I have seen these gardens being built up from scratch; an enormous, impressive job with beautiful result.
This area is always worth a visit; the (free) outdoor, vast park, as well as the both conservatories, the SuperTrees and the F&B places.
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| What a specatular scenery, right?! |
Now you have an extra reason to go there, as there is a special Dutch-inspired exhibit in one of the conservatories.
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| The exhibit is in the enormous conservatory in the back. |
There are 50.000 flowers to admire in this exhibition. Wow!
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| I dressed up to the theme: floral dress and flower in my hair. To be honest: I wear florals a lot;-). |
Maybe it’s because I am dutch, living around the corner of the tulip fields, that this tulip exhibit did not impress me really. It was nice and all, but it seems a bit bleak in comparison to the real thing. The vast fields of flowering bulbs, laid out in long, intensely colored lines, are such a surreal, beautiful sight.
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| When you enter the exhibit you receive a card with dutch bunny Nijntje and you come across this table tableau. As you can see they used delft blue canal houses from KLM, one of the main sponsors of the exhibit. Cute. |
The smallish patches in the conservatory, enveloped by dark-green bushes, don’t have the same mesmerizing effect on me.
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| There are scale-model windmills, real-sized wooden shoes and cardboard canal houses. The dutch theme is indeed represented with the main cliche elements of the Netherlands. Not criticizing here; say Holland and people will think cheese, Anne Frank, tulips, windmills and clogs. Oh, and coffeeshops, I guess;-). |
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| Both my husband and I have worn these in a far, far past;-). |
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| There are not only lots of tulips, but also heeps of hyacinths. |
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| And there are short explanations about clogs and windmills. |
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| With their heads in the clouds…uh…clogs. |
But again, maybe it’s just dutch, spoiled-by-flowerfields little me;-). So let that not stop you from checking out Tulipmania for yourself!
And it sure does not mean that I did not have a great time at Gardens by the Bay. I did!!! I even bought a year-card, finally; yay!
It was funny how the guy behind the counter was more concerned with my looks then me. First he gave me a hand mirror ‘to check and clean up my look’;-). My reply basically was like ‘I don’t really care, dude, it’s a botanical garden card!’ Then he invited me to put aside my arsenal of shoulder bags for the pic, and again I was like ‘as if I care, (kind) young man!’.
Anyways: this is the result. Highly interesting information for you readers, right?;-)
I love, love, love the cactea and succulents garden inside this conservatory. The shapes, the blueish hues, the prickles and ‘hairs’, the occasional petite flower here and there; what’s not to love!
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| These white succulents are extremely special and unusual. |
And then I have not even shown you the other (rainforest) conservatory, the gardens outside, the SuperTrees and the magnificent views around.
We’ll keep that for another blogpost, shall we?
Did you visit Tulipmania at Gardens by the Bay? Do you go to the gardens regularly, like I do?
Did you ever see the tulip fields in the Netherlands?
Oh, and before I forget: next weekend there are several special events going on in the context of Tulipmania, named Tulip Cheer. For more details check out this website.
Unfortunately I have never been to the Netherlands, but I know the flowers over there are famous :). Actually my hubby was there last year for a studying trip. It looks so awesome over there
x
Never? Ya know what, Lara? Whenever you plan to visit Holland (and when I am in the country) I will show you around, ok?!
So what are both of you studying?
What a beautiful post, Anja! I am sure, I would have been impressed by those tulips, I loved them on the photos and the real thing is of course way more impressive. Those white succulents are amazing, they look like…something made of salt. Never seen anything like this. And I love your dress, what an amazing print.
Thanks, Olga, also for the kudos about the dress. Yes, its pattern is wonderful, I think.
That white succulent is very rare, I think. It is the only tiny part in the whole greenhouse where they placed a small glass wall in front of the plants. Probably afraid that people may want to touch it all the time;-).
OK… Ron already suggested to me to go to the Keukenhof in Holland. He would then photograph me in several outfits for my blog with the flowers in the background. Good idea what?
And yes, we are spoiled with flowers. Still very nice post.
Greetje
I think pictures amidst the flower fields would be nicer. Less people too (picture wise, I mean).
But less private room to change outfits haha
In the restrooms?
I’d love to see the tulip fields in the Netherlands! One day maybe : ) And maybe see you in your old clogs too ; ) One thing is for sure…you couldn’t sneak up on anybody when wearing clogs. I bet they had zero robberies and crime at that time. LOL
We have a bit of a tulip city in Canada…you might remember Ottawa is the place for tulips. I think the bulbs are from Holland. Every spring they have a huge tulip festival. We went some years back and it was quite nice. I love tulips.
You got some amazing photos here. Especially the cacti.
I loved that the guy was so concerned about your garden id photo! LOL
bisous
Suzanne
Yes, I heard about the dutch tulips in Ottawa, but never was there to see them. Must be pretty.
Nope, our old clogs are gone since a long time;-). You are right, no tiptoeing around the house in clogs, hahaha.