The Singapore Botanic Gardens and Gardens by the Bay showcased their niches in floral display and cross-breeding technology, sweeping top honours at the Asia Pacific Orchid Conference (Apoc),
Several hundred professional growers and hobbyists from the region showcased their best orchids at the Singapore Expo on Wednesday, competing across over 100 categories.
This is the first time the conference was hosted by the Republic.
The Singapore Botanic Gardens emerged first in the orchid landscape competition where participants were tasked with creating a 25 sq m garden.
The winning plot, which featured 76 species and hybrids from the Botanic Gardens and breeders from here and abroad, highlighted the Garden City’s orchid heritage and diplomacy, with visiting foreign dignitaries getting new hybrids named after them.
Orchids in the plot include the country’s national flower, Vanda Miss Joaquim, and several breeds under the Botanic Gardens’ orchid hybridization programme, which has created numerous hybrids for foreign politicians and celebrities, including tennis legend Serena Williams and the late British leader Margaret Thatcher.
Dendrobium a hybrid named after the The Straits Times and unveiled at its 160th anniversary in 2005, is also among the flowers featured in the plot.
Most of the show’s top prizes were swept by a tall hybrid plant displayed by the Botanic Gardens, which nabbed Grand Champion Plant, Best Hybrid and Apoc Perpetual Trophy Grand Champion of Show. The towering plant, with an arrangement of leaves like a braid along the stem, topped off with purple orchid sprays, is a hybrid between the Dendrobium nindii and the Dendrobium Seletar Red Dragon.
The best species prize was awarded to Gardens by the Bay’s Dendrobium thyrsiflorum, where the orchids resembled egg yolks, being a species that thrives in cooler temperatures.
The National Orchid Garden in the Singapore Botanic Gardens bagged 1st place in the 9 sq m landscape competition. Its small plot was adorned with over 500 miniature orchids with some flowers smaller than even a grain of rice, across more than 105 species.
The conference’s opening on Wednesday was attended by President Halimah Yacob, who presented the awards to the winners of the competition.
Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development, reflected on the significance of orchids in the Republic in the opening speech, saying that Orchids were an iconic element of Singapore’s national heritage, and have played an integral role in Singapore’s growth and international standing. He commended the country’s ventures into orchid hybridisation and breeding while noting that the strong capabilities that have built up over the years in the germination and propagation of orchid seeds have allowed the country to produce some of the finest orchids which have been exported all over the world.
Mr Lee added that a second edition of the Native Orchids of Singapore – Diversity, Identification and Conservation guidebook – would be published by the National Parks Board (NParks) over the next few months. Since the first edition was published in 2013, new species have been recorded.
The conference, organized by NParks and the Orchid Society of Southeast Asia, will run until Sunday, with Singapore Expo Hall 2 displaying over 8,000 orchid plants of almost 1,000 species and hybrids. Among them is a blue orchid plant from Japan, which drew attention because its colour was derived through genetic modification even though it did not receive an award.
The conference’s show manager, Whang Lay Keng stated that the Phalaenopsis Blue Gene “311NR” orchid was the years-long effort of researchers from Japan who took a gene from a blue dayflower, injecting it into the orchid through genetic engineering methods. This is the first time the Phalaenopsis Blue Gene “311NR” was showcased outside of Japan.
Mr Dennis Lim, coordinating director of festivals, events, and exhibitions at NParks, said that Blue was a rare colour in the plant world, the more common way of turning a flower blue being by injecting dyes. The insertion of the gene caused the orchid to have a combination of colours that led to the blue seen.
An adult ticket to the Orchid Show where competition entries are displayed costs $15 on weekdays and $20 on weekends while entry to the marketplace within Hall 2 is free for shoppers.
