Gardens by the Bay updates: Rose Romance, Precious Peony floral displays, Active Garden and more

Check out this season’s highlights from Gardens by the Bay: Rose Romance 2022 floral display, the Precious Peony display in April-May 2022, and updates from Cloud Forest and Active Garden.

Rose Romance Floral Display

13 May – 12 June 2022

Feel as if you’ve stepped into a town in Italy as you walk around the newest floral display, Rose Romance.

At the top gallery, the first thing you’ll see is a gazebo with a feature vase, surrounded with even more roses and even a scooter on the side.

The main Flower Field features a very beautiful landscape comprising stone streets and scenes inspired by Italy. But as you head down, don’t miss other additions in the Mediterranean Garden (one of the gardens facing the Flower Field):

Juliet’s Balcony – recreated here so that visitors can profess their love the same way as the star-crossed lovers. Romeos will need to take the stairs down to get to the right spot.

Fun facts on the plants used for this Juliet’s Balcony installation.

On the other side of the Mediterranean Garden are Sacred Art Reproductions, which features “museum quality art works” created using the PICTOGRAFIA technique by Bottega Tifernate.

The Annunciation – Beato Angelico

The Last Supper – Leonardo Da Vinci

The Mediterranean Garden also offers a nice overview of the various ‘Italian summer’ scenes in the entire Flower Field. But let’s take a closer look at this rustic countryside.

After several months of having the center field “boxed up” with either a giant lantern, a cube with round windows, and a very boxy Peranakan shophouse, it’s nice to see the field looking more like an actual garden.

It’s a small path cutting through the center field, but offers much elegance and a sense of wonder, with lush landscaping and beautiful scenic design all around.

This particular floral arch in the middle of the field is created in partnership with a different florist each week. For the first week, the arch created by Friday’s Garden is inspired by colours from Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus.

This is probably the most attractive area of the center field, so you can expect more visitors to spend more time admiring the display here. There’s also another photo spot at the edge of the field – with a bench placed at the right place for the perfect background (provided there aren’t too many people behind).

Over 70 varieties of roses are on display, including two-tone roses making their debut at the Gardens. (This is not one of them but these colours do look nice)

Rosa ‘Aria Babylon Eyes’ – another notable rose, this is an uncommon variant with petals usually in a single row.

The last display is the ‘Secret Garden’ section, just beside the center field and along the way to the exit.

Another change to note: With the easing of safe distancing measures from 26 April 2022, visitors will no longer require to use SafeEntry/ TraceTogether at the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. There is also no need to book timeslots for entry.

Precious Peony Floral Display

9 April – 8 May 2022

Precious Peony was the previous floral display. The lockdown in China caused a shipment of flowers to be delayed, which may have affected the overall look of the display. I visited earlier in April but unfortunately did not have time to revisit when the shipment arrived in End April.

So instead the Gardens used peonies from Japan, Israel, and the Netherlands for the first weeks of the display.

This floral display is the first in the Gardens’ 10-year history to be themed around peonies, and also the first to be presented with other local museums, such as The Peranakan Museum.

Artefacts exhibited around this display showcase how peonies are incorporated into its designs. The scenic design also recreated scenes from Chinese gardens and culture, paying tribute to the journey of the flower from China.

The highlight of Precious Peony, which may have taken too much of the limelight (literally), is the Peranakan shophouse which visitors can walk through and see more artefacts.

Cloud Forest Update

Last month, there were two major additions to the Cloud Forest. First is the permanent installation of Dale Chihuly’s Ethereal White Persians sculpture in the pond at the top level of Cloud Forest. The white glass sculpture was last exhibited in Chihuly in Bloom at Gardens by the Bay.

The other is the gift of the kūwaha sculpture named Tāne Te Waiora, which was unveiled by Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand on 19 April 2022.

Visitors can view this sculpture, which was crafted from a tree estimated to be over 2,500 years old, beside the Cloud Forest waterfall.

Active Garden Update

The Active Garden area of the Bay East Garden, was recently ‘officially opened’. This area is along the road facing the coastline that leads to Marina Bay Sands/ Helix Bridge. It’s a short walk from the Flower Dome’s exit at ground level.

I believe the main fitness/ playground areas were already completed for quite a while (even the cafe was rebranded), but entire 10,000 sqm compound now comprises other facilities including a covered plaza, lawns and community garden.

Upcoming Floral Display (Late June 2022)

The next floral display, Hydrangea Holidays, is slated to start from 25 June 2022. This will be a collaboration with the Netherlands Embassy, and will feature countryside landscapes in the summer, filled with canals, townhouses and windmills.

Use my Klook link to buy tickets for Flower Dome and other attractions at Gardens by the Bay!

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