Probably the most exclusive Garden Show in the world, the Singapore Garden Festival pits the best of the world’s top award winning garden designers against one another. The designers are selected for their previous achievements such as multiple Gold Medals at top garden shows such as the renowned Chelsea Flower Show and other major shows around the world.
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| Award-winning display: Robert Cantley and Diana Williams before one of the eight panels of their ‘Season of Mist’ at the Singapore Garden Festival |
Designers Diana Williams and Robert Cantley from the Sri Lankan company Borneo Exotics (Pvt) Ltd staged a 100 sq.m Garden called ‘Season of Mist’ which won a silver medal at the Singapore show. The display was entirely constructed in Sri Lanka before being containerised and shipped to Singapore.
The main plants exhibited were Nepenthes, all multiplied in Borneo Exotics laboratory, grown in their nurseries in Sri Lanka and then shipped and exhibited, straight out of the box in perfect condition.
This was made possible thanks, to the dedication and care of Borneo Exotics’ Sri Lankan staff and the professionalism of Logistics Partner ‘Aramex’, who handled all the logistics for this complex exhibit.
Held in the massive Suntec City Convention Center, the show attracted more than 300,000 visitors over eight days.
Many dignitaries visited the show and congratulated the designers in person, including Singapore’s ‘Minister Mentor’ Lee Kuan Yew and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Billed as one of the 10 must-see things at the Festival by Singapore’s leading newspaper, the ‘Straits Times’, Sri Lanka’s exhibit ‘Season of Mist’ combined magical fantasy with the largest exhibition of Nepenthes plants ever shown.
The theme of the exhibit was to celebrate the life of the 17th Century botanist George Everhard Rumphius, who made the first ever scientific description of a Nepenthes plant as well as publishing 8,000 other descriptions of plants.
The figure of Rumphius himself was represented by a wax effigy created by craftsmen from Madam Tussauds in England and transported to Singapore in perfect condition. He was a big hit with the visitors as he was so incredibly lifelike!
‘Season of Mist’ also highlighted the plight of many species of Nepenthes which are facing imminent extinction in the wild due to habitat loss and the important role of artificial propagation as the only hope for their survival. |
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