New Pasir Panjang Nursery Tour to celebrate Clean and Green Singapore 2015

8 Nov 2014 – In conjunction with the Clean and Green Singapore (CGS) 2015 campaign, the National Parks Board (NParks) will be offering a new public guided tour of the Pasir Panjang Nursery on 15 November 2014. This tour will offer the public a rare glimpse into NParks’ behind-the-scenes nursery operations that translate to the greenery found across Singapore.

Set up in the 1970s, the Pasir Panjang Nursery supplies close to 200,000 plants a year to green up Singapore’s roads and parks. Majority of the plants provided by the Pasir Panjang Nursery are native to Singapore and not easily available in private nurseries. It is NParks’ major nursery and houses over 3,000 species of trees, palms, shrubs, groundcover, herbs, fruit trees and aquatic plants, many of which are native plants. Seeds and saplings of native plants are collected weekly from forests and parkland across Singapore, and grown at the nursery until they are planted islandwide. The nursery also sources plants from the region such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to increase the variety of native and ornamental plants used in NParks’ planting programmes.

NParks is offering a new public guided tour of the Pasir Panjang Nursery on 15 November 2014 at 9 am. There will be 60 vacancies for this tour, which will take about 1 ½ to 2 hours. This tour is free of charge, but prior registration is required on a first-come-first-served basis. Interested participants may register by e-mailing nparks_urban_gardening@nparks.gov.sgwith participants’ names, e-mail addresses and contact numbers,from 8 November 2014 at 10 am. More details can be found atwww.nparks.gov.sg/events.

Mr Kenneth Er, CEO of NParks, said, “Decades of our pioneers’ hard work to green up the island have enabled us to reap the benefits of the verdant landscape in our City in a Garden. We are pleased to offer a public tour to Pasir Panjang Nursery, which is a key facility that nurtures planting materials for our greening efforts. This is one way of inspiring the community in continuing this shared responsibility to carry on Singapore’s greening journey.”

Community in Bloom ambassadors

This year, seven new Community in Bloom (CIB) ambassadors will be appointed. They will be receiving their award from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the launch of Clean and Green Singapore 2015 on 8 November 2014.

CIB Ambassadors are volunteers who go the extra mile to help others enjoy gardening. They regularly contribute time, effort and resources to engage the community, and facilitate gardening-based initiatives.

The ambassadors are selected based on their contributions to spread the gardening culture among the community, knowledge in gardening and greenery as well as their ability to drive the gardening movement. The judging panel comprised representatives from the National Parks Board (NParks), People’s Association (PA), National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) and the Singapore Environment Council (SEC).