New Zealand garden designers have taken on the world, and won, at this year's Singapore Garden Festival. Gillian Vine reports.
New Zealand entries have scored in the sixth Singapore Garden Festival (SGF) with two golds and a bronze.
Auckland-based Leon Kluge and his partner in KlugeLuuTomes Design, Bayley LuuTomes, of Wellington, picked up two gold awards last Friday at the prestigious Southeast Asian show, the first for their landscape garden, Eco-scape, and the second for lighting.
"We're very happy, especially about the lighting one, as we were gunning for that,'' Mr Kluge said.
"I'm overwhelmed,'' Mr LuuTomes said.
"We were up against such outstanding international designers.''Singapore's Minister for National Development, Lawrence Wong, presented the awards.
Adam Shuter, of Auckland, the other New Zealand entrant, won bronze for his fantasy garden, Modern Day Maui.
His bold depiction of the Polynesian demi-god attracted wide attention from showgoers and a photo of it was published in Singapore's major daily newspaper, The Straits Times.
The SGF, held every two years, is considered one of the world's top garden shows, attracting entries from around the globe.
To qualify, designers must have won at least one major award at another international garden event.
This year, Malaysia's Inch Lim was awarded best in show in the landscape section, narrowly edging out Kluge and LuuTomes; Stefano Passeroti (Italy) created the BIS fantasy garden; while Natasha Lisitsa and Daniel Schultz, of the United States, won BIS in the floral art section.
In contrast to previous shows, most of the landscape gardens relied for effect on deceptively simple designs and careful plant selection, rather than elaborate structures.
Concern for the future of the planet was a common theme, also seen in Singaporean community gardens and displays encouraging people to grow food in small spaces.
Except for Passeroti's winning entry and Shuter's Maui, the fantasy gardens were somewhat lacking the "wow'' factor, not helped by dim lighting in the marquee where they were staged.
There was colour aplenty in Floral Windows to the World, although many of the floral artists used a single pastel colour.
Best in show winners Natasha Lisitsa and Daniel Schultz opted for pink, with as many as a dozen different kinds of flowers to create the desired effect.
Colour abounded, too, at the Singapore Orchid Show, run in conjunction with the SGF.
This was probably a reflection of hybridists' efforts to get ever-stronger tones, especially in the blue Vanda, orange Vandachostylis and red Renantanda hybrids, but there were plenty of pale beauties, too.
And for those with patience to work on a plant for years to get the right effect, nothing could beat the penjing (bonsai) line-up.
One enterprising grower even had tiny plants twisted into Chinese characters that read "I love Singapore''.
How's that for national pride?
The show runs until Sunday, when the New Zealanders will learn whether they have scored again when the People's Choice, based on showgoers' votes, is announced.
