‘I treat them like pets’: The world of Singapore’s carnivorous plant lovers
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'I treat them like pets': The world of Singapore's carnivorous plant lovers
From Little Shop Of Horrors to Mario Bros' Piranha plants, cannibal plants such equally the Venus flytrap are the stuff of pop civilization nightmares. Just for some, they're family unit.
SG VenusFlytrap group'southward Darren Ng with some of his "pets". (Photo: Joyee Koo)
There's a customs garden at Punggol that looks just like whatsoever other garden where people come to grow their plants in peace. Only if you happen to be a housefly, it's the ultimate garden from hell.
Expect closer and you'll encounter planters full of Venus flytraps, many of which still accept insect carcasses trapped inside those creepy little jaws of theirs. They come up in different colours and take names directly out of horror movies: Polish Dracula, Red Piranha, Big Oral cavity, Maroon Monster.
"At first, I didn't retrieve highly of plants – they were ever eaten past animals and insects, or people merely stepped on them. Later, I found out that, hey, some of them could actually bite back!" quipped Darren Ng.
FROM VENUS FLYTRAPS TO PITCHER PLANTS
The 20-year-old Ng is the founder of SG VenusFlytrap, a group dedicated primarily to these unusual plants. What began as a Facebook group four years ago has now evolved to include a website and, much to many an insect'southward dismay, the vi-month-old garden at Tebing Lane.
The group also sells plants, and organises workshops, talks and even the odd carnivorous plant-themed children'due south altogether party. "They got to have a hands-on experience feeding the plants," shared Ng.
While bulk of people consider carnivorous plants as the stuff of nightmares or simply weird oddities thank you to movies and games like Piddling Shop Of Horrors and Mario Bros, Ng and his friends vest to a small only active online community in Singapore who obsess over the real deal.
Facebook groups such as SG VenusFlytrap and Carnivorous Plants Singapore take been popular places for enthusiasts to share photos and trade info well-nigh their flytraps, pitcher plants and sundews.
Carnivorous plants also recently had their day in the lord's day – the recently concluded Singapore Garden Festival Horticultural Show at the new Jurong Lake Gardens included it as one of the categories in a new competition.
READ: 10 indoor plants that will flourish despite small spaces and low lite
Although considered a niche hobby, the number of people getting into carnivorous plants have grown been growing, said Cindy Chiang, one of the Facebook admins for Cannibal Plants Singapore. "I exercise see requests to bring together (our group) every day, and there have been a lot more this yr and last year in particular," observed the 46-year-old chief school teacher, who has also written a book on carnivorous plants.
BIG Enough TO EAT RATS?
Then merely what types of people are attracted to these kinds of plants? According to Chiang, it'south a pretty varied group. "You tin can find lawyers, I know of i guy who's an entrepreneur. There are people who are vegetarians but actually enjoy how plants capture and digest their food – and some will even try their best to relieve the insects. And and then at that place'south the other extreme, of people buying considering of the thrill of seeing an insect caught and digested," she said.
In Chiang's case, the attraction started after hearing stories equally a child of how her granddad had actually kept these at dwelling house. "My father said they'd exist big plenty to swallow rats! I got hooked and when I was in my twenties, that's when I bought my first Venus flytrap," she said, adding that her current collection of cannibal plants number near 200 to 300 pots.
For collector and seller Tan Li Hui, it was a trip to a big bloom marketplace in Taiwan that got her hooked. "I had already grown flower plants and fruit trees before and when I saw a sundew, I idea it was then unique," said the 50-year-one-time former figurer programmer.
Today, Tan'southward collection runs "in the thousands" and four years ago, she decided to start selling some of these online and in one case a month at Hort Park.
Every bit for Ng, it took a while to exist open most his hobby during his Secondary School days. "I didn't want to share it with my friends because I was scared of being called the weird plant guy," he said, until his biology teacher encouraged him to keep his pursuits and he found out a lot of his fellow students were also curious about carnivorous plants.
FEEDING THEM FISH Nutrient
While growing carnivorous plants have become somewhat trendy, it tin exist a challenge in Singapore's tropical climate, too, since many species are from temperate climates and can exist high-maintenance. And there's a bit of paperwork involved too.
While there are a few cannibal plants found in Singapore – usually around MacRitchie Reservoir and Kent Ridge Park – many plants are sourced from overseas such as Europe and Australia and crave certification, said Tan.
Yous demand to be patient, too. "It's not like flowering plants where you throw a sunflower seed in soil and it's flowering like crazy afterwards three months. You're talking about months or years, sometimes," she added.
Ng reckons 1 reason it remains a niche hobby is that imported plants don't do well in the long term in Singapore, cheers to the weather. "So many people end upward killing them," he said.
For his part, Ng has been playing the role of amateur scientist, experimenting with how to make Venus flytraps, which are specially delicate and sensitive to climate conditions, thrive amend in tropical atmospheric condition.
In fact, Chiang pointed out that Singapore is slowly becoming a hub for carnivorous plants because of this. "Our temperature is hot and warm 365 days and we don't have winter or leap, then a lot of international growers take a look at how we grow them here – setting up aquariums, putting them inside airconditioned rooms," she said.
Finally, there's the affair of feeding them. While the ideal state of affairs is to allow them capture their casualty naturally, it can be an consequence for those living in flats, especially those to a higher place, where at that place typically aren't a lot of insects. Instead, they're fed fish pellets soaked in water – or non at all.
"A lot of people have the misconception that they survive solely on insects, but they get their chief source of free energy from the sun. Catching insects is a supplement to them, and even if they don't eat, they'll grow," said Ng.
Of grade, at that place are inevitable moments when you find out your institute has captured an animal – which includes not only bees, wasps, flight ants but even lizards. "I have a lot of lizards accidentally falling into pitcher plants or my flytraps would catch them, besides. It can stink!" said Tan.
BEAUTIFUL Even WITHOUT FLOWERS
Only all these, of course, are what makes growing cannibal plants a unique hobby. And the payoffs aren't just considering of their hunter-similar nature but besides because they can merely exist as beautiful even without the flowers.
"Even without flowering, the plants accept these cute, attractive colours. They could be red, regal, yellowish," said Ng, who incidentally won for his own pitcher plants and sundews at the SGF Horticultural Show. (There wasn't whatsoever category for his favourites, Venus flytraps.)
Added Chiang: "If you're growing a pitcher plant, as long every bit the conditions are met, every foliage will requite yous a pitcher, compared to if you're growing ornamental plants where you may not accept flowers all the time."
Simply perhaps the biggest perks to owning and taking intendance of one is the fact that, well, information technology'south like having a plant and a pet at the same time.
"Yes, I sometimes treat them similar pets and phone call them my babies," said Tan, with a laugh. "Don't you lot call back they're beautiful?"
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