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LONDON: Singapore's top horticulture officials are in London to visit the world-renowned Chelsea Flower Show.
It's a chance for them to get some fresh ideas for Singapore's own inaugural Garden Festival to be held in December.
As part of the visit, Singapore's National Parks Board also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Britain's Royal Horticultural Society to work together and share expertise.
Dating back to 1852, the Chelsea Flower Show is probably the oldest event in the horticultural calendar.
The people behind it, the Royal Horticultural Society or RHS, are now teaming up with those behind the newest event in the gardening calendar, the Singapore Garden Festival.
The RHS has already been working with its counterpart, the Singapore Botanic Gardens, to offer assistance but this week the two bodies signed a MOU to say that they would continue to work together to share expertise and promote sustainable gardening practices.
Dr Wong Wei-Har, National Parks Board's festival director, said: "We are what we call into third gear, already into third gear, about to move into fourth gear. We have our designers, international award-winning designers, lined up for the show. We have got our partners together working together on the show."
Some of the world-class garden designers that have been invited to take part in the Singapore Garden Festival are a fixture at Chelsea.
Stephen Woodhams, an award-winning British designer, visited Singapore last month to help plan his contribution to the show and says he will be hoping to replicate something of the English garden that he is exhibiting at Chelsea.
Mr Woodhams said: "Particularly a wooden style of garden and hopefully using as many of the plants that we can source and get locally. We're possibly going to ship a few things, maybe over from Australia, just to add a bit of interest and try to keep it slightly more Mediterranean, more European in its flavour as an English style also. But it's a challenge. It's a real challenge."
Mr Woodhams isn't the only one brainstorming.
The team from Singapore will spend the rest of the week at the flower show, studying the many new designs, plants and innovations.
Dr Wong said: "It is impressive. We are inspired by the sheer volume, the quantity, the quality - especially the quality of the plants, the design ideas, the garden display and the whole wide range of garden products you can find here."
One thing the Singapore Garden Festival will want to emulate will be the crowds.
Thousands of people flock to the Chelsea Flower Show each year, come rain or shine. - CNA/ir
Source:
Channel NewsAsia International (Online) , 24 May 2006 1330 hrs, GMT + 8 hours.
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