About me…
First, I would like to thank you for reading my blog. Your investment of time and energy in reading these posts in my blog only means that you know you can and deserve to learn more about gardening and plants!
My name is Richmond, a plant crazy guy in Singapore! Unlike most of my friends who spend most of their time in computers and playing with their iPods and PSPs, I enjoy growing plants! My passion in gardening started a few years back, when my family decided to keep plants in our house. It was not a pleasant experience when I need to get myself dirty with the soil and pots. Gradually, when the plants grow healthily and flower under my care, the satisfaction I got is something that cannot be found anywhere else! Soon, my collection of plants grow from a few pots to a dozen pots!
My serious gardening hobby started when I was in my National Service. My friends found my “pastime” extremely boring when they have to face the “greens” almost everyday! I decided to find some interesting plants to spark their curiosity and interest. Carnivorous plants are something very appealing and interesting to the younger generations, as they were introduced to these plants in their school textbooks and little do they know that these plants can be grown in Singapore!
Soon, carnivorous plants became my main interest and my friends got “poisoned” with them and started their own collections. Some even had larger collections than me! It was in early 2007, when I got to know about Green Culture Singapore, a gardening website and forum for plant enthusiasts to share their experience and tips in gardening. Being a member, I got to know like minded friends and learnt a lot from them. I enjoyed a lot and learnt valuable lessons from gardening and I believe younger generations can pick up gardening hobby and benefit from it.
I started promoting gardening with my mentor and founder of Green Culture Singapore, Mr Wilson Wong, who gave me numerous of opportunities to reach out to younger generations, through talks at Hortpark, gardening events such as Singapore Garden Festival and Gardentech. With the help of National Parks Board’s Community-in-Bloom team, I had also set up a herbs & spices garden in my alma mater, Tanglin Secondary School.
In October 2009, I was nominated as a Community-in-Bloom Ambassador 2009, my mission of bringing the hobby to younger generation heightens. I hope to spread the gardening bug to more people, setting up more community gardens for all to enjoy!
If you are interested in setting up a community garden in your neighbourhood, school or organisation, do not hesitate to contact me and discuss about it! I will be more than happy to help out! I hope you had an enriching time reading my posts and learn something about gardening. If you had any questions on my posts, feel free to email me at DreamNgrowit@gmail.com and I will try my best to answer your queries.
Hi,
I am recent enthusiast of palm tree planting and like to use my fairly large farm areas in my native India for growing ornamental Palm trees. I like to get your help to recommend the right varieties to start with and where I will be able to get help with seeds, saplings to carry and planting instructions.
My farm is located in TamilNadu in S.India with weather pretty close to that of Florida.
I look forward to your response and help please.
Best regards,
Krishna.
Hi Krishna,
Frankly speaking I am no expert in palm trees & cycads, as we do not have the luxury of space to grow these beautiful but large trees!
Hi Richmond, I started keeping plants not too long ago, wish I’d seen your site much sooner. Will certainly read through them to learn more. Thanks for sharing your knowledge so generously.
Lush
I hope my blog entries would be beneficial and informative for everyone here, be it a beginner or an experienced gardener… Thanks!
Hi Richmond,
It’s really cool to see a young gardening guru. I’m into herb planting but am struggling with it.
Anyway, I am interested in getting potted small (or mini) plants for colleagues as gift. Would you be able to recommend anything?And where can i get it in huge quantity in singapore? I’ll need it to be a tough plant. I am assuming that not everyone has green fingers.
Would appreciate if you could reply me via my email. Thanks!!
Jason
Hi Richmond,
I am looking for a Pomegranate plant.
I have planted some seeds from Pomegranate that comes from South Europe or North Africa but they do not have any flowers or fruits.
Now I am looking for a plant that would give me fruits that are dark red inside.
Do you know where in Singapore I could find that?
BR
Peter Horn
I did not have much experience with pomergranate yet… My current batch of seedlings are seeds from Indian Pomegranate, those with red flesh…
Is it hot in Summer or cold in winter in Singapore? If not this might the reason your Pomegranate is not flowering. Since I’m from Australia I do not know about the weather there so I am guessing. If it is cold on summers you should add a clear covering on top of it to make a ‘greenhouse’. Wait for a yeas, if it still doesn’t flower than it might be because it is too young. Trees and Shrubs takes about seven years before they flower.
Or you could get a new plant and try to keep it warm during summer and cold during winter (Not too cold!). If you are wondering where to get a new plant you can easily do it at home. Just cut a branch that is about 1 year old and with root hormone (required but not needed) and plant it in a pot. A couple of weeks later the branch will grow new roots.
Hi Johnathan,
Thanks for your suggestion. Singapore experience tropical climate all year round, wet, hot and humid, which is ideal for Pomegranates. My Pomegranates are barely a few months old and I don’t expect them to flower for the next few months and years to come.
As the large fruits are imported from other countries, I do not know whether they come from the regions which have similar climate as Singapore. We had the local pomegranates, but they dont grow as big. Therefore, I am growing these larger variants here.
Hi Richmond and Jonathan,
My Pomegranate is planted in Philippines and there is no problem with the temperature or with the climate.
The Pomegranate is already about 4 meters high but up to now there are no fruits.
I got some flowers a couple of times but they just fall off.
The plant is only 3 years old so maybe it will take some more years before it will bear fruit?
This variety has dark red flesh and I think it comes from North Africa like Tunisia or Algeria.
Maybe I just have to wait.
Peter
Hi,
My name is Julie, representing Sengkang West Zone C RC. Happen to stopover your webpage understand you did conducted a workshop “From Garden to Kitchen”.
Recently I am planning events for my coming RC function for my Residents; theme “Fruits”.
As our nearby garden are named/theme as Fruit Garden, in conjunction of the coming opening which like to have a trail run event with the same concept theme event.
I am not too sure will you be keen with such projects. If you are interested, you may drop me an email for further discussion and details at the following address:
mail2jssk@yahoo.com.sg
Hope to hear good news from you soon.
Thank you.
Best Regards
Julie S K Seah
Hi, my friend in seychelles is looking for some specialist in orchid flowers to teach them how to grow them in seychelles, are you able to assist or you can recommend anyone to us.
My tel contact is off: 68460605, hph: 98476771
this is pretty urgent, hope you can assist. regards Pauline