Bukit Tinggi Botanical Gardens

A trip up Bukit Tinggi, the highland resort area belonging to the Berjaya Group gave me an opportunity to visit their Botanical gardens. I have been up there before to cover the Japanese garden in our first issue of Gardenasia. I was informed about the making of these botanical gardens but at that time it was just planted. I wanted to come back to see it matured.

If I had to be anything in the world,
I would like to be as free as a bird

In the world that we live in, nature consist of all kinds of flora and fauna together with the diversity of their environment.

There are creatures inhabiting almost every corner of the globe, withstanding all kinds of harsh natural environments along with man made ones. The most fascinating, I personally feel are the winged creatures that inhabit the skies of this earth, birds. Being such a unique creation of God, these creatures have a totally separate classification in the animal kingdom.

Levens Hall

While on a visit to the Lake District in UK with my family, I decided to check out the gardens in the area. It is not difficult to find famous gardens in the area as they are well documented and part of the tourist attractions. I was thrilled to be able to visit Levens Hall, a garden, said to be 300 years old and still intact with its original trees. Yes! There are 300 years old trees in the garden. The original trees which have been formed and nurtured but later left to fend for themselves over a period of time escaped being ripped off (as has been done to other gardens for the creation of new style gardens) because the owners did not have the money to refurbish. A blessing in disguise!

Being from the period when parterre and topiary was the way to garden, this garden became the oldest topiary garden in the country. It is amazing how the hedges survived the wars and the huge tree in the main garden, now 300 years old is still standing. Inevitably, there is also the rose garden, something an English garden will be incomplete without. This is the first area of the garden that one would go to as one enters the rustic gate to the main garden. However it is the topiary garden that impressed the visitor. You can see all shapes and sizes of plants being trained to form themes. You can see a top hat, ladies in skirts, chess pieces, triangles, squares, and all are huge. The trainer needs tall ladders to climb to reach the top for pruning. It just shows the age of the trees that were shaped.

The hedges were just as impressive and they run the length and breadth of the gardens to form enclosures that not only house ponds and water features but also the vegetable gardens. Imagine how many gardeners are required to maintain the gardens, what with the pruning and training, but also changing the annuals according to seasons.

Guide to Groundcovers 

Caladium bicolor
These variegated caladiums are a colourful addition to any garden and looks good grown in a bed combined with other green bedding plants. They are commonly known as Fancy Leaf Caladium because of the fancy colors on the leaves that will make the garden looks more beautiful. This variety of caladium is believed to have originated from Tropical South America and the Caribbean.