Singapore Garden Festival (SGF) is back after a four-year hiatus with its eighth edition set to take place from 30 July to 7 August 2022 at ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City, and 30 July to 9 August 2022 at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Organised by the National Parks Board (NParks), the premier garden and flower show will be held along shopping belt Orchard Road as well as Singapore Botanic Gardens to enable a wider reach of visitors.
Mr Dennis Lim, Coordinating Director of Festival, Events, and Exhibitions at NParks, said, “We are all very excited to bring back the well-loved Singapore Garden Festival this year and to present it at new locations. We decided on bringing the show to Singapore’s main shopping belt, Orchard Road, and the Singapore Botanic Gardens, home of Singapore’s earliest garden and flower shows. The pandemic has led to a rise in interest in greenery and nature, and the addition of Orchard Road, which is a stone’s throw from the Gardens, will enable us to reach out to new audiences and make the Festival more accessible for many to visit.”
Festival Highlights
New to this year’s Festival, is a mass Floral Fiesta: A Floral Creation Challenge that will take place at ION Orchard (Basement 4) from 3 to 7 August. This “live” challenge will see budding florists, floral hobbyists and even professional floral designers come together to create their pieces based on a
wide variety of themes.
PHOTOS: NParks
Prior to this, from 30 July to 2 August, Floral Designers Society (Singapore) will be running its 12 th FDSS Cup with competition pieces on display.
Visitors to ION Orchard will be wowed as they arrive at the mall greeted by two large Floral Installations created by local celebrated award winning floral masters – Harijanto Setiawan and John Lim. They can also look forward to a feature display that showcases winning entries from the Community Garden Edibles Competition. The Competition recognises the abilities of hobby gardeners amongst us and showcases their gardening skills in cultivating a variety of fruits and vegetables that can be grown in Singapore, including unique and uncommon edibles.
Another returning favourite would be the highly contested Show Garden competitions. This year’s competition will feature a total of six Show Garden plots located at Civic Plaza, Ngee Ann City. Three award-winning international designers will be competing against three local award-winning designers.
The three international designers are competing in SGF for the first time. They are Tony Alexander Woods (UK), Gold winner at Royal Horticultural Society Hampton Court Garden Festival (2019), Christian Troy Jenkins (Australia), Gold Show Garden Award and City of Melbourne Award of Excellence for Best in Show at Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show (2022) and Risser Pierre Alexandre (France) recipient of Landscape Creation Award at Jardins, Jardin (2019).
The local designers are Henry Steed, recipient of Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects (SILA) Gold medals in 2019 for his work on Changi Airport Jewel, Terminal 4 Changi Airport, Marina One, Andy Eng & Eliam Eng, winners of Landscape Industry Association of Singapore (LIAS) Awards of Excellence in 2019 and top accolades at past SGF editions, as well as B Gurumuthy who has won Gold and Best of Category with LIAS Awards of Excellence in 2019 and top accolades as an implementing partner. This is the first time Gurumuthy will be competing as a designer.
The Orchid Competition, which is co-organised with the Orchid Society of Southeast Asia (OSSEA), will be held at the National Orchid Garden in Singapore Botanic Gardens. Visitors can look forward to viewing more than 400 rare and exquisite orchids, including warm and cool-growing species and hybrids found in different regions around the world, submitted for competition by professional growers and hobbyists.
The Singapore Botanic Gardens Heritage Festival will also be held in conjunction with SGF. From 30 July to 9 August, in addition to SGF displays and competitions, the Gardens will be bustling with a variety of programmes, including concerts, tours, talks and exhibitions to celebrate the Gardens’
heritage.
Visiting the Singapore Garden Festival
To reduce crowding and enable more visitors to enjoy the Festival in a safe manner, the show’s highlights have been spread across several nodes, rather than concentrating in one location.
The two key locations along Orchard Road are at ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza, popular malls for both locals and visitors.
Whilst displays at Singapore Botanic Gardens will be located at the National Orchard Garden and its vicinity as well as the Eco Garden at Bukit Timah Core.
The Singapore Botanic Gardens was the home of some of the first garden and flower shows in Singapore with the earliest documented show in 1884. Further, the orchid hybridisation programme was first initiated in the Singapore Botanic Gardens over 80 years ago, lending greater significance for the National Orchid Garden to host the popular Orchid Competition.
Key Festival highlights:
* Orchard Road (available from 30 July to 7 August)
– Edibles Competition, Floral Competitions and Floral Installation Displays at ION Orchard
– Show Garden Competition at Civic Plaza, Ngee Ann City
* Singapore Botanic Gardens (available from 30 July to 9 August)
– Orchid Competition at the National Orchid Garden
– Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) Landscape Design Challenge at Eco Garden, BukitTimah Core
– Singapore Botanic Gardens Heritage Festival
– Singapore Gardeners’ Cup at Eco Garden, Bukit Timah Core
– MarketPlace at Tyersall Coach Park, Central Core
Enhancing the Digital Experiences
To enhance the digital experience of the Festival, Shopee is returning as the official e-commerce and e-marketplace partner for SGF 2022. The e-commerce player was the official partner for SGF Hort Show 2021 when safe distancing measures were in place, to enable hobbyists to purchase gardening related items virtually instead.
Apart from bringing back the e-marketplace with exclusive promotions and a wider range of products, the platform will also conduct livestreaming sessions and feature gamification elements to engage with the public.
Find the latest updates including details on how to sign up for the competitions on Singapore Garden Festival at https://sgf.nparks.gov.sg and Facebook.com/SGGardenFest.
