KE GA BAY, Vietnam
(5 Nov. 2009) — Resorts across Southeast Asia
love to sing the praises of their tropical gardens. But most are appurtenances
that serve only to adorn the architecture or the landscape itself. Not so at
the Princess d’Annam Resort & Spa on Ke Ga Bay in Vietnam.
And nothing proves the point more pointedly than the ceremonial planting of the
specimen stakes here next month. The chief gardener at the exclusive new resort
has identified 50 of more than 200 gingers for placement on aluminum placards
that will serve as a guide to guests.
At the same time, the resort will debut tours of the remarkable new garden.
“Resorts enhance their appeal with pools, with spas, with children’s play areas
and all kinds of amenities,” said Jean-Philippe Beghin, general manager of the
Princess d’Annam. “Gardens are usually what you do to dress up pathways and
buildings. But these gardens are a destination in their own right. There is
nothing else like this in the region.”
Unless you reference the GingerGardens in Singapore
Botanic Gardens. Alan Carle, who designed the one hectare Ginger Garden in Singapore, also
designed the resort’s gardens at Princess d’Annam.
The GingerGardens command an 1800-square
meter-site at the heart of the resort. The multifarious gingers hail from all
across Asia, from Arabia, New Guinea, the Caribbean, Solomon Islands,
Madagascar, Mexico, East Indies, North and South America, West Indies and the
Pacific Islands.
The ceremonial planting of the garden stakes coincides with the first, fully
vibrant flowering of the garden. In other words, the gardens, after three year’s
gestation, are fully matured.
Like Beghin, and the Singaporean chief gardener, Alan Carle believes the
resort’s garden is the only landscaped garden of this scale at a resort in Southeast Asia. In a recent interview, Carle said the
greatest challenge to the development of these gardens was cultivation of the
site:
“It was a tropical beach and a sandy site. The conditions for growing gingers
were abhorrent,” said Carle. “Occasionally it was extremely windy, sand blew
across the site like snow; the monsoon season was short, and most of the year
was very dry, which is great for tourists, but not so good for humidity loving
plants.”
How did you overcome these ‘abhorrent’ conditions?
Carle: “We had to ‘create’ an environment suitable for these plants, which
meant bringing in soil to create mounds and beds, designing paths to ‘lead’
visitors to different places; but most importantly we had to create a ‘canopy’
of trees and palms to simulate a rainforest.”
Are there similarities between this garden and the GingerGardens
of the Singapore Botanic Gardens?
Carle: “Yes, the similarities are that at PDA we designed a garden with an
overstory to protect plants from the strong sun and winds, and we engineered
pathways that invite visitors to leave the main thoroughfare to explore
different routes, and different plants.”
What is the signature flourish of the Princess’s garden?
Carle: “The garden is a lung. It’s a stunning oasis of tropical splendour and
variety, adjacent to the resort pools, on the way to the spa, restaurant and
beach. The underlying hardscaping was designed to present plants to visitors in
a visually stunning setting, yet with 'secret' positions.”
What’s the most remarkable feature to be found in the garden? Most remarkable
plant?
Carle: “The garden itself is an oasis of verdant green herbaceous plants.
Etlingera elatior gingers are a standout plant with large brightly coloured
blooms, used in landscaping, as cut flowers and in food (rojak)! The spiral
gingers —the costus, especially Costus woodsoniana are great right now with
bright red terminal cones that linger for many months and each morning produce
a small edible and delicious day flower.”
