If trees would talk, then it would make writing stories on them an easy task. As this is not possible with trees in terms of talking as humans do, the way it is done to know more about them is through research, be it in science, the arts & the learning on our own or from others. 

Having an interest in gardening and trees, Mrs Chew Bee Theng (Helen Tan) was very happy to discover that a tree her husband planted around 1970 had survived the waves and tides of change and progress, and still standing strong today at busy Thomson Road (beside bus-stop no. 8 ). She had contacted NParks to request for its identification.

Angsana Tree along Thomson Rd

Hock Keong and I were both eager to meet up with Mr and Mrs chew that morning to share with them what we knew about the Angsana Tree (Pterocarpis indicus) and to find out more about what that tree meant to the couple, who are parent of four grown-up children. We measured its girth to be 4.5m and estimated height 25m.

Mr & Mrs Chew

They told us that up to about 2000, they had operated a coffee shop, food and drinks business at Thomson Rd. Mr Chew, a young man then, was helping his dad at their shop when three cut branch saplings were planted around 1971 onto the site in front of the building block along the road. This surviving tree is the middle one as the other two had long been removed (or killed by termites?) and replaced with Yellow Flames (Peltophorum pterocarpum). During those days, an older and more experienced neighbour had taught him how to grow Angsana tree saplings from cut branches and they had salvaged the tree cut branch saplings from other pruned trees for planting at this site.

Mr Chew also encouraged other shop tenants to do the same as well in front of their block. Within 5 years, the trees planted had grown a canopy each to provide some shade to the shop houses. Planting trees and gardening had certainly brough fond memories for these folks in this community. They had hoped that this tree would continue to be retained and maintained, even after they were no longer tenants of the shop.

Mr &Mrs Chew, and Ms Yap.

As at June 2008, Mrs Chew expressed gratitude and thanks for the survival of this Angsana tree, which had provided the much needed shade for their shop in those days from the mid day and setting sun. She was delighted she is able to take pictures of this tree with her family. She also told us that she has a balcony garden, filled with potted plants at her apartments in Woodlands which she enjoyed with her neighbours. Her friends and visitors had exclaimed in delight that her garden is like a forest! Hurray!

Brendon Phuah

Today was an exhausting day for me but one that was very fulfilling. I was “gardening” all day long or more exactly, involved in various gardening-related activities which started at about 10 am in the morning which lasted only in the evening.

The first event was community planting at HortPark which commenced at about 10 am. I was so tired out by work in the past week that I overslept quite a bit and had to take a cab to rush down to Hyderabad Road. The skies were overcast and that meant quite a comfortable day ahead without the glaring sun that was well-suited for outdoor gardening.
My friends, namely, Albert, Chong Ren, Eng Ong, Phillipe and Xuan Hong, were also there to support the community planting event organised by the Community in Bloom (CIB) at their display plot at HortPark. Shirley from CIB invited us from Green Culture Singapore to introduce us to gardening enthusiasts from the various community gardening groups. It was nice to be able to meet up and interact with fellow community gardeners! Tak a look at the pictures below that are saturated with lots of smiling faces that I took during the community planting event:

It is a good initiative by the CIB to organise community planting sessions at the CIB plot at HortPark. In my opinion, this serves as a good opportunity for community gardeners from various groups to come together to know each other. After the casual planting activity was over, we were treated to some refreshments and I felt quite pampered as the CIB has ordered some Delifrance coffee and tea as well as some pastries. How nice right?

We then adjourned to the Fruit Room located below the Visitor Centre at HortPark for a talk by Dr Varughese Philip from the Agri-Veterinary Authority (AVA) on the fertilisation of plants. He covered some basic knowledge on plant nutrients, the types of organic and inorganic fertilisers that can be used to feed our plants and ways to spot nutrient deficiencies in our plants. These are something that would be useful for beginners. I was happy to meet up a friend, Ms Rosalind Tan, our famous Madame Butterfly from Alexandra Hospital, whom I have known from doing gardening, at the talk.

The activities at HortPark ended roughly at about 1pm and I was back in my lab in NUS to do some labwork. I guess I was a little slow with the work on hand but I knew I cannot rush through the cell culture work that I have planned to do. I have to be meticulous and focussed with what I was doing and that took me a full two hours. It was around 3pm when I was done and I have to take another trip via a taxi to fly me down to Bishan Community Library to attend a talk that was organised by GCS, CIB and the National Library Board (NLB) at 3.30pm.  The speaker of the talk was Mr Gan Cheong Weei, a fellow member from the GCS discussion forum. As mentioned before, he is a butterfly enthusiast as well as a avid Nature photographer and in this talk, Mr Gan shared with members of the public on how to use the popular “point and shoot” digital cameras to take good plant pictures. It was very well-received, I must sat as the room was filled. The talk was concise and definitely not too technical. The tips given throughout his talk were very useful as well.

 

Wilson Wong