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Photos of SBG Cool House!!

I went there just now, and I must say I am quite impressed. Admission is $2 and the Cool house is accessible only through the national orchid garden.
The Cool house is extremely humid as there are misters operating all the time, your cam will get wet after a while. The temperature is about 20C, not too cold.
They have almost every popular type of CP except VFT and Pings..
Okay here are some pics ( for more, go the my photpg: http://community.webshots.com/user/vistary )
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vistary, pictures from webshots won't display properly here. You beat me to it! I just came back from the cool house. Here is more info:

I did not have to pay the $2 admission fee (didn't even know there was one), because of a very devious route I took.

Temperature is about 20C, humidity must be about 100%. Orchids and ferns dominate most of the coolhouse, but neps get some limelight as well.

There are about six/seven different nep species (I may be over-estimating due to upper pitchers), notable were rafflesiana, sanguinea and possibly macfarlanei. Couldn't really identify them accurately.

At the far side of the house is a mass of CPs "from all over the world" as the board proclaims. From vistary's shots, you can see there are many sarracenia, drosera (mostly capensis), darlingtonia, some cephalotus and heliamphora. Oddly, no VFTs.

While this is pretty amazing, there is a problem with the setup. All the "temperate" CPs above are growing in the same conditions, in the same medium (moss). As I recall, this is not really a good idea, and already the darlingtonia show signs of distress, and the droplets on the sundews were probably water rather than nectar (from all the misting). I believe that is also not good for the sundew.

This brings me to guqin's point about volunteering. I fully agree with his suggestion, for a number of reasons. One, I believe SBG has not fully grasped the potential of CPs. A lot of space is wasted on drab ferns and ficus, which could be better utilised growing colourful neps, which would really complement the surrounding orchids. Second, I'm sure SBG could use some help with CPs such as cephalotus and darlingtonia (and I'm sure we'd all love to help
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). Third, I believe there is no institution in the region that has attempted a Nepenthes Garden, and with our local climate I see no reason why we cannot establish one to rival Frederick Meijer's and do justice to our local flora, as well as spreading knowledge and interest in this amazing genus.

And finally, after having recently volunteered at the zoo, I can safely say Singapore is in dire need of better volunteer programmes!

Colin
 
Wow! I won't complain if I'm to look after the CPs in the cool house! Beats spending time in boring meetings...shh...don't tell my boss...
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Seriously, I've be on attachments at The Underwater World and SHATEC. They were great! So much to learn and we get to try different things.
 
colin: the photos seem to display well for me on both my browsers;
After visiting the cool house, I agree with colin that they should bring in more of the ultra highlanders... their present variety of neps looks pretty boring. But after this interesting trip, I should be planning to go Mt kinabalu to experience the real highland rainforest.
I'll like to volunteer too, especially during my June vacations which will be about 3 months long... keep in informed.
 
vistary: it's a common problem. They display because the images are stored in your cache, which means it'll only be visible to others after they visit your webshots site.

Actually, I don't mind even if they bring in more lowlanders, which at this point may be more economical for them. Remember to take many photos while exploring Kinabalu, vistary!
 
colin: that(Mt Kinabalu) will be in May-Jul.... perhaps the national service will send u to Brunei, then u may explore the area during your free time
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Haha, I doubt I'd have the time....too busy killing enemies, you see.
 
This was the director of SBG's reply to the question of a lowland nepenthes garden.
<<<<<<I only wish we have the resources to develop and maintain a Nepenthes corner in the Gardens (outside the Cool House).  Presently we will be trying this within our
proposed Children's Garden to be developed with a large private donation on a plot of land between the SMU driveway and our lake at the Bukit Timah end of the Gardens.  For this we are propagating in the laboratory, from seeds, a number of Bornean Nepenthes as well.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I'll e-mail him back to say there may be several people wishing to volunteer their time and knowledge if he is interested.
I'll keep you informed.
Happy growing, Neil
 
Some more photos of the cool house and the plants.
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I've only space to show you 2 photos here.
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Near the exit there were sarracenia, drosera sundews, cephalotus etc.
sarracenia.jpg

cephalotus.jpg

Happy growing everyone.
I'm going to England for urgent matters for 1 week. I'm busy putting all my nepenthes into plastic bags to stop them drying out, shrivelling and dying.
Neil.
 
  • #10
Wow great pics! I like the second pic alot, that a huge pitcher! are we allowed to take leaf cuttings? lol
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im going away for a week too, a man in the nursery said that he showered his neps till the pot was heavy every week. Thats what ill do.
 
  • #11
Great photos, Neil, I didnt see the pair of maroon neps during my trip.
Wezx: some neps don't toloerate water logged conditions, as root rot may occur, do take note...
 
  • #12
Very nice Neil...I too don't remember those neps...
 
  • #13
If I remember correctly it was near the exit on the rock on the right but half way down the rock about level with the walkway. I seem to remember getting a few stares as I crouched down with my camera almost touching the walk way floor!
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Happy growing, Neil
 
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