Why do you love collecting and caring for plants?
Plants have a wide range of forms, textures, shapes and characteristics. They are like living art. It brings me and my wife excitement whenever they produce a new leaf, or new inflorescence. Plants enable curiosity when they don't do well — their struggle inspires us to think up creative and unique ways to bring them back to life.
When and how did you start?
I think we as humans have a strong natural instinct to care for living things. I started off with aquascaping, making terrariums, and collecting plants. I manage this obsession better now that we have the space to grow and nurture them. I first went to a flower show back in 2016 with my friends. I was most impressed by the variety of lesser-known plants, those that were more readily available in Singapore. That's when I made my first purchase of an 'exotic' aroid and I became curious about this genus. The rest, as they say, is history.
How many plants do you have? What type of plants do you focus on?
To be honest I lost count but I am thinking about 200+ of them. It started with a Monstera Deliciosa then moved on to other South American aroids. When they outgrew my studio space, I moved on to smaller jungle plants and begonias. I took a break in between for about 2 years before slowly getting back on collecting aroids and some begonias now that I have a space of my own to grow.
What is your "process" in your plant journey?
No process! Whenever I discover an empty space, I start thinking of what kind of plants would fit and grow wel in that space well, or whenever I see someone posting a nice specimen on social media, it creates a small urge in me to acquire yet another plant. I am particularly intrigued by the textures and colours of a plant when I look for a new plant to add to my wishlist.
Oh, chickens! Tell me about them!
Ah my fluffy birds. Ive always wanted to have a pet and a friend kindly let me adopt some of his chicks. They are birds that don’t fly much and love to hang around with me when I’m doing some gardening. So now they are nice companions / guards at my garden plot.
Why did you pick these plants to be featured with you in your portrait? Is there a story behind it?
Philodendron Maximum- What you see is actually a cutting from a mother plant. I actually purchased this as a small cutting from a seller in Thailand in 2017. Back then there wasn't much information about this species and I was sold as a noid. I was told it will grow really huge and I didn’t really believe it. I thought 'how big can a leaf really get?'. That said, after having it for a few years, it has managed to outgrow my indoor space. I've chopped it several times to actually prevent it from "growing too big", ironically. Now here it is — a fully-sized mature "maximum" plant specimen that I am hoping will start giving out huge roots too.
Philodendron Gloriosum - This is a small cutting from the original mother plant that is growing on the floor in my plot It's actually one of my first few aroid from South America that I purchased with a friend back in 2016. It languished in a pot in my studio for some time before I moved it to my HDB corridor where it did not do much except getting tortured by too much sun and spider mites. I was left with just a little stem rhizome node after all that abuse and neglect. I finally had the opportunity to plant it in the ground of my plot to really send down its roots, and to bask in more ideal growing conditions. I'm grateful to my gloriosum for getting me started on this hobby. It will always remain one of my evergreen favorites.
Philodendron Pink Princess 'Marbled possibly'- I am not really a fan of pinkish plants until I found this particular Philodendron Pink Princess. It stood out like a rose in a bed of thorns during one of my trips to a plant market 5-6 years back. This plant was sitting in a lonely corner of the market stall, in between trays of orchids and platyceriums. They were very affordable back then as they were newly introduced and there wasn't much demand for these aroids. I bought a few thinking these would be great gifts for my friends. I gave this plant to a friend who had his own plot and therefore a better chance at growing it successfully than I could possibly have back then. I asked him 2 years ago how the plant was doing, and he sent me a photo of a matured plant with beautiful marbling. He very kindly offered to give me back the plant since I now had the space to grow them, but I decided to just take a cutting instead. I think gifting plants and sharing the joy is great, and it does not always have to involve money.
Describe your most significant challenges in your plant journey?
The most significant challenge is actually the space. It would be a privilege to grow more and bigger plants but they require a lot of space. Replicating the right conditions for some high-altitude plants that are on my wishlist is also really hard in our tropical climate. A third is budget! Some of the plants on my wishlist are just out of my own budget. I've learned to be patient as there's no need to rush and get a certain plant that is trending. The plants will always be there and I think I’ll get an opportunity to own some of these out-of-budget plants someday if I ever find them at the right price.
For the moment, I am focussing on helping the plants I own thrive and grow to huge sizes, and propogating them.
Photographer: DGT Portraits
Producer: Quinn Lum
Space: Studio 2020