National Orchid Garden

I’m sure I’ve already mentioned that Singapore is unimaginably humid. But to give full justice to how persistently the heat and humidity defines Singapore, I ought to mention it in every blog.

Or really, every paragraph.

But rather than bore you with a perpetual refrain, we went to visit an attraction that thrives because of the weather - Singapore’s National Orchid Garden.

The National Orchid Garden is located within the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It is one of the main attractions of the gardens and covers three hectares (about 7 1/2 acres). It has more than 1,000 species of orchids and an additional 2,000 orchid hybrids. According to Wikipedia, it is considered by some to be among the finest collections of orchids in cultivation open to the public.

Some of the more exotic species of orchid are fiendishly difficult to grow in the United States because of the heat and humidity requirements.

Singapore, however, provides an abundance of both, along with a daily dose of tropical rain, all of which we endured on our tour.

The typical botanical garden in the US might maintain their orchids in a greenhouse, separate from the rest of their gardens. But in Singapore, the whole country is a greenhouse. So the orchids are growing outdoors. And instead of a greenhouse, they keep a cool house for the species that grow in a more highland tropical area and can’t handle the heat.

They also grow a series of “VIP” orchids, which are hybrids named after notable VIPs. Their collection includes Dendrobium Margaret Thatcher, named to commemorate Margaret Thatcher’s 1985 visit to the botanic gardens. Paravanda Nelson Mandella is named to commemorate Nelson Mandella’s 1997 visit.

And for my Norwegian relatives, Dendrobrium Anne-Marie Willoch is named after Anne-Marie Willoch, the wife of former prime minister of the Kingdom of Norway, to commemorate her visit to the gardens in 1986.

On a side note, there are more web pages referencing the orchid Dendrobrium Anne-Marie Willoch than for the actual person, Anne-Marie Willoch, or her husband, the Prime Minister, Kåre Willoch.

To help balance this oversight, I’ll note here that Kåre Willoch was a member of the Conservative Party, and he was considered one of the most pronounced conservative Norwegian politicians in his time. He served on the Oslo City Council from 1952 to 1959 and he served on the the Norwegian Parliament from 1957 to 1989. He was Prime Minister from 1981 to 1986, until his career was eclipsed by a flower named after his wife.