As part of this year’s series under the ‘Community in Bloom’ (CIB) Programme, in collaboration with the National Library Board (NLB), Mr. Robin Ngiam from the National Biodiversity Centre treated kids at the Ang Mo Kio Public Library with a wonderful presentation on dragonflies showcasing the insect’s life history and vibrancy.

Robin interacting with the children at AMK library.

With audience consisting of children between 5 to 12 years of age and their families, Robin shared on the many ways we can appreciate dragonflies in our community and the simple things that we can do to help conserve the dragonflies in Singapore.

During the talk, the children were also shown live samples of dragonfly pupaes and larvaes and had the opportunity to extend their curiosity towards the beautiful and vivid insect.

The next talk in this series is on “Growing Leafy Vegetables” by Mr Wang, a Principal Technologist in Horticulture Branch, Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA). The talk would be held at the Jurong Regional Library on Saturday 25 April 2009, 3pm to 4pm. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Lim Chong Han

HortPark’s Fruit Room was filled to its brim last Saturday! More than 100 gardening enthusiasts attended the talk on  ‘D.I.Y Vertical Wall’ by Mr Albert Quek. The talk was jointly organized by Hort Excellence, Community in Bloom, HortPark and Green Culture Singapore.

Mr Albert Quek sharing his experience on D.I.Y vertical gardening to the audience

Guided tour of the indoor vertical well showcase outside HortPark Lifestyle Corner

 In conjunction with the talk, a showcase of four different types and systems of vertical gardens was specially put up at the Lifestyle Corner. Participants of the talk were invited to a guided tour of the Lifestyle Corner with a special briefing on the vertical gardens on display. Due to the overwhelming response, the guided tour of the Lifestyle Corner had to be done twice!

A D.I.Y Vertical Garden showcase done by Mr Albert Quek at HortPark

 Mr Albert Quek is the first runner-up of the balcony gardens category in the recent Community in Bloom Awards competition. His innovation has been highlighted several times in Straits Times Life!

Red is the colour of the day at the Garden Patch in HortPark. Drop by and you would definitely not miss the flaming performance by our resident Cowa Mangosteen (Garcinia cowa), who has been dressing up in startling scarlet since Good Friday. 

As its vernacular name implies, this lowland forest tree from India, Indochina and Malaysia is a relative of the common Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) and Assam Gelugor (Garcinia atroviridis). The Garcinia genus itself is named in honour of French botanist and naturalist, Laurent Garcin (1683-1751), who travelled widely in India.

A common characteristic shared by many Garcinia and other tropical tree species is the “flush” of vividly-coloured emergent leaves.  No, it’s not because the young ones are shy, but as many botanists have hypothesized, the colour might serve the dual function of acting as a sunscreen for the tender leaves, as well as to simultaneously flash a warning sign to potential herbivores –“Red. Do not even try.” Even in its normal drapes of green, the Cowa Mangosteen makes for an attractive 12m tall tree with shiny languorous foliage, which imparts a soothing texture to the landscape.

Similar to humans and unlike most plants in the flora kingdom, this species is divided into male and female individuals. The latter produce apricot-coloured fruits the size of small oranges. Although edible raw, the fruit may not be very palatable due to the sharp acidity of its orange pulp. Therefore the fruits are usually made into preserves, or used to add a sour kick to fish and crab dishes in countries like Vietnam and Thailand. The young shoots are also edible, and are consumed for their rich levels of Vitamins A and C. In addition, the multi-talented Cowa Mangosteen is sometimes employed as a rootstock for grafting specimens of the common Mangosteen tree, whose fruits we also enjoy.

So what is Cowa good for? Quite a number of things, it seems… besides being red.

By: Plant Information Unit (NParks)

While I was on my way back after visiting a community gardener at Punggol Fields estate last Saturday, I noticed that a friend of mine was actually checking out one of the trees planted along the road side. It was rather uncanny that a tree has managed to capture his attention - he has never been a ‘tree person’, and he was hurrying me to get lunch just minutes ago!

So what was it that caught his eye?  I had thought that it would be colorful flowers, or maybe unique foliage, but I was wrong – he was eyeing the clusters of white pear-shaped fruits that were the size of Quails’ eggs! Oh well, what can you expect from a hungry man? He was spot on though – the succulent fruits of Cordia sebestena ‘Aurea’ (commonly known as the Geiger tree) are ¹reputedly edible, albeit rather mucilaginous.        

Tree planted along Punggol Fields estate

Ripe fruits

Ripe fruits

Unripe fruits are green – this was photographed in another housing estate

The Geiger tree is native to West Indies, where it can be found growing along coastal areas. In Singapore, it has been used in roadside plantings in estates or areas that are located near to the coast, such as Telok Blangah road and around Punggol housing estate. Apart from being a prized ornamental, other uses have also been recorded for this plant. In Hawaii, a ²red dye is extracted from the leaves, which can be used to color yarn.

