My division was invited by colleagues from the Singapore Botanic Gardens to decorate a Christmas tree which forms part of the “Trees of the World Light-Up” event which will be held on 5 Dec 09, 7-8 pm at the musical concert called “The Botanical Party”.
The concert aims to bring everyone together to reminisce and enjoy an evening under the stars at our outdoor performance space, Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage. During the evening, the Guest-of-Honour (Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister of National Development) will be invited to light up all the decorated trees (a total of 150 of them) which will be lined up from the Nassim Gate Visitor Centre to the Tanglin Core of the Gardens.
We were given a Christmas tree formed out from three Podocarpus macrophyllus trees. It is a conifer belonging to the Podocarpaceae family. Although native to southern Japan and southern China, this tree grows well in our hot and humid climate and is a popular bonsai candidate as well as landscaping and garden plant. Bigger individuals are grown as trees.
Although there are others who got Christmas fir trees to decorate, I am personally heartened to know that we were given a em>Podocarpus macrophyllus, since this tree can still continue to grow and thrive after Christmas and can be used year after year. Not only that it saves cost, in the age of being environmentally-friendly, using such a tree to celebrate a tropical Christmas is a great way to help the environment.
Our decoration team was formed from various members of my division who came together to dress up our tree, which was conceptualised to take on a silvery look. Our tree has a length of silvery ribbon that went around it and had some silver coloured baubles on it too. A bundle of gold ribbons was used to decorate the tip of the tree.
If one takes a close look at our tree, one will see that we hung up spherical as well as tear-shaped clear baubles which contained an assortment of colourful seeds. In addition, we also fastened small gardening spades onto the branches of the trees.
At the base of the tree, instead of the usual presents, we added coconuts and pong pong seeds, some of which were already sprouting. We also have strings of bright orange-red fruits of the Lepisanthes and handfuls of various colourful pulses which were set to germinate in a few days’ time.
The reason why this tree was decorated in such a way was due to my division’s guiding tagline – Sowing seeds, planting legacies – which can be read from the Christmas tree-shaped signboard that we have put up. Many visitors who saw our tree wondered what ‘Hort Excellence’ was all about and the description below is what we aim to do:
‘Hort Excellence is a division of the National Parks Board (NParks) that aspires to promote gardening with a heart and landscaping with a difference.’
Hence, we decorated our tree with an assortment of seeds, pong pong and coconut fruits and gardening spades, which we hope will inspire in everyone a passion for gardening.
I would like to thank all members of the Christmas tree decoration team for all the time and effort to make our tree possible and unique.
