While most visitors to Bangkok have at least heard of Chatuchak market (or Jatujak, or J.J. market ) and perhaps ventured out to brave the hordes of around 200,000  people that go there on the weekend, did you know that there are two other markets held there ?

Allegedly the biggest weekend market on the planet, with between 8,000 and 15,000 stalls (depending on who you believe) you can buy just about anything there, although thankfully the animal market is reduced to mainly puppies, kittens and fish nowadays. Chatuchak market is not really that cheap, you can buy identical items at the same price or less at many of Bangkok’s markets but it does have the advantage of having a huge variety of goods in the one place.

But if you want cheaper prices, and want to buy several of the same item the wholesale market on Fridays can get you discounts of around 50% depending on the item and how many you want to buy. Not all the stores are open of course, some are strictly for the weekend shoppers.

Of more interest to me was the plant market held there on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We are still months away from moving upcountry, even more months till we build our house but I am already thinking about the garden ! With 1600sq.m. of  blank canvas to start with, and no council or Homeowners Association rules to worry about, I don’t think I’m going to be bored.

So, while my girlfriend was away recently I went out to the plant market to get some ideas …..and came back with a handful of orchids.

The girl at the stall said these were oncidiums, but they certainly are not. They look more like the Brassia orchids I used to grow in Australia but with smaller flowers so I suspect they are Brassidiums ( Brassia x oncidium). Two other plants which are just starting to bloom now have bigger flowers and more of them, and look like normal Brassia blooms.

Back in Australia I had nearly 100 orchids so one thing that is definitely going into the garden is a shadehouse, a nice large one. Why not when you can buy orchids at ridiculously cheap prices …. 3 for 100 baht (approx $3US or just over $4AU)

The (relatively) uncommon and unusual orchids that I bought cost me an “exorbitant” 100-150 baht each, but still ridiculously cheap compared to what I paid for similar plants back home.

orchids…

more orchids…

Desert Rose, or Adenium

Bird of paradise

You cannot have a tropical garden without Hibiscus, can you ?

Or a pond full of water lilies or lotus ….

I think I’ll give the bonsai a miss…..they are in the too hard basket.

They also sell full size trees next to the bonsai, just in case you want to buy an instant 5 metre tall tree ?

Beehive ginger

Carnivorous nepenthes

From memory, I paid about 5 times that price for a smaller Nepenthes pitcher plant back home.

Also in the plan are lots of exotic gingers like these Beehive gingers, Heliconias, plenty of Bromeliads for the shadier spots, Bouganvillia along the back fence, and of course some bamboo ….”Buddha Belly” (Bambusa Vulgaris) for a feature and something like B.Multiplex Alphonse Karr for an endless supply of stakes to use in the vegie garden…..have to remember to leave somewhere for the GF to grow her chilli, lemongrass, etc !

If you are a resident looking for a houseplant or two, or a tourist looking to spend an hour or two somewhere different, the plant market is open Wednesday and Thursdays. The opening hours are flexible but for the best choice go fairly early on wed. morning. I arrived at around 9.00am and nearly every stall was open. Some of the info on the internet says that the market is also open tuesday night as people set up their stalls but the stall-owner I spoke to said that is only a few people nowadays.

Apart from the plant sellers there are a few homeware stalls open, and plenty of food is available of course.

The Mor Chit BTS Skytrain station is approx 200m from the market entrance (the closer, weekend entrance is closed) or if using the MRT subway get off at the Kamphang Phet station, it is closer than the Chatuchak station.

PS. the nearby JJ Green Night Market is due to close at the end of this month (August 2018) so don’t go out there !