On his trip to the G20 summit in Bali, the Chancellor made a stopover in Singapore. There, a red orchid is given the name "Olaf Scholz". The namesake especially likes the color of the flower.
The Renanthera is an orchid that produces particularly beautiful flowers. It prefers a bright, draught-free room. And since this Monday there has been a Renanthera in Singapore named after Olaf Scholz. It has long, delicate flowers and the Chancellor, despite being shown a photo beforehand, is quite impressed when he first sees the plant at Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's official residence. The plant would be a nice souvenir for Scholz's wife, allegedly he brings her flowers from time to time.
Tan Puay Yok is the director of Singapore Botanical Gardens. He explains to the guest from Germany from which two varieties the Renanthera Olaf Scholz was crossed. Then the chancellor can put a new name tag in the loosened orchid soil, done. Scholz giggles a little and says, "very nice red." That, he explains to Prime Minister Lee, is the color of his party. It is said that the chancellor was allowed to choose the colour.
In total there are more than 1000 orchid genera with up to 30,000 species. Naming them after guests of state is a traditional ceremonial in Singapore, the city-state in Southeast Asia. There are also orchids that are named Nelson Mandela, Helmut Kohl or Princess Diana. When North Korea's ruler Kim Jong Un met US President Donald Trump in Singapore for the nuclear missile summit in June 2018, there was long speculation as to whether orchids would be named after them. After the summit, however, there was no more talk of it.
Eleven years ago, however, this honor was given to a certain Angela Merkel. The then chancellor's orchid belonged to the genus Dendrobium, was soft pink and went perfectly with Merkel's white jacket, which is why the photo, in which the chancellor devotedly sniffed the orchid, ended up on the front page of some German daily newspapers. All in all, the hobby gardener showed a little more passion for tropical plants than her successor, although the Chancellor seemed to like the ceremony. However, he is not allowed to take the plant with him to Berlin. No sooner had the prime minister and chancellor left the room than the Renanthera Olaf Scholz was stowed in a box for transport back to the botanical garden.
