National Orchid Garden inside the Singapore Botanic Garden

The National Orchid Garden inside the Singapore Botanic Garden in the city state of Singapore. The Singapore Botanic Garden itself is a wonderful place, spread over an area of 82 hectares, located on near the Orchard shopping district, and having been in continuous existence since the year 1859. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, bearing an immense contribution to the nomenclature of Singapore as a garden city. The garden is open from 5 AM to midnight every day, and is free to enter, ensuring that people even use this place as their morning walk and come her for picnics. The Botanic Garden receives a large number of visitors, getting 4.5 million visitors annually. It cover 10,000 varieties of plants and trees.

National Orchid Garden inside the Singapore Botanic Garden (Print this photo / More photos)

The Singapore Botanic Garden has many sub-parts, and one of them is the National Orchid Garden. The National Orchid Garden has over 1,000 varieties of orchids inside it with a total of 60,000 plants inside it and spread over an area of 3 hectares, and is also somewhat unique since it has an entry charge, of 5 Singapore Dollars as opposed to the zero entry charge of the Singapore Botanic Garden. The Orchid Garden was opened in 1995. The image shows the entry point for the Orchid Garden.

Beauty of flowers inside National Orchid Garden in Singapore

The Botanical Garden in Singapore is a huge place and has been in existence for a long time, having been continuously open since 1859, and having existed in some form before that as well. Because of its heritage value, it also has the status of a UNESCO World Heritage site. Reaching it is not difficult, it being on the tourist circuit and also close to the Orchard Road shopping district. The garden is literally huge, covering an area of 82 hectares and receiving more than 4.5 million visitors per year. The garden has a lot of specific parts inside such as the Rainforest and the National Orchid Garden that present different varieties. It seems a bit strange, but while entry to the Botanical Garden is free, entry to the National Orchid Garden is charged Singapore $5. On its own, the fee is not very high given the beauty of the place, but considering that the botanical garden does not charge anything, a separate charge for the Orchid Garden does seem strange.

Purple flowers inside the National Orchid Garden in Singapore (Print this photo / More photos)

Orchids are very beautiful flowers but do need some care. The National Orchid garden inside the Singapore Botanical Garden has a huge number of varieties of orchids inside it, such as these purple flowers. The National Orchid garden is spread over an area of 3 hectares, and has around 60,000 flowers inside it spread over 1000 varieties (truly a treat for the people who love flowers).

Ornamental attraction opposite the entrance of the National Orchid Garden (Print this photo / More photos)

The water fountain opposite the entrance to the National Orchid Garden. It looks so beautiful and well decorated, with the cascading water, lush greenery and bright flowers. For those who are wondering whether to enter the Orchid garden as well, such a sight might persuade them to go inside after buying the entry ticket.

Beautiful yellow flowers inside the National Orchid Garden  (Print this photo / More photos)

A cluster of beautiful yellow flowers inside the National Orchid garden. This a bunch of small flowers, but put together, they look really beautiful.

The area below the capsules of the Singapore Flyer

Singapore has a number of tourist attractions, spread over the city and also in Sentosa. So, for example, there is a world class resort and casino, there are some great river cruises and ocean cruises. There is the international appeal of the Universal Studios Park that has droves of visitors every single day and double (or more) of that on weekends, there is a stupendous aquarium, there is the wildlife attraction with multiple destinations (the zoo, the night safari, the river safari, the Jurong Bird Park), and many more such destinations. One more such destination that seems to attract a lot of people is the Singapore Flyer. Like many such massive Ferris wheels the world over, the view from here is amazing. Located in the Marina area, the view from the capsules is incredible, seeing the Marina Bay Sands, the reservoir, and many other such attractions. The full trip up to the top of the Flyer takes around an hour.

The area below the capsules of the Singapore Flyer (Print this photo / More photos)

The Flyer was opened in 2008 and started drawing a large number of visitors, and is included on the tourist attraction list of Singapore. A couple of times, it has closed down because of some engineering work, but otherwise it is a huge draw. This is an image from below the Flyer, and looks beautiful; you can see the size and engineering flow of the Singapore Flyer with a lot of greenery below.

National Orchid Garden inside the Singapore Botanic Garden

The Singapore Botanic Garden is one of the foremost natural attractions of Singapore, and is very old, having been in existence in some form or the other since 1822, but was open in the current form in 1859. It is highly rated, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and also rated at the top in terms of parks in Asia. The garden is located near Orchard Road shopping district. Because of its sheer size and diversity, it plays a key role in defining Singapore as a garden city. The garden is spread over an area of 82 hectares, and receives around 4.5 million visitors daily. There is no admission fees for the Singapore Botanic garden, although the National Orchid Garden inside the Botanic garden charges an admission fee of Singapore $5.
The National Orchid garden within the Botanic Garden is located over an area of 3 hectares and is dedicated to orchids (you know those astounding beautiful flowers that are difficult to grow in your own kitchen garden but commercial gardens seem to have no difficulty in growing). The Orchid Garden has over 1,000 varieties of orchids.

Cool house inside the National Orchid Garden in Singapore (Print this photo / More photos)

Some specific species of plants require temperatures that the ambient weather conditions will not meet; it can be too hot for these plants. So, there is a temperature controlled section of the garden that houses plants that need a cooler environment to survive and thrive. Be prepared that it will be colder than the surroundings, but is not a very big place.

Pitcher plant inside the National Orchid Garden in Singapore (Print this photo / More photos)

There are a set of more exotic plants that depend on small animals and insects for their nutrition, such as this pitcher plant. These are called carnivorous plants, with another example being the Venus Fly trap. If an insect gets inside the pitcher, it cannot get outside again, and slowly dissolves in the liquid at the bottom of the pitcher, with the nutrients of the insect being used by the plant as food.