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(Its dead now)

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After this trip, we got to know more about the installation and growth of the plants in Changi Airport, how the plants are regularly changed (weekly/monthly) and usually done so past 12 at night. Furthermore, they have different themes at times such as during National Day, New Year and Christmas. All of these are to provide a wow factor to visitors and brighten their day, and these projects takes months to plan and grow the flowers.

In this nursery it was amazing, to see all the variety of plants from shoots to trees, and the day to day care they need. This was definitely a task we underestimated, and we'll be sure to check out and admire every garden in each terminal next time we travel.

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The trip to Changi Airport Nursery brought to the forefront many important learning points, as well as allowing us a window into the responsibilities key to growing plants of all shapes and sizes.

It was most certainly enlightening to chat with the staff at the nursery, and it showed clearly just how enjoyable and enriching getting down and dirty with plants can be. The constant care and attention given to every plant as they are moved around through each stage of their stay at the nursery is essential to nurture the best and most beautiful flowers for our airport.

The trip also reminds us of Singapore's identity as the "City in a Garden", causing us to take notice of the pains that our fore-bearers have taken to plant and grow flora all over the country. Seeing just how much time is put into the flowers in the nursery puts into perspective the monumental effort it must have been to transform an entire country through horticulture.

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Group Photo @ Changi Airport Nursery! :)

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Group Photo @ Changi Airport Nursery! :)

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Challenges in the horticulture operations (ii)

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Challenges in the horticulture operations (ii)

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Outdoor and indoor landscapes have largely different environments, that plants may not necessarily be able to adapt to, and hence the nursery is also responsible for the preparation and acclimatization of these plants, as well as their recuperation and regeneration after return from display. Transition works to bring the public all these aesthetics are planned to take place during hours where human traffic is lower so as to bring about the surprise element and at the same time minimize disruptions towards the public. The public generally sees the airport as aesthetically pleasing but we never know who is in behind all of the planning and execution, and the field trip to changi airport group has shown us so much more.

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Ornamental horticulture put into industry

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Ornamental horticulture put into industry

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These pictures also depict the changi airport greens, and through this field trip and the presentations by changi airport nursery I’ve learnt more about ornamental horticulture, where the usage of plants and their arranges are solely for aesthetic purposes, in this case, with the considerations of changi airport being the first impression when visitors enter singapore, and the last impression when they leave. As such, the placement of each and every plant is planned out in order to soften the visual and physical appearance of the airport, and to further enhance singapore’s image as city in a garden by starting off with our airport.

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Challenges in the horticulture operations

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Challenges in the horticulture operations

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Changi airport nursery’s job scope includes so much more, such as managing all landscaping works at the Changi airport, including outdoor landscapes such as roads leading to the airport, as well as designing and installing festive and event displays. This is especially challenging because of the different requirements for plants in the indoor and outdoor landscapes respectively. Indoor landscapes in terminals are generally for thematic displays during festive events, and growth factors such as fertilizer and nutrients, light intensity and irrigation have to be calibrated. Plants will have to be used to complement the indoor surroundings. Whereas the outdoor landscapes generally focus on beautifying the surroundings of the airport, and have automated irrigation systems. Challenges unique to outdoor landscape s include integrating with the surroundings, bird strikes and control of the wildlife.

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Standard & Maintenance:
1. Landscape maintenance works
2. Contracts for management of Indoor, Outdoor and Airport Nursery.
3. Manage all landscaping works at Changi Airport
4. Set and ensure stringent landscape quality standards

Design & Install:
1. Create new designs for gardens and landscape areas
2. Upgrade and revamp existing landscapes
3. Design & Install festivals & events decorations

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A land of rainbows and diamonds, 20 mins walk away from Changi Airport

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Major Tasks done @ Changi Airport Nursery

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Major Tasks done @ Changi Airport Nursery

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1. Produce plants for outdoor and indoor landscape replacement and display (soil & hydro plants)
2. Produce colourful annuals and flowering plants for Sunflower and Butterfly gardens
3. Preparation and acclimatization of plants
4. Recuperating and regenerating plants returned from display
5. Research for growing medium, chemical treatment and plant sustainability

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Choice of soil (Difference from other nurseries)

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Choice of soil (Difference from other nurseries)

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The nursery chose to use LECA beads, or lightweight expanded clay aggregate beads instead of traditional usage of soil. This allows for much easier transfer of plants when moving them to the airport for display. Traditional soil usage would be very messy and would be seen as much dirtier, especially in the case where a plant is toppled in the airport. They are also rather inhospitable to bugs and insects which may reside in soil, which is important as the airport would not want bugs and insects to be seen around LECA beads also fits in changi airport's theme of being modern and helps boost the image of being a city in a garden. The picture shows the LECA beads used when transferring the plants.

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Requirement to adapt plants (Difference from other nurseries)

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Requirement to adapt plants (Difference from other nurseries)

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The nursery has to place the plants under a shade for a short period of time before transporting it to the airport for display. The indoor airport garden has a lack of sunlight issue so they have to adapt the plants to a lower light environment to ensure that they can survive when placed in the airport gardens. The picture shows the shade that the plants are put under before being transported

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Purpose of changi nursery (Difference from other nurseries)

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Purpose of changi nursery (Difference from other nurseries)

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The Changi airport nursery’s growth of plants has to be largely catered towards the specific needs of the Changi airport. and hence plants in the nursery are grown to fit the aesthetic requirements as well as the environmental factors of the airport, whereas plants in the other nurseries are generally brought up in conditions that are meant to maximize growth efficiency.

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Jobscope of changi nursery (Difference from other nurseries)

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Jobscope of changi nursery (Difference from other nurseries)

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After changi nursery has transferred their plants to the various terminals, they still have a group of workers in charge of maintaining and replacing the plants if needed. Traditional nurseries after selling their plants would not care for them anymore. It would be up to the owner to care for it.

Another aspect that is different is that they have a design team to arrange and display the different plants and structures to show off to the people patronizing the airport. They would design different displays for different events such as chinese new year or national day. They would also design the gardens that would be implemented in the terminals such as the 9 gardens already in the 4 terminals.

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Innovations used in horticulture industry (Transfer of Seedlings)

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Innovations used in horticulture industry (Transfer of Seedlings)

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The picture depicts a tool used to cause an indent in the soil, where a seed will subsequently be inserted into and covered up with soil. As opposed to the traditional way of poking a hole using one’s fingers into each grid, the tool is able to efficiently create indents into an entire row of soil grids. Even though the nursery was shown to be largely run by manual labour, small innovations like these has proved that despite all the advancements in machines and technology today, simple methods can still be used to increase work efficiency

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These sunflowers shine brighter than ever under the hot sun, ready to join their friends at the sunflower garden in T2

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A 3 week old sunflower for everyone!

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Tools like these allow for faster transferring of plants to bigger pots for further growth and for planting seeds. The tray with the plants will be places above the large tray with many "spikes". The plants will then be pushed up and will be easy to take and move it to another pot. The other two tools are for poking the pots to create a hole before planting. The seeds or plant will then be placed nicely into the created hole.

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There is a slanted layer without holes below the top layer with plants for the water dripping from the plants to flow to the side and be collected elsewhere for recycling of the water. Without this layer, the dirtied and nutrient poor water from the plants above would drip down onto the plants below, saturating the soil and reducing the nutrients intake by the plants below.