Mandai Orchid Gardens

Comments on article: InfopediaTalk

Mandai Orchid Gardens is also a commercial operation owned by Singapore Orchids Pte Ltd, with cut flowers and live plants exported worldwide. As a cut-flower export business, the Gardens sell an average of 50,000 orchids a week to the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

History
John Laycock, a founder member of the Orchid Society of Southeast Asia (OSSEA), started the Gardens in postwar Singapore. Before the Second World War, Laycock had collected many rare orchid species from the Indonesian jungle and cultivated them in his own garden. He pioneered the hybridising or crossing of plants in Asia, creating new orchid varieties.

During the war, the plants were preserved in the Botanic Gardens by the curator, Professor Eric Holttum (courtesy of a Japanese officer interested in botany) but the collection was largely destroyed before the war ended.

In 1950, Laycock and Lee Kim Hong purchased 5 acres of land on the Mandai Road from the government on a long lease and started Mandai Orchid Garden in 1951. From the 5-hectare plot of land, the Gardens were later expanded to an attractively landscaped, 10-hectare, orchid-filled hillside.

Location
Mandai Orchid Gardens is located at Mandai Lake Road, Singapore 729827.



Author
Lee Siew Yeen, 2001



References 
Elliot, J. (1993). "The Mandai Orchid Gardens - history made alive". In Malayan Orchid Review: The official organ of the Malayan Orchid Society, 27, 30-34 

Sanson, V. (1992).  Gardens and parks of Singapore. Singapore: New York : Oxford University Press. 

Singapore Orchids Pte Ltd. (2003). Mandai Orchid Gardens. Retrieved April 7, 2001, from www.mandai.com.sg/index.htm

Subject
Nature>>Nature Conservation>>Nature Reserves
Nature>>Plants
Gardens--Singapore
Orchids--Singapore
Science and technology>>Agriculture>>Horticulture>>Flowers and ornamental plants