This garden really brought back a lot of fond childhood memories. I remembered how I used to come here with my friends after going to the library on the opposite side of the road.
Because we would race one another up the steps just to be the one to reach the top.
Anyway the husband and I came by on a weekend for an exploration walk as he hadn’t been here before. When we saw this, we looked at each other and started sprinting up without hesitation. I managed to outrun him but it was because he slowed down mid-way just to give way to me, haha. Pity, there wasn’t anything fascinating up there (boring!) to see. Only a few couples sitting on the grass, romancing the lazy afternoon away.
We came back down and started walking towards the right hand side past McDonald’s as we wanted to see if there was anything interesting on the side.
And this was what I spotted on the ground – a bunch of dried pods with saga seeds. What a find! I hadn’t seen saga trees for donkey’s years since my primary school days when I had to pick saga seeds for some science project and I couldn’t even recall where I went to pick them.
Did a quick search around and discovered a couple of saga trees on the sloping hill.
For those of you who might be interested to come by for some saga seeds picking, well, this patch of hill slope was just opposite Blk 126 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, a very short distance behind the McDonald’s.
We found more dried pods along this drain and managed to get a couple more saga seeds but because there were a lot of mosquitoes and we didn’t have a bag or something to hold the seeds, we couldn’t pick more so we went home and came back the next day with insect repellent and shoes with good grip because it wasn’t easy to walk around on a slope.
It’s quite easy to identify the saga trees as they have multiple small leaves on every branch and there will be pods on the trees as well.
If you see fresh green (unopened) pods still attached to the tree, do not pick them as the seeds inside are white in colour and not red. A science lesson learnt, lol.
Only pick those from dried opened pods like the one above but obviously most of the seeds would have fallen onto the ground.
If you do notice carefully, it’s really easy to spot the bright red seeds between the blades of grass. Just need to comb the grass a bit and you can find seeds trapped in the dirt here and there.
In about 1+ hour, we managed to gather almost 400 saga seeds. Didn’t expect seed picking to be quite a therapeutic exercise, lol.
So there you are, our saga seeds picking adventure. If you are still thinking of what to get for your other half for Valentine’s Day, I think it’s pretty romantic to gift saga seeds because they are a symbol of love as their Chinese name is called 相思豆 (‘mutual love beans’). It’s also more meaningful and sweet to go out there and pick them by yourself. And the extra bonus? These seeds are free! Just need to buy a nice glass bottle to hold the seeds and maybe dress up with a ribbon or something. All that’s needed is a little creativity. 😉
Thank you for this awesome article. Was looking for saga seeds and the only tree I had access to before I came across this article was giving me 30 seeds a day :/
When I was there, there were lots of snails though hahahaha had to be really careful
Are saga seeds still easily found there now?
Might be a hit or miss so you’d have to go there and try your luck. All depends on the weather and if others are seed picking too.
Hi there , what is the actual date and month for picking up the saga seeds ?
Not sure if there’s a specific season to pick up the saga seeds but I do notice more pods are on the ground during the hotter months (March-May). Depends on luck too. The last time I was there, it was in January right after the rainy season.