Community efforts shine at Singapore Garden Festival 2022

Singapore Garden Festival (SGF) opens to the public today with its eighth edition, after a four-year hiatus, with a variety of displays and exhibits at two new locations along Orchard Road – ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City – which includes non-competitive floral installations by local award-winning floral designers and the all-time favourite Show Garden Competition entries. Members of the public can also look forward to its Singapore Botanic Gardens segment that offers a wide range of community-led displays and competitions. Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development and Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration officially opened the Festival as well as gave out the awards for the Orchid Competition.

Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration Mr Desmond Lee said: “I am thrilled to see the Singapore Garden Festival buzzing again after a four-year hiatus with award-winning plants and landscape displays, showcasing both horticultural know-how and artistry. I thank the gardeners, competitors and landscape designers for sharing their talent and vision with us, as well as the volunteers for their time and effort in making the festival possible. We hope that the return of the festival to new locations at Orchard Road and Singapore Botanic Gardens will bring the Festival closer to the community. This will provide more opportunities for all of us to nurture an appreciation for gardening and greenery as we transform Singapore into a City in Nature.”

Spectacular display of orchids at the National Orchid Garden

Members of the public visiting the Singapore Botanic Gardens can look forward to over 500 exquisite submissions for the Orchid Competition, organised in partnership with the Orchid Society of South East Asia (OSSEA), at the National Orchid Garden. These orchids, including warm and cool-growing species and hybrids found in different regions around the world, have been grown by hobbyists as well as industry players.

The top accolades at the Orchid Competition go to:

Competitions showcasing creativity from the community

The popular competition Singapore Gardeners’ Cup returns this year with five garden displays put together by 40 Community in Bloom (CIB) gardening groups. Themed “Gardeners’ Fantasia”, each display features various aspects of what a City in Nature means to each group, through landscape design, plant choices, storytelling or the use of repurposed materials. The Singapore Gardeners’ Cup is supported by donors through NParks’ registered charity, Garden City Fund. These displays are located at Eco-Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Winners will be announced later today at 2pm.

Also located at the Eco-Garden are the 10 displays as part of the Landscape Design Challenge (LDC), a design-based competition that showcases landscaping done by students from Institutes of Higher Learning in Singapore. A platform for students to display their creativity and landscaping knowledge, the competition takes place “live” where students were given four hours to transform a plot of land 3-metres by 3-metres into a beautifully decorated garden.

This year’s competition features the theme “Botanical Fantasy” and winners will be announced later today at 4pm. The competition aims to encourage more youths to consider a career in the landscape industry by highlighting the professionalism of the work as well as simulating an actual work environment to help students put classroom learning into practice.

Floral artistry by the community at ION Orchard

Members of the public visiting the Orchard Road segment of the Festival must not miss the live floral competitions and its exhibits at ION Orchard (Basement 4). Taking place live today is the Floral Designers Society (Singapore) [FDSS] Competition featuring 10 professional and 16 amateur florists who are putting their floral displays together in real time. The winners will be announced this evening and the floral pieces will be on display till 2 August.

This is followed by a new mass live floral competition organised by NParks at the same location – the Floral Fiesta: A Floral Creation Challenge. 60 individuals have signed up for this competition, which will see them participating in three rounds of live competition from 6pm to 8pm between 3 to 5 August. Winners will be announced on 5 August and the floral pieces will be on display on 6 and 7 August.

Shop on-site or online this Festival period

To satisfy shopping desires, this year’s Festival enables shopping to take place both on-site and online. Over 50 booths will be at the SGF MarketPlace located at Tyersall Coach Park, Central Core, Singapore Botanic Gardens. This includes booths selling plants, gardening essentials and plant-related products.

For those who prefer to shop online, the SGF e-Marketplace makes a comeback this year with Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, as its official e-commerce partner. Beyond offering customers a wide range of products and exclusive promotions related to gardening, the e-Marketplace will also conduct livestreaming sessions and feature gamification elements to engage with the public during the Festival.

Find the latest updates on Singapore Garden Festival at https://sgf.nparks.gov.sg and Facebook.com/SGGardenFest.

Also held in conjunction with this year’s SGF is the Singapore Botanic Gardens Heritage Festival. For more details on the programming, including concerts, tours, talks and exhibitions to celebrate the Gardens’ heritage, visit https://sgf.nparks.gov.sg/show-highlights/singapore-botanic-gardens/sbghf

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