Landscape Surrounds You..: "Escape To Candy Land"

The Putrajaya FLORIA 2013 is now open till 30th. June 2013. Every year, as usual I never missed taking photos of the vibrant and unique displays at Putrajaya FLORIA.

If you have been there, what’s been your favourite?

While you were meandering around the site, did you noticed a garden with the concept “Escape To Candy Land” (it is located in the Society / Grower’s Gardens section). The name is quite playful.....sounds like Alice In Wonderland???

It is one of the showcase gardens in FLORIA 2013 specially displaying Hibiscus species with the concept of “Candy Land”.

Every landscape design, be it large or small has a unique characteristic that we must content to when designing. Therefore, the game plan for the landscape architects should follow some steps in developing the design.

First, we develop a conceptual plan, to show what you have invented or conceived (usually in diagrammatic form – simplified version of your general idea). So, for the Hibiscus garden, this is my initial concept drawing + landscape images:

The Conceptual Plan

…..This is the concept I developed for the garden:

"ESCAPE TO CANDY LAND"

Welcome to the “Candy Land”. This garden is a series of little gardens with collection of Hibiscus trees and flowering shrubs. Most Hibiscus trees have large blossoms with stunning colours, as colourful as candy!

You may walk through a gateway and will see the bright, colourful hues of flowers and sculptures inside. You will be walking along the winding, fancy and colourful path.

Your journey will take you straight to The Lollipop Wood. Be sure to see the 'lollipops' that made of colourful balls. Next, you will pass through The Topiary Garden. Beautifully pruned Hibiscus trees are displayed in bright colourful planters. These trees provide a cheerful vertical dimension in the garden.

To continue your journey, you may take the path that travel through The Candy Cane Lane. The path is decorated with big 'candy canes', made of white painted structure and wrapped with red tapes. Kids will be delighted with the vibrant colours of these 'candy canes'.

Next, when you are satisfied to the initial concept, you may develop the rough concept and explore the design possibilities further. You will find the best collection of elements that will both suit your concept and ofcourse the most important thing – the budget.

From these decisions, a final plan is drafted including the coloured rendering of the designer’s interpretation of the completed landscape when matured. So, this is the next step:

The Masterplan

The work on site can now be executed…

The Site Implementation

Things are always unpredictable. As installation progresses, we are there supervising every step of the way. Changes of design may occur on site subject to site conditions.

More than 100 nos of Hibiscus hybrid..

This ‘Escape To Candyland’ garden is just a simple individual site-scale design.

The steps and complexity of design depends on the scale of the project. For a complex, large-scale project, you need to go through many stages of design process and bunch of drawings may be produced!

Now, feast your eyes on the colourful hues of Hibiscus blossoms, bright 'candy canes' and 'lollipops'; the giant white painted chair and the mystical tree trunk in the Hibiscus garden.....Enjoy your journey!