Views of the new Sarawak Museum Campus

Note: All the pictures above taken on 17 March,2020. A day before Kuching city was under "lockdown" dure to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ''lockdown' is effective from 18 March till 31st March.
This post revived this blog after a lapse period of a few years.

Eugenia oleina for topiary

To kick off revisiting this blog, I have these pictures taken a few days ago to show the use of colourful foliages in urban landscaping.  The cone-shaped tree is the ever popular Eugenia oleina and they are surrounded by trimmed bushes of colourful foliages for added appeal and aesthetics, besides engineering functions i.e. as road dividers.

Beautification of road median

 The highway from Mile 4 to the Kuching International Airport is showing some excellent colours.  The use of colourful bougainvillea shrubs grown in over-sized pots, variegated cover plants and cannas does make the stretch of central median a beautiful 'protocol' road.

All images above taken on 20 August'13.

Flowers of Kuching - Jacaranda filicifolia (Jambul Merak)

Flowers of Kuching - Bougainvilleas

Landscaping along Satok Road

Satok road

Satok road

Satok road

Re-activation of blogspot...my Kuching Klikz

Shady Park

I parked my car here while I performed the Friday prayers at a Mosque near by today.  The rain trees have created a cool and shady micro-climate in the mini park.

Flowering Trees of Kuching - Jun

I notice the Trumpet trees are beginning to flower profusely in some parts of Kuching this month.  This picture I took along the road facing the RTM building .  There are two varieties grown in Sarawak now viz the white and pink flower varieties.  The Trumpet trees ( Tabebuia)  have big flowers that are trumpet to bell-shaped and have spectaular colours in shade of white, pink, red or yellow.

Tabebuia alba bearing white flowers.

Location: Road facing RTM Building, Kuching.

Longest Row of Cannas

This is about the longest stretch of cannas grown in Kuching. It is about 200 m in length and planted with three colourful shades of cannas -red, yellow and orange. The building in the center of the picture belongs to the Kuching City North. Cannas belong to the broad family of bananas and ginger in that they have rhizomes. Over centuries, they have been cross-breeded and now many hybrids are available having varied colours and mixture. Cannas love the open sun and require heavy manuring and removal of spent leaves or stems if they are to exhibit their true colours and bright appeal.

Showing off true colours

Coleus planted in a long planter box.

In Kuching I noticed that the coleus or botanically known as Solenstemon are very popularly grown as a house garden plant. This city seems to have the perfect climate to grow them. Indeed as seen above they prefer the direct sunlight and well-drained soil. Grown mainly for their colourful foliage, the stems are succulent and therefore require heavy watering. They love to be fertilised with manure and after a week of application will show off their true colours which are extremely eye-catching.

Above, coleus are planted as edging plants and continually pruned as a ground cover.

A light green and yellowish coleus variety in mixed planting.

Yellow Saraca flowers

On a stretch of road at Taman BDC I came across these beautiful yellow blooms of the Yellow Saraca ( Saraca thaipingensis). This is a short tree and grows very slowly. Therefore I think this species is ideal for house gardens, small roads and parks. The flowers are fragrant.

CU of the Yellow Saraca flowers, that typicaly offshot from older branches.

Hanging handkerchiefs

These white to light purple young leaves hang like long handkerchiefs from the the tip of the yellow saraca ( Saraca thaipingensis ) tree branches. I saw two stretches of roads at the BDC housing estate this morning which have these mature trees in their initial blooming stage.
In India a close relative of this tree is the Ashoka tree ( Saraca asoca ) underwhich it was believed Buddha was born and as such the tree is considered sacred among adherents of the Buddhist faith.
The variety we have here has bright yellow flowers which are fragrant, especially at night. This is an evergreen tree and is considered small as they very rarely reach more than 20 m. Over the years I have observed one specimen at the Sarawak Museum gardens and to my knowledge have been there for more than 15 years now and still retain a height of not more than 6m. I think this tree is a rarity even though it is native to this part of the world. As such I think it is good if other places in Sarawak emulate the planting of this species mainly for its unique look and blooms.

Close up of the bright yellow blooms of the saraca.


The flowers are attactive to bees and birds.
A characteristic of the saraca is its peculiar habit of having blooms emerging on the sides of older branches as seen here.

Red Japanese Bridge

The Kuching Reservoir Park is a popular jogging, walking, exercise and picnic venue for many Kuching residents and visitors. Its lush greenery and many ponds provides much tropicalness to the area. I find the red Japanese bridge a pretty focal point and provides a strong element of interest to the park. The reservoir was built more than 100 years ago to store and filter water for the consumption of Kuching's town population then. Now it functions wholly as a public park.

Kuching Roads

Traffic in Kuching business district returns to normal today after having been blocked or diverted at many sections due to the river reggatta held at the Kuching Waterfront for the last three days( 1 - 3 August).  Above is the view of the main road passing the central business district which is the main seat for the 5- star hotels, banks and uptrend shopping complexes.  Towards the end of the road ( to the top of the picture) is where the Kuching Waterfront is.

A section of the highway leading back to Kuching City. This particular location is at Petra Jaya which is the seat of Sarawak's state administration.  Of particular interest is the tastefully done roadside landscaping employing architectural trees and flowering shrubs as well as colourful foliage.