Flowers of C. sebestena ‘Aurea’ – small honeybees often visit the flowers for food

While it can grow up to a height of 25 feet (approximately 7.5m), they usually flower even when they are much smaller, which is ideal for those who would like to observe the blossoms up close.

Back to my friend – so smitten was he by the bright orange blossoms that he asked if he could buy the tree off a nursery somewhere! As another friend and I watched him talking about variegated Tembusu (Fragraea fragrans) and other trees that he saw in Thailand, we’re pretty sure that he is now a ‘Tree convert’ and that many more will be added to his grow list in time to come, thanks to a humble Cordia in a roadside planting!

Tree @ Sin Ming Court housing estate.

References:

1. Peter Hanelt, R buttner, Rudolf Mansfeld , Ruth Kilian. (2001) Mansfeld’s encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops. Insitut fur Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung Gatersleben, Germany. Springer.

2. Krohn-Ching, Val. (1980) Hawaii Dye plants and Dye Recipes. University of Hawaii Press

Lily Chen

If you were to walk past the dust bins in front of my house at night, you are likely to be greeted by a sweet fragrance. Do you know why? It’s because we have planted a flowering shrub called the Solandra Longiflora next to our front gate.

Solandra longiflora

This is the Solandra Longiflora. It is also called the Trumpet Plant (光梭朗茄) or Chalice Vine. It has huge beautiful light yellow flowers which give off a sweet fragrance at night. As you can see from the photo below, it flowers quite profusely. As such, we occasionally have passers-by ringing our door bell asking for stem cuttings.

It is a very easy plant to grow. We grew ours from a stem cutting given by a neighbour. Another attraction of this plant; especially for oldie bloggers like me is that it attracts the leaf spider which I used to catch as a kid in my kampong days.

Datura metel

Besides the Solandra Longiflora, we have another trumpet plant called the Datura Metel or Angel’s Trumpet (洋金花, 曼陀罗) according to this website. But I also came across another website which gave its common name as Devil’s Trumpet or Thorn Apple. Very confusing. Anyway, this one has purple flowers. It is also quite easy to propagate. After the flower dies, it leaves behind a big fruit with lots of seeds which can be used to propagate new plants. We bought a pot of from a nursery some years ago. And today, we have several of them growing in our garden.

A third trumpet plant

Recently, we acquired yet another trumpet plant. This one was a gift from one of my son’s pitcher plant forum buddies. We planted it in a pot and it grew quickly. The flower of this one is even bigger than the other two. Interestingly, the colour of the flower changes from white to a tinge of orange after a few days. Now with three species of trumpet plants in our garden, I suspect we have the largest collection of trumpet plants in the street where I live.

I leave you with a quiz question. What is the name of this third trumpet plant? Answer is found here.

Lum Chun See

A talk on “Introduction to the Cultivation of African Violets” was conducted in Mandarin last Saturday afternoon at Jurong West Public Library, as part of a series under the ‘Community in Bloom’ (CIB) Programme, in collaboration with Green Culture Singapore (GCS) and the National Library Board (NLB).

An intense hobbyist on the growing of African Violets, the speaker, Mr Tan Eng Ong (from GCS), shared his experience on growing these colourful plants and their growing requirements such as temperature regulation, lighting, soil-mix, fertilizing, watering, propagation techniques and pest control in our local climate.  He also explained the various techniques to ensure that the plants do not show signs of stress and blossom.  The audience was treated to pictures of the beautiful plants grown by Mr Tan in their glorious blooms of different shades of blues, whites, pinks and reds, which explains why African violets are popular houseplants worldwide and appeal to many avid gardeners.  Before the session ended, Mr Tan shared on vegetative propagation of these plants for exchange with fellow enthusiasts and friends. 

Mr Tan Eng Ong sharing his knowledge on growing African Violets at home successfully.

Do join us for more interesting talks scheduled for the month of April!

“Let the dragons fly: Showcasing Singapore’s dragonflies”
Date: 18 Apr, Sat
Time: 3pm – 4pm
Venue: AMK Public Library, Activities Room
Language: English

Note: Session for Kids only. Suitable for children age 5 to 12 years old

“D.I.Y Vertical Garden”
Date: 18 Apr, Sat
Time: 3pm – 4.30pm
Venue: HortPark, Fruit Room
Language: English

Note: No registration or reservation is needed. Members of public are welcome.

“Growing Leafy Vegetables”
Date: 25 Apr, Sat
Time: 3pm – 4pm
Venue: Jurong Regional Library, Programme Zone
Language: English

Note: No registration or reservation is needed. Members of public are welcome.