Friday, September 26, 2014

Forsgate Conservatory

Up on the hill in Hong Kong Park sits the Forsgate Conservatory.  The Conservatory is open daily from 9am -  5pm and the admission is free.  

In my humble opinion, this Conservatory is what makes Hong Kong Park so special to visit.  It's like how visiting the orangutans at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens gives me a special sentimental feeling.  Or how riding the Trams gives me a special sentimental feeling.  I guess it's just nice to see how I can revisit my past and hopefully take my children to see these same places in the future.

It's nice to have some consistency in this every changing/updating city.


The entry way

The first area is known as the Display Plant House.  Here are displayed orchids, anthuriums, and little terrariums.  The theme for this early Fall was Aquatic Plants, but I feel like the flower displays were more prominent than the thematic exhibition of the season.

For the plant lovers, all the plants in the Conservatory are labeled, so it's quite interesting to learn the names of some of the local plants.  If you have someone who can read Chinese, it's even better to spend the afternoon with them comparing the English/Chinese names of the plants.



Plant displays




The second area is known as the Dry Plant House, where you can find cactus and a very arid climate.  Throughout the Conservatory, you'll be able to see the giant temperature/environment controlling apparatuses in each area (below).  These are a wonderment in themselves.  Before these were invented, I really am curious to find out how conservatories regulated their climates.




Climate control apparatuses on the right of the image

The third section (which is my favorite area of the Conservatory) is the Humid Plant House.  Just walking into this place reminds me of going to a tropical island.  In this space, I found a lot of plants that I could find in Hawaii:  Bird of paradise, ginger plants, banana trees, and even rubber trees...And the ferns!  It was just such a wonderfully landscaped space.






Hopefully, when I get older and wiser, this place will still be around.