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BANGKOK AND ENVIRONS

Bangkok is situated on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in the lower part of the flat, alluvial Central Plains, one of the worlds richest rice-growing regions. Prior to becoming the seat of government in 1782, it was a prosperous little trading port surrounded by plantations of Coconut and Betel Nut palms, where ships called en route to the splendid former capital of Ayutthaya further up-river. Later, like Ayutthaya, it became known to Western visitors as the Venice of the East, due to the network of canals that served as its streets. These, as the city prospered, increasingly led further and further away from the original centre containing the mile-square Grand Palace.

Even though the first roads appeared in the mid-19th century, the city remained essentially water-oriented until World War II. Most commercial and residential properties were close to either the river or one of the canals, even though motor vehicles had already replaced boats as the preferred form of transportation for most residents.

Tall Livistona fan palms and clambering creepers help create a tropical atmosphere in the Bangkok garden of Jim Thompson's house. The house and garden are now open to the public.

The change began in the early 1950s and accelerated with remarkable speed. Leaving the river, the general population moved in other directions, first eastward toward the Gulf of Thailand and later northward into the Central Plains, bringing housing estates and new business centres to what were rice fields within the memory of middle-aged residents. Today the city covers a vast area on both sides of the Chao Phraya, its population estimated at close to 10 million, and most of the old canals have been filled in to make way for yet more urgently-needed roads.

All these factors—be they geographical, historical and social—are relevant to contemporary urban gardeners. Most of the city lies almost at sea level and, due to indiscriminate pumping of underground water, some of it is a metre or more below. This means that many parts are subject to floods, especially the eastern suburbs, an area which two centuries ago was known as the Sea of Mud and was regarded as a natural deterrent to any invader approaching from that direction. Nor is the northern sprawl much safer; a combination of high tides and heavy rainfall up-country left thousands of gardens and fruit orchards under water for months in 1995.

The heavy clay soil so hospitable to rice growing is less well suited to the cultivation of more delicate ornamentals, thus requiring a considerable amount of preparation before a really healthy garden can be established. Finally, the present population density and the rapid increase of high-rise construction have almost eliminated the spacious gardens of the past, along with many of the larger trees that gave them their character.

Yet Bangkok remains the gardening centre of Thailand, just as it remains the cultural and commercial heart. The best plant nurseries are located there, constantly introducing new species, along with the best landscape designers and the greatest number of people with money to employ their skills. Less affluent residents, too, take a greater interest in horticulture than those in other regions, even when forced to work in severely restricted spaces.

From the vantage point of a traffic-clogged street, the prospects may seem unpromising. But hidden behind the high walls characteristic of most residential areas, awaiting discovery along the well-guarded streets of suburban estates, are plantings of exceptional beauty that still set the ultimate standards for Thai gardens.

A small garden in Bangkok, with a Thai-style lamp and rustic deck chair.

A modern reproduction of a Ghandara sculpture surveys the scene from a balcony outside the living room of Bill Bensley's Thai-style house; trees and palms outside as well as potted plants provide a sense of tropical luxuriance.

A jungle-like atmosphere is created in the garden through such plants as Spathiphyilum, Cordyline and Rhapis palms, all of which flourish in filtered sunlight.

THE JIM THOMPSON GARDEN

Jim Thompson, an American who came to Thailand in 1945, became internationally famous for a variety of achievements—his revival of the Thai silk industry, the comprehensive collection of Asian art he assembled, and the beautiful Thai-style home he built on a Bangkok klong. Less well known except to his close friends was his enthusiasm for tropical gardening, which began in the small compound of his first house and continued in the more spacious area around the Thai structures into which he moved in 1959. A large Rain tree (Samanea daman) already grew on the site and provided shade for the terrace overlooking the klong, and Thompson added a number of Flame trees (Delonix regia) as well as a jungle-like planting of shrubs and creepers. By the time he disappeared in 1967 in northern Malaysia, the garden was well-established and had become an integral part of the overall atmosphere.

