Bintulu Trees By Airmail !

If one were to drive along the Tg. Batu scenic road , passing the Taman Tumbina , one would notice a line of trees that grow luxuriously on both sides of the road shoulders and also at the central median.
This stretch of road was planted with Tecoma pentaphylla or commonly called" Poui".

Believe it or not, the seeds of these trees came in an envelope on 19th July 1985.

The sender was Mr.George Alphonso. The moment I received the seeds I asked Ibrahim to straightaway germinate them in a soil mix of very coarse sand and to be kept damp.
By about 2 weeks, we had thousands of these seedlings in our nursery. Later they were transplanted in polybags of various sizes and some ended in planting holes along the Jalan Temasya after they were about one meter high.

Fom these trees we were able to obtain more seeds. The story goes that from Bintulu these trees began to find home in Miri, Sibu and other smaller towns in Sarawak. What made me choose these trees? It was a trip to Singapore that left a strong impression of the beauty of these trees. After all these trees do well in coastal areas and flowers best where there is a distinct dry spell. It prefers too ,the salty sprays of coastal regions like Bintulu and Miri.
All these to show that we cannot underestimate the power of an envelope!

Poui trees along Singapore roads.

George's letter (above) accompanying the seeds.

" Poui" trees along Jalan Temasya / Tanjung Batu scenic road.

( Re-post from my blog "my BINTULU history" - http://mybintuluhistory.blogspot.com/2007/07/bintulu-trees-by-airmail.html )

Season of pink and White Poui blooms in Bintulu

A row of Poui trees along the Tanjong Kidurong Highway (9 June, 2019)
Its the season of pink and white Poui blooms in Bintulu right now. These large flowering trees were introduced to Bintulu about 34 years ago. Many don't realise that the first seeds of these trees came in a brown envelope in 1985 from Singapore.

There is a letter written by Arthur George Alphonso ( ex- Director of Botanical Gardens, Singapore) attesting to this story.
Please follow this link to see the letter and other stories about these beautiful Poui trees that came in to Bintulu by post.
...>>>>http://mysarawak2.blogspot.com/search/label/Poui

and here...>>>>http://mybintuluhistory.blogspot.com/…/bintulu-trees-by-air…

(Note: This is a re-post from my FB, 12 May'19)

Once there was a roundabout

Combo picture to show R1 before and a recent satellite image of the same area

Roundabout One

A visitor to Bintulu in the early 1980's - 1990's would be familiar with the pace of rapid development in roads infrastructure to meet rising traffic and population of this newly booming town.  Roundabouts were once  a novel and regular feature that dotted the road map of Bintulu.  In the mid 80's - 90's I was kept busy with the landscaping of three major roundabouts around town.  These were Roundabout 1, 2 and 3.  Up to a certain point roundabouts do serve their function well and beautifully.  The construction of these roundabouts entail lots of planting space for landscaping.  Furthermore the whole landscape is enhanced by the presence of traffic islands adjacent to the roundabouts that were also given landscaping touches. At the point of writing (2 Sept'14) all these roundabout have been replaced overtime.  These pictures which I took while implementing the landscaping works do tell the story of how beautiful Bintulu was with these properly landscaped and maintained roundabouts and traffic islands.  Today I  have taken the liberty to update with  google earth satellite maps the sites of the three roundabouts.

Combo picture to show R1 before and a recent satellite image of the same area.

Combo picture to show R2 before and a recent satellite image of the same area

I have written quite a fair bit on these roundabouts in another blog of mine. Checkout the story of Roundabout Two here and Roundabout Three here . In retrospect it is much to the prevalence of these beautiful roundabouts that Bintulu has earned the identity of a beautiful town besides its miles and miles of shady and fully landscaped roads.  I felt good that in my time the groundwork for proper landscaping of the town was laid down early.

Happy Malaysia Day, Sarawak!

 (Note:  On the 16th of September, Sarawak will celebrate its independence being a party to the formation of Malaysia.  As part of remembering history I'll create some posts on what  it means to be a Malaysian as I have experienced it.  Check out the rest of the postings by following this link here.)

Combo picture to show R3  before and a recent satellite image of the same area

I have written quite a fair bit on these roundabouts in another blog of mine. Checkout the story of Roundabout Two here and Roundabout Three here . In retrospect it is much to the prevalence of these beautiful roundabouts that Bintulu has earned the identity of a beautiful town besides its miles and miles of shady and fully landscaped roads.  I felt good that in my time the groundwork for proper landscaping of the town was laid down early.

