Beautiful blooms
The Play La Ploen Resort in Buriram welcomes summer with a “Vintage of Garden” festival that continues to May 31. Laid out in a retro theme, the event showcases a variety of brightly coloured plants and flowers including hyacinths and daffodils, with the main spotlight shining on the jumbo hydrangeas, which are making their first appearance in Asia.
The botanical park is divided into six zones. They include the temperature-controlled Seasonal Plants house that’s hone to magnolia up to 5 metres tall, azaleas, camellias, rosemary and maple trees.
The Prehistoric zone juxtaposes statues of dinosaurs with more than 80 species of ferns including such rare strains as Tree fern, Bear Paw, Fern Luk Kai and Fern Khoa Keang as well as petrified wood millions of years old.
The Colour of Nature greenhouse is separated into two themes – a land area displaying exotic bromeliads, carnivorous plants and other plants in shapes of peacock, parrot, and lady bug and an ocean corner featuring many species of fish and corals.
Inspired by Thai literary work “Phra Suthon and Nang Manohra”, the Kinnaree garden is home to rare orchid species including ground orchid, rhynchostylis retusa, cattleya, vanda and mokkara plus even rarer strains such as aristolochia ringens vahl and aristolochia Indica L.
Visitors can take a vineyard tour and join workshops on gardening and flower arrangement. Tickets are Bt80 and Bt150. Find out more at www.PlayLaPloen.com.