Gardens by the Bay – Asian Tales

Step into a picturesque landscape flush with spring blossoms at Asian Tales – Gardens by the Bay’s newest floral display.

After a tour around the world in 2014, Gardens by the Bay brings a new concept this year – a journey through stories. Asian Tales, the first of the series, brings traditional Chinese brush paintings to life.

Mountains and Goats – perfectly aligned with the roof of the Flower Dome, it brings the dramatic scene alive.

The back lane of the Flower field is accessible again. This time with several giant reinterpretation of the zodiac animals using flowers.

This year’s chinese zodiac animal – the Goat – created out of wood carvings and flowers.

Dahlias, Chrysanthemums and Orchids bring a myriad of colours to this season’s floral display.

I would say that this floral display is definitely an improvement compared to past displays for the Lunar New Year. The first one – Spring Celebrations (2013) – was quite a spectacle with the immense variety scattered all over. The Year of the Horse (2014), while more harmonious, had too much focus on flowers of the yellow and orange variety.

The focus on dahlias lend a harmonious burst of colours – all but blue – at this season’s display.

Unique to Asian Tale is the Spring Surprise, a series of activities and performances happening inside the Flower Dome for a limited period. The programme includes puppetry performances and traditional crafts such as calligraphy, decorative paper cuttings and mask paintings. They are free to participate, but limited vacancies are available each time – so be there early to sign up. Activities start at 10am on weekends and 11am on weekdays, and end around 6pm.

There is a special activity for Friends of the Gardens members (Annual Passholders). Members can get a rainbow calligraphy of their name. This is not available to other visitors.

Asian Tales is now on display in the Flower Dome till 8 March 2015. Find out more about the special programmes of performances and activities at the Gardens by the Bay website here.