One of the joys of creating a garden in the tropics is the extraordinary speed of growth. Without regular attention, however, this apparent blessing can become a threat and eventually a serious problem. Such was the fate that befell the Thompson garden. Wild Ficus trees took root and eventually crowded out less robust specimens, while other, originally more decorative trees and palms grew into giants that blocked necessary sunlight from reaching flowering shrubs; twenty-five years after Jim Thompson disappeared, the house—now a public museum—was almost hidden by a haphazard tangle of growth and the garden had lost much of its original distinction.

An old bench in the garden of the Jim Thompson house; the cushions are covered with the silk he made world-famous.

Among the plants to be seen from the open area beneath the house are Dieffenbachia with green and white patterned leaves, Alocasia (Elephant's Ear) and Alpinia purpurata (Red Ginger); in the background is a stand of Golden Bamboo.

The terrace of the Thompson house, which architecturally is the front and overlooks a canal; the large Rain tree that shades the area was already growing on the site when the house was built in 1959. In the foreground, left, are Codiaeum and yellow Ixora.

Steps leading to the front terrace, planted with Alpinia, Cordylines, palms and foliage Heliconias.

The guest wing of the Thompson house overlooks a luxuriant garden of palms and flowering shrubs. On the left is a Ficus elastica commonly called the Rubber plant which has been topped to create a bushier appearance.

A major restoration took place in 1994-95 involving a number of locally-based landscape designers, among them the Bensley Design Group and Reimund Reisinger. The wild Ficus were removed, along with their invasive roots, a task that left the main garden virtually bare except for a few palms and smaller trees. New laterite pathways were then laid in this area, older ones in areas along the klong were reconstructed to create raised beds, and large quantities of fresh soil and fertilizer were brought in to enrich the entire garden.

Around the terrace, over which the Rain tree still spreads its branches, raised beds have been replanted with a variety of foliage specimens that include Codiaeum, Cordyline, Aglaonema, variegated Alpinia, Dieffenbachia, self-heading Philodendron (P. bipinartifidum) and Calathea, while a fence added for security reasons along the canal has been covered with Thunbergia grandiflora, a fast-growing vine, as well as a screen of fragrant Murraya paniculata (Mock Orange).

New laterite pathways have been laid in the main garden, where the sunlight that now streams through the remaining trees has facilitated the growth of many more blooming shrubs. Among those used prominently are Hibiscus, Ixora, Heliconia, Caesalpinia (the Peacock Flower), Alpinia purpurata (Red Ginger), Duranta repens (Golden Dewdrop) and flowering Bananas. In areas with more filtered light, Scindapsus and Spathiphyllum are used as ground covers, with colourful accents provided by Codiaeum, Cordyline and a variegated Crinum. A jungle-like effect is produced by Alocasias (Elephant's Ears) and ornamental palms. Throughout the garden are displayed old water jars and sculpture from Thomson's large collection.

Once again the Jim Thompson garden complements the elegant lines of the old Thai structures he put together with such discerning taste and left as a memorial to an extraordinary career.

The ornamental leaves on the left are Heliconia indica, while the variegated ground cover is Acorus gramineus.

Along a laterite pathway lined with Ophiopogon grow red Ixora, green and yellow variegated Alpinia and, behind the water jar, a stand of Golden Bamboo. In the background can be seen the staff quarters, also in Thai style.

Spathiphyllum (front left) and Dieffenbachia with white leaves (right) bring variety to this predominantly shady part of the Thompson garden; in the background is an antique water jar.

A pond lined with laterite in the centre of the garden: Low-growing Cuphea softens the edge in the foreground, while other plants include Red Ginger (Alpinia purpurata) variegated Alpinia zerumbet, Pandanus amaryllifolius, Crinum Lilies and red Ixora.

A laterite pathway leads through densely-planted beds of Dieffenbachia, Spathiphyllum, Cordylines and self-heading Philodendron.

Tall palms and flowering Bananas rise above the mass of tropical greenery in the Thompson garden, which now looks much as it did when the owner lived there.

The luxuriance of fan palms can be seen through the windows of the elegant panelled teak drawing room; a Khmer-style head stands on top of a cabinet with gold and black lacquer paintings on the right.

THE REGENT HOTEL: INTERIOR GARDENING