Singapore National Gardens

The preservation of the heritage and legacy that Herb Hager founded at this site in 1949 and which Shelldance Gardens, LLC continues is a world resource and a local treasure.

In 1994 Michael and Nancy sold a major portion of their Bromeliad collection to the government of Singapore, to be featured within the National Botanic Gardens – at the bequest of Lady Yuen Peng McNeice.

Fed-X donated the airfare, a team of gardeners from Singapore came to Pacifica to help with the listing, tagging and packing of over two thousand plants-it was quite an undertaking!

We were invited to the gardens as guests to oversee the unpacking of plants and to give workshops on the care and history of the Bromeliad nomenclature. How wonderful an experience- to stay at Burkill Hall(The Anglo-Malayan plantation house once used by the garden directors.)

And be able to walk out of the guest house and meander through one of the worlds most special garden environments! The Singapore Gardens – has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We are very, very proud to have been a part of this unique and beautiful chapter of the botanical gardens ongoing development. We thank the directors’ staff and gardeners for their warm and welcoming hospitality. The Bromeliad collection we had enthusiastically cared for and developed over the course of 20 years have found a beautiful home; they now serve as ambassadors and examples of the beauty still within wild habitats.

Check out: nparks.gov.sg to learn more about the Botanic Gardens at Singapore.

Bromeliad collection Within the National Orchid Garden-Singapore

The Yuen Peng McNeice Bromeliad Collection has been enhanced to emulate a mid-elevation Neotropical forest environment at 650m to 1,000 elevation. It showcases a selection of Neotropical plants such as bromeliads, aroids and Calathea species, as well as orchids. The 620m2 – display house features key groups of plants from various bromeliad genera such as Ananas, Guzmania, Neoregelia, Tillandsia, Pitcairnia , Aechmea, Vriesia, Cryuptanthus, etc. including both species and cultivars. In addition , orchis from the Neotropics are also featured, such as Cattleya, Epidendrum and Oncidium species and hybrids .

The History of Singapore Botanic Gardens

The idea of a national garden in Singapore started in 1822 when Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore and a keen naturalist, developed the first ‘Botanical and Experimental Garden’ at Fort Canning. It was only in 1859 that the Gardens at its present site was founded and laid out in the English Landscape Movement’s style by an Agri-Horticultural society. The Gardens was soon handed over to the British colonial government (in 1874) and a series of Kew-trained botanists saw the Gardens blossom into an important botanical institute over the following decades. Today, the Gardens is managed by the National Parks Board, a statutory board of the Singapore government. In the early years, the Gardens played an important role in fostering agricultural development in Singapore and the region through collecting, growing, experimenting and distributing potentially useful plants. One of the earliest and most important successes was the introduction, experimentation and promotion of Para Rubber, Hevea brasiliensis. This became a major crop that brought great prosperity to the South East Asian region in the early 20th century. From 1928, the Gardens spearheaded orchid breeding and started its orchid hybridisation programme, facilitated by new in vitro techniques pioneered in its laboratories. In contemporary times, the Gardens also played a key role in Singapore’s Garden City programme through the continual introduction of plants of horticultural and botanical interest.

Established in 1859, the 82-hectare Gardens holds a unique and significant place in the history of Singapore and the region. Through the botanical and horticultural work carried out today, it will continue to play an important role as a leading tropical botanical institute, and an endearing place to all Singaporeans.

The Gardens has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) on 4 July 2015. The Gardens is the first and only tropical botanic garden on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It is the first in Asia and the third botanic gardens inscribed in the world following Orto botanico di Padova and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.