Vertical Green in Saigon City

On my recent trip to Ho Chi Minh, I see more attempts to greenify the city. This building opposite the District 1 at Don Ton Tat Thiep street.

Opposite Saigon Centre, a Singapore restaurant with green wall using encheviara. I’ve not tried the food although very much want to support a Singapore chef.

But my love for Vietnamese spring rolls was just too overwhelming.

Maybe it’s still new. Visit in a few months time to see how well the vertical green wall is doing.

Amazing. Cactus and sedum on vertical green. The wall is on the shade side. Perhaps it may work as not much watering needed.

So far no one has attempted to pry off the plants at night. They’re all at eye level. In the day time there’s a security guard standing outside.

Hanging plants in balcony makes a difference to the drab street scene.

Or tie fairy lights on old branches for a Christmas feel.

Best kept secret in Ho Chi Minh – Green wall at Rex Hotel

Opposite Rex Hotel, a French/Vietnamese manicured bonsai garden

Best kept secret in #Ho Chi Minh# – the green wall on the ground floor of Rex Hotel.  As you can tell from the photo, its very crowded, but we stumbled upon it, when we were at the Rex Hotel for a night time pub crawling session at the swinging roof-top bar (I had earl grey tea).  There’s a little man-made waterfall, which makes this a pleasant and cool-air conditioned environment. Did I recall birds chirping?

Aside from the courtyard, I’m not sure I’ll stay at the Rex Hotel.  I’ve not looked at the rooms, but the interior looks dated.  For the price, the New World Saigon, where US Presidents Clinton and George Bush stayed, may be more value for money.

Do the Vietnamese have green fingers.  Coming from uniquely Singapore with our beautiful road-side trees, I’m surprised by how talented the Vietnamese are, (more precisely Ho Chi Minh – I didn’t see this in Hanoi) in maintaining their greenery. I’m assuming they’re not using foreign talent to design the green wall and maintaining their plants.

Why are the trunks of the road-side trees painted in white? They’re also numbered.  Someone’s keeping an inventory of the trees and certainly maintaining them.

 

Vertical Green

 For a long while we cracked our heads over how to maximise this long vertical wall. I'd like to get a vertical green to draw emphasis on this luxurious space. But getting one of those stacked trays at Goodwood would set us back by thousands of dollars with no guarantee that the plants would survive. Our wall gets quite a lot of sun.

Another idea is to set up a water lily pond in this small balcony. If I'd a way to prevent water from seeping into the elephant climber, i'd  combine both.  L's other question is how do I water the elephant climber with the lily pond. This picture was taken after 4 weeks. The leaves are yellow from too much rain.

 

Our elephant climber focuses on one "arm" at a time.  This is really team work, I gave L the idea and he executed it, coming up with the ingenious idea of tying 3 fishing lines up the wall, tied at each end with simple hooks (type used for hanging pictures).I hope the hooks can sustain the weight of the creepers. 

 

 

 

Vertical Green

 For a long while we cracked our heads over how to maximise this long vertical wall. I'd like to get a vertical green to draw emphasis on this luxurious space. But getting one of those stacked trays at Goodwood would set us back by thousands of dollars with no guarantee that the plants would survive. Our wall gets quite a lot of sun.

Another idea is to set up a water lily pond in this small balcony. If I'd a way to prevent water from seeping into the elephant climber, i'd  combine both.  L's other question is how do I water the elephant climber with the lily pond. This picture was taken after 4 weeks. The leaves are yellow from too much rain.

 

Our elephant climber focuses on one "arm" at a time.  This is really team work, I gave L the idea and he executed it, coming up with the ingenious idea of tying 3 fishing lines up the wall, tied at each end with simple hooks (type used for hanging pictures).I hope the hooks can sustain the weight of the creepers.