I found this orange rose neglected at a corner near the exit of the Flower Dome at Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay. I was there to look at tulips (Tulipmania event from years ago), but was grossly disappointed. The scale of tulips on mass display did not wow me. Perhaps this attributed to frequent travels abroad and visiting the many gardens there. I have seen better glasshouse gardens abroad. People didn’t bother to take a second look at the roses. Aren’t roses the most popular flowers around? It’s fascinating seeing them bloom as nature intended, instead of being “blown wide” manually as is commonly done by florists for bouquets.
One thing about the Flower Dome is that the place doesn’t really showcase their roses and hibiscuses. These flowers, many in full bloom, were cast to the far flung corners of the glasshouse. Instead cactuses, baobabs and other uncommon arid plants get front focus here. It’s a pity the management decided to take this approach for the permanent display portion of the glasshouse, and instead putting more focus with themed exhibitions of popular temperate flowers (i.e. Tulips) to lure visitors to visit the place because “there’s always something new happening”. It just makes the garden seem so commercial and focused on profit-making. While there is no wrong trying to keep the place in the black and buzzing, the technique chosen just seems rather superficial to me. Shouldn’t the name “Flower Dome” suggest more flowers, instead of arid-cool fauna? And since this place is air-conditioned, shouldn’t we be seeing more temperate flowers that otherwise would not thrive at open-air gardens such as the Botanic Gardens?
While I admired and took pictures of the neglected roses, people started to swarm over to take pictures of the flowers too. Well ain’t that a classic example of social proofing. 😎
Picture taken with the Nikon D800 and MF 55mm f/2.8 Micro lens.