the rooftop garden I have no choice but to just stand and watch, silent and awed.

The fruits of my labour

Patience is a virtue, they say. And well, I’ve waited, and now the fruits of my labour have been borne (no pun intended), Here are a couple of pictures of my Chiku tree’s fruits. They are so sweet and delicious, especially so when they’re chilled. They may not be as huge as commercially farmed ones, but bigger isn’t always better.

Chiku Tree

- by Ng Cheow Kheng

My husband brought home an old friend from England for dinner last week. In after-dinner conversations over mint chocolate and Earl Grey tea, I was asked about my job. Being trained in horticulture, I happily declared that I get to apply what I studied directly in my work at HortPark, our gardening hub in the making. When Najib (our friend) asked what exactly horticulture is, I had a very technical response; “Horticulture comes from two Latin works: hortus meaning ‘garden’ and cultura meaning ‘cultivation’.”

So much for my clever response. In the course of tête-à-tête , we agreed that it was simply a name to describe a particular area of focus in the grand activity commonly known as gardening. Depending on the viewpoint, even agriculture and forestry can be said to be sciences or arts of gardening, are they not? For the fun of it, we then went on to look up as many fields of studies as we could find on the Internet that is associated with gardening from a broad perspective.

I thought it would be fun to share our findings (which I have summarized in the diagram below) in this gardening blog. I did not include some which have a more remote connection, such as entomology, which is the study of insects and its many kinds of interactions with humans and other life forms, including plants. Nevertheless, knowledge of insects is very useful in gardening. There are likely relevant specialized fields we have not managed to include. If you like to add to the list, I’m sure we will all be delighted to learn. Cheers.

Click on the picture have a clearer view on fields of studies associated with gardening

- by Tio Chieu Yoke