«GreetingLine» in 1822, Sir Stamford Raffles
started the “first botanical, and experimental garden” on
Fort Canning Hill, Singapore. These gardens were closed
in 1829 and the present “Singapore Botanic Gardens” were
founded in 1859. Henry Nicholas Ridley (aka Rubber Ridley)
became the Garden’s first Director in 1888, and he set about
propagating rubber trees and devised methods of harvesting
latex without killing or harming the trees. Today the garden’s
laboratories produce hardy free flowering orchid hybrids, and
many of these are on display in the (3 hectare) “National Orchid
Gardens” which forms part of the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

C U on the email, keith 