President Serzh Sargsyan pays state visit to Singapore
President Serzh Sargsyan has arrived in Singapore, a Panorama.am correspondent reports. His visit started this morning. The President visited Singapore Botanic Gardens to attend the orchid naming ceremony. This ceremony is usually held in honor of high-ranking guests and statesmen because the hybrid orchid named Vanda Miss Joaquim is Singapore’s national flower.
Armenian President’s participation in this ceremony was symbolic because the flower is named after florist of Armenian descent Agnes Joaquim (Ashken Hovakimyan) who found the orchid in a clump of bamboo.
Singapore is known for its exclusively beautiful and odorous orchids. Flower exhibitions and contests used to be held in the country, with Armenian women taking an active part in them.
Vanda Miss Joaquim, also known as the Singapore Orchid and the Princess Aloha Orchid, is a hybrid orchid cultivar which has become Singapore's national flower.
Agnes Joaquim was born in Singapore on April 7, 1854. The eldest daughter in her family, Agnes helped her mother raise her 10 siblings after her father died. She never married, dividing her time between the Armenian Church of St Gregory on Hill Street, and her horticulture work in her garden in Tanjong Pagar.
In 1899 at a flower show, Agnes unveiled the Vanda Miss Joaquim for the first time, and won the $12 first prize for her flower. As she was suffering from cancer at that time, Agnes died 3 months later in the same year, at the age of 44. In 1981, the Vanda Miss Joaquim was designated Singapore's national flower.
Her tombstone stands in the Armenian Church in Singapore and reads: In loving memory of Agnes, eldest Daughter of the late Parsick Joaquim, Born 7th April 1854 - Died 2nd July 1899, 'Let her own works praise her. Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy Cross I cling.'
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