I was at the GardenTech launch last Friday where I also witnessed the naming of a new Borneo Exotics Nepenthes hybrid. In the picture below are Mrs Christina Ong (Chairman, NParks) and Mr Ng Lang (CEO, NParks) who officiated the naming of this delightful hybrid.
This beautiful intermediate-growing hybrid is a result from a cross between a cool-growing highland species (Nepenthes ventricosa) and warm-growing lowland species (Nepenthes ampullaria). It should be able to thrive under our lowland, hot and humid conditions.
In my opinion, this poor hybrid has been given a rather tacky cultivar name - ’GardenTech’. A better name could have been thought of. The plant features stout pitchers that are uniformly coloured in red and have peristomes that appear to have been rubbed with even darker red, glossy lipstick paint. This plant has *SEXY lips*!
‘GardenTech’ has short internodes and tendrils. What results is a tidy plant with great horticultural value. The rather young plant shown in the picture below has pitchers arranged symmetrically all around the plant – don’t you think the pitchers look like little red apples sitting on a plate? I told Diana from Borneo Exotics that this plant has great potential to be a Chinese New Year festive plant.
I didn’t buy any ‘GardenTech’ this time, due to the scary price tag it carries. I shall wait for the Singapore Garden Festival 2008 when younger and smaller plants are available. Hopefully they are more affordable then.
