I do love a botanic garden

On Saturday I headed off to the Botanic Gardens.  In my head, I planned to spend a few hours there, then grab a taxi to Bukit Timah nature reserve  - but the gardens were so huge I spent a good four hours there.  Then it started to rain relentlessly, so I ended up coming home - plus I was completely knackered by this point, having walked what felt like a million miles home. Why I didn't grab a cab I never know.

Anyway - the Botanic Gardens.  They are well worth a visit if you get a chance. Probably my favourite thing I have done so far (I know I said this last weekend too).  I do like a garden.  I like Kew, I love B&Q, I love Poult Wood garden centre. I I enjoyed the botanic gardens in Sri Lanka but these were something different. Larger, better designed, and the best collection of orchids I have ever seen.  It's safe to say I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Plus, I finally managed to get a bit of a sun tan! Amusingly I have also got tan lines....in the shape of the pendant round my neck. Great.

I was really stupid and could have kicked myself - I managed to leave the memory card of my camera in the laptop, so I quickly ran out of image space on the camera and had to swap to phone camera which isn't as good. But never mind!

Now let me take you on a journey through time and space, to the world of the mighty boo....tanical garden



Swan lake 



Sorry Gem if you're reading this...maybe close your eyes for this pic?






I wandered around for a bit and decided to stop for some mid morning refreshment....


And then realised I was outside the National Orchid Garden, which at $5 entry is a total bargain.  it is filled with literally hundreds of different species of Orchid, all laid out in a variety of ways - some growing naturally on trees, others in pots, others in greenhouses.  There's also a 'cool house' which is literally what it says - a cool green house which offered brief respite from the boiling temperatures outside.










There's a VIP Orchid garden, where they have bred unique orchids and named them after the VIP they presented them to.  


These were presented to William and Kate.

As well as the Orchid Garden, there's lots of themed gardens that are free to enter.  One of my favourites was the "Evolution Garden", which was designed to show the evolution of plants from the beginning of time to present day.  As you walked along the path, the flora and fauna gradually grew.  (sorry for the photo quality, I ran out of space at this point)


The beginning of time - rocks

A few million years later - moss and ferns

A little while later - ferns and bigger bushes

A few more million years on - the ferns turn into palms

Present day - proper trees

Another lovely part was the Frangipangi garden.  The frangipangi flowers smelt delicious and looked very pretty.  The garden also had little "love seat" swings in it so I happily swang on one for about half an hour until I realised that I could actually spend all day there, and I had other things to be getting on with. 







I made a friend, Jiminy Cricket


I was in the gardens for about 4 hours and I still hadn't completed it all.  I would highly recommend a trip if you ever find yourself in Singapore. 

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