The long-awaited opening of HortPark finally took place. The gardening hub of Singapore was declared open this morning, which was a cool but wet one, by our Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong. This opening was done in conjunction with the opening of the bridges that link up the Southern Ridges.
I am honoured to have been invited on stage to be part of the official opening ceremony this morning, together with Mr Veera from Landscape Industry Association of Singapore (LIAS). We are the only two non-governmental individuals who were on stage. Mr Veera represented the ‘private sector’ while I represented the ‘people’ because I do community gardening and promotion of gardening to the masses.
Those constitute the two P’s of the 3P Partnership Programme that is a collaboration between the people, public and private sectors. The government officials make up the last P which is the ‘public’ sector which consists of our Prime Minister and his colleagues, as well as, members from the National Parks Board (NParks).
On stage, we held watering cans that were made by students from recycled materials and we then watered the plants located in front of the stage to officiate the opening of HortPark. The plaque that commemorated this day was unveiled after that by the Prime Minister.
For this event, we have also been invited by NParks to set up a booth to showcase the Green Culture Singapore website in HortPark’s multi-purpose hall. It was quite last minute as we have been sent the request just a week before the event.
Thanks to Phillipe, my new but reliable yet creative team member, who squeezed his brain juices for a low budget concept and rushed day and night to come up with the materials required for the booth decor. On Thursday night, Phillipe, Albert, Chong Ren and me were at Phillipe’s home in the night to rush up the production process. Albert and Phillipe continued on to finish up what’s needed into the wee hours of the morning. I had to leave because I got to work the following day.
I am thankful to the efforts put in by Phillipe, Albert and Chong Ren. I am very pleased with the final outcome as well as the concept of the display, which was quite novel for a gardening-related discussion forum and website. I did not want the usual, clinched look which is the type that at one look, people can already expect what you are trying to showcase.
In our display, Phillipe used paper bags to form up the background which contained labels of the specific names in Latin and English that are commonly found in the binomial nomenclature of plants. That was aimed to add some understanding to the botanical names of plants. In one of the rows, we had some of our feature articles written by me and fellow Green Culture Singapore members for visitors to browse.
The riser on the left exhibited some of the handicraft work done personally by Phillipe. The idea was to showcase how one can enjoy plants and gardening via artistic expressions like painting motives of wildlife and plants on things like a plate and wooden gift boxes.
In the center, we have a very realistic staghorn fern that was made out of paper, which represented the Green Culture Singapore’s discussion forum. The staghorn fern is an epiphyte, which is essentially a non-parasitic plant. We all know that staghorn ferns in Nature are ant hotels and ants have a symbiotic relationship with the fern where the fern provided the ants with shelter while the ants brought food for the plant.
Green Culture Singapore, like the staghorn fern, is here to help gardeners and not to overshadow anyone. The forum serves as a convenient and conducive platform for gardeners to learn and share their gardening experiences and the members’ active participation and generous sharing of knowledge are essential for the success of the forum. With time, the forum’s knowledge base builds up and benefits all members, particularly those who are starting out.
On the right riser, we have more information on pictorial charts to tell people about what we do as well as a small display to showcase some culinary gingers that people should grow. These included two common ones like the flowers of the Torch Ginger and Turmeric and another rather uncommon duo like the Chinese Key and Lesser Galangal.
Everything was completed and put up on Friday morning. But I was quite disappointed to find out in the end that our Prime Minister did not have the time to pay a visit to the booth we have put up. I think the other industry partners who were present felt the same way too.
