The Garden of Fame

I did something very touristy unintentionally last Saturday.

I had a luncheon appointment at Jurong Hilltop. This place is new to me, I didn't  know this hilltop with a look-out tower and a park existed. The restaurant is located at the look-out tower itself.

To get to the restaurant you need to walk through the park . As I was strolling and looking, these interesting trees caught my eyes. 

Look at the beautiful branches, the branches  grow tall and vertically upright some were even parallel to each branches. I have never seen one like this. I think its unique. I walked closer and saw that there's a plaque in front of every tree. The first plaque I saw reads: " This tree was planted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II On 19th February, 1972 in commemoration of Her Majesty’s visit to Jurong Town during the state visit to Singapore from 18th Feb. to 20th Feb. 1972”.

Cool!  I am standing at The Garden of Fame whereby trees here are all older then me.  Like any other tourist there, I started taking pictures too.

A luncheon at Jurong Hilltop becomes an excursion and  some trivial knowledge lesson.

Heres what I learned. A little background for those that are interested.

The Garden of Fame is located in Jurong Hilltop officially opened in 1970. In the early days, foreign VIP dignitaries were often invited to plant a tree at the Garden of Fame to commemorate their visit.

The first tree was planted by Princess Alexandra of the United Kingdom in 1969. 28 other dignitaries including names like Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, President Suharto, Japanese Crown Prince Akihito, Princess Michiko of Japan and DR Benjamin Henry Sheares President of Singapore had planted trees in this Garden of Fame. The last tree was planted in 1978 by the late Mr Deng Xiao Ping, ex-leader of the People’s Republic of China.

I went on to googling more about this tree.

The common name: The Tembusu.

Scientific name: Fagraea fragrans

The Tembusu is in one of the heritage tree in Singapore. It is also  featured in Singapore's $5 currency as well.

I've always liked plants, trees, gardens and flowers. Here's my little garden at home. I would like to take a stroll at the park and garden more often when the mosquitoes are not around.