Singapore’s year round tropical climate with a great deal of rain, consistently high temperatures, and high humidity make the country a gardener’s paradise. And Singapore displays its colorful beauty for locals and tourists at the Gardens By the Bay and Singapore Botanic gardens.

Gardens By The Bay– We spent parts of two days exploring much of the 101 hectares of gardens next to Marina Bay. The gardens feature not only well manicured lawns and very colorful flowerbeds, but also two huge glass conservatories, two lakes with fountains, and over 40 sculptures from around the world. The three areas we found the most inspiring were the Supertree Groves, the Flower Dome, and the Cloud Forest. 

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The 18 trees in the Supertree Groves are made from concrete, steel, and planting panels for bromeliads, orchids, ferns and tropical flowering climbers. We felt quite short when looking up at the large tree canopies that were 25 to 50 meters high. And one evening we especially enjoyed the free Garden Rhapsody Light Show where the trees are illuminated in different colors with accompanying music. 

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The air conditioned Flower Dome was not only refreshing for us on a very hot, humid afternoon, but also showcased one of Susan’s favorite flowers: tulips. The month-long Tulipmania special display started the day after we arrived in Singapore. In addition to appreciating many varieties of tulips, we also saw many, many other plants we like, including hydrangeas, begonias, impatients, morning glories, zinnias, succulents, and African baobab trees. After our visit we discovered that the Flower Dome is the largest glass greenhouse in the world according to the 2015 Guinness World Records.

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Immediately after touring the Flower Dome with its dry Mediterranean climate, we walked into the mist-filled Cloud Forest conservatory. This greenhouse also boasts a world record: tallest indoor waterfall. We not only saw the 30 meter waterfall from the ground floor, but also from the top as we explored the elevated passageways of the Cloud Walk and Treetop Walk. It was amazing to see how many flowering plants were growing on the vertical walls of the waterfall structure. 

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Singapore Botanic Gardens– We discovered that the country’s 74-hectare botanic gardens are not only beautiful and pristine with 10,000+ varieties of plants, but also mostly free to visit. The National Orchid Garden was the only section that had an admission fee. We were just 2 of the 4 million annual visitors to this UNESCO World Heritage Site that was established 160 years ago. 

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Susan’s favorite part of the botanic gardens was the National Orchid Garden where 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids of gorgeous orchids are on display. She took many, many photos of the flowers and selected just a few of her favorites for this post.

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