2011 - Nov - 20 World Orchid Conference, Singapore

The 20^th WOC was held at the MBS’s Sands Expo Centre in Singapore on 13-20 November.  Its theme was “Where Old and New World Orchids Meet”. 

We visited the orchid show at MBS on Monday 14^th Nov.

The show featured 55 displays from 19 countries and was a kaleidoscope of colour and visually stunning. PNG’s display came up tops in one of the categories, and we were glad for them, as they participated also in the biennial Singapore Flower Shows of 2010 and 2008.

http://daddytravel.blogspot.com/2010/07/2010-july-singapore-biennial-flower.html

The WOC show had orchids from many countries and continents, with some unusual flowers from European and South American countries like Ecuador and Peru. There were hybrids of almost every colour, pattern, hue, and shade, and also many competition categories.  The Taiwanese was grand champion with their orchid.

This is what I found out about the Taiwanese: - “according to Taiwan Floriculture Exports Association (TFEA), orchids account for US$87 million of 2007 exports. In 2005, Taiwan became the world's top orchid exporting country, replacing Thailand -- an honor it still holds”.
So, now I know.  In the export of orchids, Taiwan is number one, and Thailand is number two.

I think the Dutch are still number one in the export of tulips. They were also the originator of the “Black Tulip” and its economic lessons.  When I was in Tasmania, I discovered that the Australian were cultivating tulips for the Dutch, as it is more economical to grow them in the South (and export them from there) than grow them in “glass houses” in Holland.  Energy cost and air freighting does change the Floriculture business.

The Singapore 20^th WOC also allowed visitors to have a sneak preview of the Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay, which we did on Wednesday 16^th Nov.  This is ahead of the opening of the Gardens by the Bay scheduled for June 2012.

From a design and engineering viewpoint, the Flower Dome (and also the Cloud Forest) is a modern marvel.  It is “clam” shaped, gigantic volumetrically without pillars, had shades that could be programmed to track the sun or whatever, had cooling pipes below ground, humidity controlled at about 40 percent, etc.

The displays from all the different continents of the world, except Antarctica, were impressive and very diverse.  From the Flower Dome, one walks through the Heritage Gardens via the Dragonfly Bridge to connect back to MBS.

When the Cruise Ship Terminal is ready in 2012, cruisers could literally and seamlessly connect from the cruise ship to the Casino in MBS via the Gardens by the Bay.    

https://picasaweb.google.com/103888485910436380638/2011Nov20thWorldOrchidConferenceSingapore#