Planters complete work on the Sharjah Botanical Museum.

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26 Jun 2008

The Sharjah Botanical Museum, situated adjacent to the Natural History Museum on the Sharjah Dhaid road is truly a horticultural masterpiece and the first of its kind in the Middle East. Taking more than 4 years to complete, the time and dedication that has gone into realising this groundbreaking project is a very significant botanical achievement.

The museum takes visitors back 100,000,000 years to when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Visitors will experience a man-made, pre-historic rain forest containing over 600 plants varying in height from 10cm to 7.5m tall and with species as diverse as Phoenix palms to ‘rain-forest’ tree ferns.

This type of project, with such a specific and highly unusual plant selection has never been undertaken in the Middle East before. In fact there are very few botanical museums of this type in the world. The setting up of a mini rain forest in the middle of the desert is unparalleled.

Chosen as a result of their wide in-house knowledge, experience and expertise in installation of full interior landscapes, Planters used all of their knowledge and international contacts to source the correct plants for the project to ensure they created a faithful version of the Cretaceous period.

Commenting on the complexity of the project Jonathan Pardoe, a Director and General Manager of Planters said; “This has definitely been a demanding project, it is something totally unique in this area. The main challenges were to source the correct specimens and also to ensure that the climatic conditions in the museum were suitable for the plants to survive”.

Pardoe continued; “The most difficult to plant was the 7.5m Taxodium. With no option of using a crane, it was a huge feat to handle this 2.5 ton tree into its final planting position. However, with 30 years in the business our specialist teams were able to apply their knowledge and ingenuity to overcome the challenge”.

With plants sourced from the most remote parts of the world, the Sharjah Botanical Museum represents a prefect opportunity to see rare species such as Horse-tail (Equisetum) and unusual trees, like Gingko biloba (Maidenhair tree) along with a selection of the most primitive plants existing, many of which have never been used in an interior landscape scheme before.

Other plants on show include Tree-Ferns (Dicksonia), Cycads, Magnolia and Araucaria, several fern species, Pigmy Date Palm (Phoenix robellini), various grasses and Gunnera maculata. Primitive flowering plants the have been used include Zantedeschia, Drymis, Magnolia, Camphora and Water lillies