Spreading out like the promised land… lots of flowers in this section!

The last several weeks have been super busy for me, hence the lack of gardening developments and blog posts. I think last month was the first month I’ve ever not blogged since starting The Curious Gardener! It’s not fun when life takes up all your time and energy that you can’t garden… Well, a friend and I needed to decompress, so last weekend we went to the famous plant nursery, World Farm (properly known as Hua Hng Trading Company), at Sembawang Road.

Rows of basil plants.

For plant lovers in Singapore, it’s like a trip to paradise because it’s big and the turnover of merchandise is fast. To quote my friend, the variety of plants can change every three days… I don’t know how true that may be, but they do have a good variety of plants from all over the world – fruit and ornamental trees, and flowers and herbs – as well as gardening accessories. Some areas were empty because we assume things had been brought to the Singapore Garden Festival at Takashimaya that weekend. The herb area was particularly bare, but I managed to get a replacement pot of mint since I’d lost mine during the hot season.

New to me was another variety of mint with a very intriguing scent – eau de cologne mint! Looking up its properties after buying the plant, I see it has some medicinal properties:

Traditional medicine uses include its beneficial effect on digestion, use as an antiseptic, and as an herbal tea remedy for headaches and general ailments. A few crushed leaves taken from the garden and rubbed on the forehead will ease a mild headache. It is also anti-spasmodic, carminative, cholagogic, diaphoretic, and has vasodilation properties. (from herbcottage.com)

I also was on the lookout for different varieties of the keng hwa plant that I’ve mentioned here several times. Why? Well, my friend has a very prolific variety that we’re a little envious of, plus we’ve also heard of a variety with red flowers. I was fortunate to find both types at the nursery that day. The red one looked like it had been recently potted and didn’t have any flower buds to show, but the white ones did. We hope both plants acclimatise to our home and start to flower in the not too far future.

Dragonfruit plants!

Dragonfruit plants are in the same plant family, and I was interested to observe a few mature plants there, especially how they were propped up.

Flowers that need less sunlight? They’re lovely when in a large cluster!

I also couldn’t resist getting some flowering plants – not as many as I’d wanted to, but there’s always another trip! If you haven’t been to World Farm, you’ll find it at 15 Bah Soon Pah Road, Singapore 769962, and if you go on the weekend, go early to beat the crowds, or visit during the week.

Don’t forget to use the handy carts when selecting plants!

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