Singapore Hotels near Botanic Gardens
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Although the original Singapore Botanic Gardens were established in 1822 by Sir Stamford Raffles himself, very soon after he founded Singapore, the first attempts to have the governmentally run research garden develop cash crops for Singapore planters to grow were a failure. ... Read more »
By the 1870s, it became obvious that the Botanical Gardens would not survive without a financial reason for their existence in 1875, they were turned over to a government oversight committee. When they began developing commercially viable rubber tree varieties in 1877, their future was assured.
In 1990, the Botanic gardens were redesigned into three “cores.” The Southern core contains the last four hectares of the original Singapore rainforest; the Central Core is the primary tourist area; and the Bukit Timah Core, with its plant nursery, is devoted to developing plants for economic purposes.
The Orchids of the Singapore Botanic Gardens
The Central Core’s National Orchid Garden, with its 20,000 orchids from 1,000 separate species, has one of the world’s most renowned collections of rare hybrid orchids The Orchid Garden also contains the amazing Lady Yuen-Peng McNeice Bromeliad House, and a “cool house” which has, in addition to orchids, a mist-enshrouded highland forest with carnivorous plants and tumbling waters. Quite a refreshing stop on a hot humid Singapore day!
The VIP Orchid Garden is the is the site of an orchid breeding program, the results of which have been named for various State Visitors, including Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela since 1957. The Central Core also contains Palm Valley and Symphony Lake, the setting for public concerts. The ecolake extension at the Bukit Timah Core, with its ecolake, has displays of culinary, medicinal, and commercial plants.
The Singapore Botanic gardens are open from 5:00 AM to 12:00PM daily, so visitors can avoid the heat of the day. Admission is free, although there is a $5 fee for the Orchid garden, and public parking is available.
Lodgings near the Singapore Botanic Gardens
Within 2.4 kilometres of the Botanic Gardens, and even closer to the world-class shopping at Orchard Road, the Relc International Hotel Singapore offers generously proportioned rooms with balconies in one of Singapore’s most elegant residential districts.
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