Overview of the Singapore Garden Festival 2008 (SGF) 
25 July – 1 August 2008
Suntec Convention Centre
Singapore

Overview of the Singapore Garden Festival 2008 (SGF)

The Singapore Garden Festival, the first garden show in the tropics to bring together and showcase creations from the world’s top award-winning garden and floral designers under one roof, returns on 25 July to 1 August 2008 at Suntec Convention Centre. 

“The Singapore Garden Festival plays a key role in realizing our City in A Garden vision. It helps to promote industry development and horticultural excellence. Standards will be raised as the best designers from around the world gather and work together with local landscaping firms to create their displays. The Festival’s new Expo event will facilitate knowledge exchange and sharing amongst leading practitioners in the field. The packed conference programme will offer insights into industry trends, as well as valuable networking opportunities. All this will better position our landscaping and horticulture industry to support Singapore’s greening initiatives.” said Mr. Mah Bow Tan, Minister For National Development.

There are over 200 000 temperate and tropical plants on display at this year’s show, and over 60 000 stalks of cut flowers. The plants come from all over the world, with garden designers, flora artists and exhibitors bring plants from more than 20 countries.

Many plants native to the Australian coastline are on display eg Banksias, Woolly bush (Adenanthos sericea), Eucalyptus etc. One of the unusual plants is the Silver Spear, Astelia chathamica from the Lily family. This plant from New Zealand grows in dense clumps and looks like a more delicate, softer looking but stemless pandanus.

Many rare carnivorous pitcher plants never seen before in Singapore are on display. There is the very rare Nepenthes truncate, endemic to the island of Mindanao that produces one of the largest pitchers reaching 50 cm tall. Pitchers like this can trap and digest a rat.

One lucky visitor to Singapore Garden Festival will also stand a chance to name a new cultivar of the pitcher plant after him or herself. At the Marketplace on Level 4, visitors can also buy a new and very colourful hybrid, Nepenthes “GardenTech” created by the designers and named after Singapore’s “GardenTech” event in December 2007. This hybrid is still in short supply and its sale is limited to only 10-20 plants per day on a first-come first served basis – maximum of one plant per customer.

The inaugural show in December 2006 was a success, with 200,000 visitors from Singapore and around the world.  The eight-day event in July 2008 will line up more exhibits, variety and new offerings.