The Rooftop Secret Garden of 1-Utama

The Secret Garden of 1-Utama is located at the rooftop of a 7-storeys building at the 1-Utama Shopping Complex in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

I have already published 18 posts about flowers and plants from this garden and yet to my surprise, I found that I have not written about this garden before. Well, today I shall take you on a journey of discovery to this eco-friendly garden.

"The Secret Garden of 1-Utama", a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on 18th December, 2009.




Our journey starts here at the Lower Ground Floor (LG) near the centre of the shopping complex. The zone here is labelled "Entertainment Zone". The landmarks are the Secret Recipe outlet on the right and the Nippon Yataimura Japanese Restaurant on the left. The centre path leads to the Rainforest of 1-Utama.

There is a lift directly in front of these 2 restaurants.



This is the special lift that leads to The Secret Garden of 1-Utama. Look at the stack of container plants and the prominent signages in front of the lifts. You can't miss this. This same decor is applied to the other upper floors where this lift passes by.

Take the lift to the floor marked "UR" meaning Upper Roof.

The garden is opened to the public on weekends and public holidays only and visiting hours are from 10:00am to 10:00pm. Here is the wonderful part. Visitors are welcome to take as many photographs as they like but smoking is prohibited. Admission is FREE. You just need to register at the entrance. Do wear sunblock and bring along an umbrella or a cap as this is an open rooftop concept, so visitors may be exposed to the sun and rain.

This garden is the brainchild of 1-Utama director, Datuk Teo Chiang Kok who was concerned about preserving the environment. The project here is lead by distinguished botanist and researcher Dr. Francis Ng who recently was awarded the prestigious David Fairchild Medal 2009 (Plant Exploration), presented by the National Tropical Botanical Garden of the United States. Dr. Francis Ng writes his own blog, Tropical Gardening and you can visit him here.

It was fondly called the secret garden by the few who knew about it because its very existence was not revealed to the public or to most of the shopping centre staff and tenants. Previously accessible through one hidden lift, now it is opened to the public.



The size of this garden is 30,000 sq ft and it houses about 500* species of tropical, sub-tropical, rare and unusual plants. The names of the plants and their origins are provided in small labels at the base of the plants. The plants in the garden are arranged under several themes such as:

a) Cacti, Succulents & Dry Climate Plants
b) Climbers
c) Accent Plants, Palms, Cycads, Giant Aroids, Century Plants, Conifers and Bananas
d) Flowering Trees, Shrubs and Herbs
e) Foliage Plants
f) Temperate and Highland Plants
g) Herbs, Spices and Food Plants
* now it is close to 600 species

According to press reports *,

1. The garden uses high performance, building-integrated technologies such as chilled water irrigation sourced from 1 Utama’s air conditioning system to grow temperate plants and a rainwater harvesting system to recycle rainwater for general irrigation, making it energy efficient and environmentally friendly".

2. From as far back as 1995, the 1 Utama shopping mall in Petaling Jaya had incorporated green architectural and engineering initiatives into its design plans. These features include a rainwater harvesting system that reduces its usage of treated pipe water by 30%, and a building automation system with sensors that automatically adjust lighting and temperature.
* Source of information: Secret Garden at 1 Utama Unveiled by Isaac Hiew (Mon, 04 May 2009)

At this point, I'd like to thank Michelle of Rambling Woods for hosting Think(ing) Green Thursday. As many of us gardeners are green thinkers who has already started practicing green concepts, I do wish that more will join and support her weekly meme. To participate or to view contributions from other green thinkers around the globe, please visit here.

The soil medium is based on granulated horticultural carbon (a form of charcoal).

There are so many rare and unusual flowers and plants. You can even find padi, pandan, coffee and tea plants here.



The view from above is fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit here. It is really a great place to go to for garden and photography enthusiasts.

This post is dedicated to Deb of Dragonfly Treasure blog from Newman, California, USA my first commenter for my previous post, Wordless Wednesday- Daisies. I really love her creative ideas and beautiful blog designs. She has beautiful bird pictures in her latest post.

This is my entry for Blooming Friday, 3rd Week of December. The theme this week is 'Blooming Amarylis'. My grateful thanks to Katarina at Roses and Stuff for hosting Blooming Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, click here.

This is also my entry for Fertilizer Friday. My grateful thanks to Tootsie at Tootsie Time for hosting Fertilizer Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, visit here.

This is also my entry for Today's Flowers #71. My grateful thanks to the TF folks: Santilli, Denise, Pupo and Valkyrien for hosting Today's Flowers. To participate or view other floral displays around the world, click here.