Restored and blooming again
The long-forgotten Sunken Garden in its former state has been restored and replaced with a beautiful tiered rock pool.
THE Penang Botanic Gardens’ long-forgotten Sunken Garden has been restored to its former glory.
In place of the thick undergrowth is now a beautiful tiered rock pool.
Work to clear, upgrade and beautify the area started last October and was completed in two months.
Located near the Formal Garden, the Sun-ken Garden is on lower ground — hence its name.
It was earlier reported that the Sunken Garden, conceived during the tenure of the Gardens’ first Malaysian curator Cheang Kok Choy, had been abandoned for some 40 years.
State Botanic Gardens department assistant director Salasiah Yusop said they were currently doing the landscaping and maintenance works.
“It’s done. The public can visit anytime.
“We’ve never closed the Sunken Garden but now when you visit, you can actually sit and relax there as the upgrading work has finished,” she said yesterday.
On the environmentally friendly bamboo appreciation centre that is being constructed at the nearby bambusetum, Salasiah said it would be ready by the end of this month.
Both the Sunken Garden and the nearby bamboo appreciation centre were awarded to local contractors and scheduled for completion last December.
“A termite problem and delay in the delivery of bamboos caused the completion date of the centre to drag on a little.
“The bamboos from Indonesia only arrived here last month,” she said.
The structure, perched on higher ground and overlooking the bambusetum, is built entirely out of bamboo and will also house a souvenir shop.
The cost of the projects is funded by the state government.
The bambusetum, featuring 36 bamboo species from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and China, is part of the Tourism Ministry’s RM7mil Botanic Gardens expansion project which also comprised a new visitors’ pavilion, facade and eco-stream walkway.
On the Historic Economic Crop Garden, originally slated for completion in November last year, Salasiah said there has been a slight delay.
The new attraction located between the Penang Rifle Club and Quarry Garden was cleared in early October, and planted with a myriad of some 100 commodity crops like coffee, rubber, cocoa, oil palm and coconut.
The objective is for the younger generation to see first hand the crops that contributed to the nation’s development.
“We’ve planted the trees but they are not growing as well as we had hoped because there are granite rocks underground.
“The rocks will be removed soon to make sure that the trees flourish,” she said, adding that work to convert the department’s cen-tury-old office inside the Botanic Gardens into a herbarium-cum-museum was underway.
“The department moved into the pavilion on Jan 23 and upgrading work on our former premises is being done.
“I would like to thank our new consultant curator Stewart James Henchie and Penang Botanic Gardens controlling officer Mohamed Akbar Mustapha who have been such a big help since they came on board three months ago,” she said.
Henchie is the former president of the Kew Guild – an organisation for past and present staff of London’s Kew Gardens.
An official launching ceremony for the bambusetum, Sunken Garden, Historic Economic Crop Garden and herbarium-cum-museum will be held sometime this year.
~News courtesy of The Star~
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