Happy Malaysia Day, Sarawak!

 (Note:  On the 16th of September, Sarawak will celebrate its independence being a party to the formation of Malaysia.  As part of remembering history I'll create some posts on what  it means to be a Malaysian as I have experienced it.  Check out the rest of the postings by following this link here.)

Once there was a flower

Pink Poui (Tabebuia rosea) along a major roadside in Bintulu.

Date: 13 May, 2012

Pink Poui and Olive-backed Sunbird

The Poui trees (Tabebuia rosea) are now a familiar tree in Bintulu.  Its magic is evidently seen by its crowning glory of large and bunchy pink and white flowers.  The first ever batch of these trees were planted along the Tanjong Batu scenic road.  Gradually over a period of 35 years the trees were planted on major roadsides in Bintulu.  I can write endless stories about these trees but suffice to say that it was from the Bintulu experience  that other town councils began to adopt these trees as landscape trees in their main towns and rural areas.  Not many people know that originally these trees came to Bintulu in an envelope.  The story is here. Over the years too I regularly blog about them.  The relevant blog postings can be accessed below:

1) http://myussop.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-pink-and-white-glory.html
2) http://mysarawak2.blogspot.com/2010/11/be-there-right-time-and-moment-in.html#comment-form
3) http://mybintuluclicks.blogspot.com/2014/04/flowering-pink-poui.html

It is from this tree that my association with Arthur George Alphonso was first nurtured and provided me with many learning experiences on landscaping matters based on his experiences in the greening of Singapore.  Just a couple of years ago I planted one Poui tree in my garden in Kuching.  I consider the Poui tree as an essential tree for the Kambatik garden or Malaysian garden.  Check out more of my gardening experiences on this tree in Kuching here.

Happy Malaysia Day, Sarawak!

  (Note:  On the 16th of September, Sarawak will celebrate its independence being a party to the formation of Malaysia.  As part of remembering history I'll create some posts on what  it means to be a Malaysian as I have experienced it.  Check out the rest of the postings by following this link here.)

 

White Poui (Tabebuia alba)

Photo shows me (extreme left) and George Alphonso (middle in blue shirt) entertaining Japanese volunteers (JOCV) at Pantai Ria, Bintulu. Date taken : 26 October,1990.

Roundabout 3 in 1990

Roundabout 3 - view looking towards Bintulu- Miri Road

Location : The R 3 is located 3 miles ( 5 km)  from Bintulu town centre

Date taken : 14 August,1990

In 1990 there were four roundabouts in Bintulu.  The picture above shows the Roundabout 3, located at Km 5, Bintulu- Miri Road.  It was the biggest roundabout in Bintulu in the 1990's.  Over time all the four roundabouts were replaced with traffic lights junctions.  The building on top of the hill to the right is located within the Bintulu Police Divisional complex.  The yellow cover at the foreground are the yellow variety leaves of the Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) which was a popular ground cover for landscaping in the 1990's.  In the 1990's the landscaping and beautification of Bintulu were a cooperative effort involving three major agencies..i.e. the JKR (Public Works), SESCO and BDA. 

Traffic Lights junction replaced the roundabout

Picture taken : 28 January, 2014.

Aerial view of Roundabout 3 showing the landscaping works at the roundabout and traffic islands surrounding it.

Date taken : circa 1990

Note the striking yellow colours of the Sweet potato cover plant at the traffic islands surrounding the roundabout.

The roadside planting and roundabouts landscaping during this time were  mainly advised by Arthur George Alphonso, Bintulu's first horticultural consultant....go here to see some other projects George was involved in Bintulu ..>>http://mybintuluhistory.blogspot.com/2007/09/bintulus-first-horticultural-consultant.html

Aurora Link Road - single to dual carriageway

(Re-post from my blog " Images of Bintulu - Before and Now" - https://bintulub4now.blogspot.com/2018/03/aurora-link-road-single-to-dual_21.html  )

Jalan Sultan Iskandar 30 years later

(Re-post from my blog "Images of Bintulu - Before and Now" - https://bintulub4now.blogspot.com/2018/03/jalan-sultan-iskandar-30-years-later.html )