SINGAPORE – A majestic Chinese banyan tree stood nearly 3m tall amid a vibrant tapestry of tropical plants, ferns and red-tinged bromeliads peeking through its canopy. Beneath its cascade of aerial roots was a lush carpet of vibrant pink slipper orchids, dark purple-green sonerilas, orange cannas and more.

       “Fiesta”, a striking array of flora in the display that was created by a team called The Tropicans, was a celebration of meticulously chosen plants that can be found along the Earth’s tropical belt.

       The show garden’s designers, Mr Bryan Lim, 23, Mr Aryan Chong, 19, and Mr Ng Jun Xiang, 19, are landscape design and horticulture diploma students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

       Their garden was one of 10 entries in the Landscape Design Challenge (LDC), which was part of the 2024 edition of the Singapore Garden Festival that ended Aug 11.

       The teams of three, comprising students from institutes of higher learning, were given around two months to prepare for the competition, from conceptualising their garden design to sourcing the appropriate plants.

       On Aug 3, the day of the competition, they had only four hours to assemble a landscape show garden on a 3m x 3m plot, bringing to life the theme “Celebrating Tropical Nature”.

       The gardens were judged on the design, choice of plants, how the students presented their concept, and the teamwork displayed.

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       To up the ante at this year’s challenge, each team was given a surprise plant on the day of the competition that had to be seamlessly integrated into its design. The gardens were also, for the first time, judged on presentation from all four sides, unlike the 270-degree view in previous years.

       The competition was also held indoors at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre. Past challenges were held at Gardens by the Bay.

       The location created a new challenge for the contestants, as they had to choose tropical plants that could survive air-conditioning.

       “The choice must be correct, if not the plants may be ‘shocked’,” said Mr Lim, explaining that most flowering plants need to be maintained at certain temperatures.

       His team took quite some time selecting the plants, as the leaves, colours and textures had to blend well “like a painting”. They even switched out their original ficus tree a month before the competition for a newer tree, as they had pruned it wrongly.

       Even though his team did not win, Mr Lim, who was on the winning team at the 2018 LDC, said: “Winning is not everything. The experience is most important.”

       Placing third was the team Grand Guardians of the Green for its garden, “Fragmented Realities: Nurture or Neglect?”, designed to illustrate the impact of deforestation.

       It featured an archway made of branches and twigs: On one side was lush green “forest” that reached a height of around 2.5m, but visitors who stepped through the arch were met with a stark contrast of dried twigs and yellowing leaves strewn on the ground.

       The concept garden was created by Ms Nur Huda Hassan, 25, and her landscape management and design course mates Muhammad Dzaqwan Rosli, 19, and Muhammad Iftikhar Mohamad Indra Sharoll, 20, from ITE College East.

       The 2.4m-tall archway was perfected only on the students’ second try, as the original – constructed out of dried branches – was unstable. With help from landscapers from Esmond Landscape, where the students got their plants from, the team created a new version with stronger branches that were nailed together.

       Ms Huda said she and her teammates were surprised by their ability to bring the concept to life within the tight two-to-three-month timeline.

       Mr Shawn Soo, 43, the teacher overseeing the team, said he saw how the trio had matured and cultivated a winning mindset over time. Instead of being mere participants in the competition, they garnered the motivation to design a garden worthy of the podium.

       “I am very proud of them,” he added.

       Also beaming with pride was Ms Vicnesvari Sengily, 49, a senior lecturer at ITE College East – the team she was in charge of clinched the top prize.

       The team, Tropical Amalgamates, was made up of Ms Celeste Sapura, 19, Mr Naufa Tehah A’Dri, 20, and Ms Anissa Fatini Mohammed Faizal, 19. All three are also landscape management and design students.

       While the students had conflicting ideas along the way, “I could see that they learnt to respect one another”, Ms Vicnesvari said. She added that the team members always looked out for one another, making sure they had their meals and rested well.

       The team’s whimsical design, “Lush Revival”, included a life-size Forest Goddess, handmade from wire and holding a piece of tree bark along which water flowed down towards a portal to the “human world”, represented by a large, circular LED light with shades of blue, yellow and green.

       The water flowing through the portal from the “magical realm” into the human world, Mr Naufa said, symbolises the central idea that “the Goddess helps to bring tropical life to the places that have been urbanised”.

       The team members worked with one of their lecturers to create the hardscapes, or the non-living structures involved in the designs. Beside the Goddess, this included a fairy, also made from wire, and a fairy house made from tree bark.

       Native plants were picked as they best represent Singapore, said Mr Naufa.

       Specific flowers, like the sandpaper vine – a star-shaped, white and violet ombre flower that represents hardiness and resilience – were chosen to accompany the Goddess, to show nature’s resilience, regardless of the conditions.

       The surprise plant the team received on the competition day was an Adonidia dransfiedii, or Sabah Christmas Palm tree, that was around 2m tall.

       The team successfully integrated the plant into their design as they had prepared for this last-minute element, Mr Naufa said. The students had made room in their design for both large and tiny plants, and had also practised for different scenarios.

       The Silver Award went to Team Sol Tropicana – comprising students Chong Kar Hee, Lim Jiin and Cai Zhenning, all aged 19, from Singapore Polytechnic’s landscape architecture course – for its garden, “Celebrating Tropical Nature: Frames of the Past”.

       The winning teams all had a surprising X factor, and were able to link their display with a main concept, said Ms Faatimah Haleemah, who is from the Landscape Industry Association of Singapore and was one of the three judges.

       Tropical Almalgamates’ garden received a “unanimous” vote from the three judges, added another judge, Ms Srilalitha Gopalakrishnan, president of the Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects.

       She said that in this competition, “there is a much stronger narrative”. “The perspectives are interesting.” The benchmark has risen, so the participants of the next competition have to push the bar even higher, she added.

       Ms Faatimah also said the most important thing was for students to put their “passion in play” and enjoy the process.

       “I think I saw it in most of them – they really enjoyed what they were doing. You can see their passion in their final display,” she said.