By Clara Chooi
Tuesday July 17, 2007
Orchids have always fascinated Sin Chan Wah, a farmer in Cameron Highlands.
The 50-year-old farmer from the town of Ringlet was seen fawning over his precious blooms during Clearwater Flora Fest 2007 at the golf resort in Batu Gajah recently.
In fact, Sin’s orchids practically stole the entire show.
Of the 400 entries sent in from across the country for the com- petitive event, Sin’s most treasured orchids clinched both grand titles: Best Plant and Best Species.
Sin’s Paphiopedilum barbatum, better known as the Lady’s Slipper because of its shape, won the show’s Best Plant category, while his pre-cious Stanhopea Jenishiana, a South American breed, won the Best Spe-cies category.
Sin said that he purchased the latter at RM80 from a local dealer 18 months ago.
“In fact, it only began flowering not long before the show,” he said.
Sin also won first prize in the Show Plant category for one of his orchids in the Onicidium group.
“I always admired orchids be-cause they are special looking plants. In fact, that was why I got into the orchid business in the first place,” he said.
He added that he first started out in the farming business by growing mushrooms in 1985.
“After a while, I realised the business was not very appropriate for me at the time so I began plant- ing strawberries,” said the father of two.
About three years ago, Sin disco-vered a new passion in orchids and decided to venture into it.
He is currently an orchid hybr-dizer and has his own nursery at Bertam Valley, Ringlet.
“My wife is very much in love with the flowers too. In fact, she devotes much time tending to them,” said Sin.
The flora fest, organised by the golf club in collaboration with the Perak Orchid Society, was held from July 13 to July 15 in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2007.
The event saw the participation of 14 orchid vendors across the country as well as the Orchid Society of South East Asia from Singapore and the Taiwan Orchids Grower Association. -- The Star
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