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Singapore National Flower
The History
While many
of the Armenian men in Singapore achieved political and
social acclaim during their lifetimes, it is a woman whose
name lives on, both in Singapore and beyond. She is Ashkhen
Hovakimian (Agnes Joaquim) who bred the world's first
cultivated Vanda hybrid. Named Vanda Miss
Joaquim after her, it is also known as the Singapore orchid,
the Wah Kim orchid and the Princess Aloha orchid. Not only
was Vanda Miss Joaquim chosen as the national flower
of Singapore, but it became one of the most popular and
prolific orchids in Singapore, the Philippines and Hawaii.
The eldest
daughter of Parsick and Urelia Joaquim, Agnes developed a
keen interest in gardening as did her mother and several of
her siblings. From 1881 onwards, family members collected
prizes for their flowers, fruit, vegetables and floral
arrangements in the annual flower shows, with Agnes usually
winning the most prizes. She excelled in the 1890s,
collecting ten firsts and two seconds in 1893, followed by
ten firsts and five seconds in 1894, and seven firsts and
eight seconds in 1895.
Although
the Straits Times considered the 1897 Flower Show to
be a failure, concluding that 'with the exception, perhaps,
of a languid interest in a few orchids, the European is no
lover of flowers', Agnes won prizes for orchids, other
flowers and fruit. Amongst her awards in 1898, was the first
prize for orchids, but her crowning success occurred the
following year.
With its
splendid exhibition of numerous and gorgeous orchids, the
1899 Flower Show was lauded as the best for years. The
highlight was Agnes' orchid which, the Straits Times
noted, was named after Miss Joaquim and raised by her. Agnes
had lived just long enough to see her orchid win first prize
for the rarest orchid and be publicly recognised for her
achievement. Suffering with cancer, she was dead within
three months.
The orchid's debut
Agnes had
bred her orchid by crossing the Burmese Vanda teres
with the Malayan Vanda hookeriana. In early 1893, she
showed the plant to Henry Ridley, the director of the
Singapore Botanic Gardens. After carefully examining the
hybrid and having it sketched, Ridley sent a detailed
description, emphasising its intermediate floral
characteristics, to the Gardeners' Chronicle. This
authoritative journal published the details on 24 June 1893,
along with those of two other new hybrids.
Cuttings
from that one plant led to the millions of Vanda Miss
Joaquim orchids that were to bloom in Malaya, the Dutch East
Indies, Hawaii, the Philippines and other tropical habitats.
In Singapore itself, the orchid became one of the most
common flowering plants, with many gardens having at least
one bed of Vanda Miss Joaquims. Its exquisitely
beautiful colour and shape and resilience, plus the fact
that it was one of the few garden flowers to bloom
throughout the year, and was one of the easiest orchids to
grow and propagate, ensured its popularity.
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