KANGAR: Thanks to a housewife, one can experience the feel of Cameron Highlands in Perlis.

       Siti Khadijah Jaafar’s keen interest in flowering plants and fruit trees had led her to opening a cafe with a flower garden concept in Kampung Sentua here.

       Stepping into the garden cafe, which is surrounded by a multitude of flowers such as varieties of English roses, yam plants from the Colocasia Pharaoh Mask species and Monstera rare plants, visitors would feel as if they are at a highland retreat in Cameron Highlands.

       Apart from the lush greenery and cool breeze due to its location on a higher altitude, the cafe is also surrounded by Harumanis and longan fruit trees.

       The place has been widely shared on social media.

       Siti Khadijah, 58, who jointly owns the cafe, said, her family used to operate a nursery selling rose plants as a side income.

       The customers, who come from near and far, had encouraged them to start a garden cafe.

       “The garden cafe opened just two months ago. I was surprised by the overwhelming response and that some have referred to it as a mini Cameron Highlands,” the former software engineer said.

       “We will work on having more flowering plants to cater to customers who are rose plant lovers.

       “Currently, we have over 100 types of roses and other decorative flowers,” the mother of two told Bernama. The home-grown telang flowers are used in food colouring.

       Kak Siti, as she is affectionately known, hopes to develop the garden cafe further as an agro-tourism retreat and farm stay.

       “So far we only have two homestay rooms and I plan to have more rooms in the future,” she said, adding that she also plans to make this a one-stop centre tourist spot as well as training ground for youths interested in venturing into agro-tourism entrepreneurship.