Chantalle Ng, Who Turns 26 Today, Is Now An Obsessed New Mum… To Her Plants

“Don’t remind me! Don’t put that in the article! (Laughs)” cried Chantalle Ng dramatically when 8days.sg asked how she feels about turning 26.

The actress celebrates her birthday today (Jun 17) and we're having a quick catch-up about her plans over the phone, but we’ll get to that again in a bit.

Jokes aside, Chantalle, who was propelled to a whole new level of popularity thanks to her role as lovable Vietnamese bride Mei Fangcao in Mediacorp drama My Star Bride, is very happy that she’s beginning “to see [her] potential and that she's starting to do well in [her] career”.

“And I think things will get even better as I get older so I can’t wait to get there, but at the same time, I’m trying to learn how to enjoy where I am at 26. One mistake that I made when I was in uni was that I was rushing for it to be over, so I want to remind myself not to be like that and just enjoy the process, said the SMU grad.

But yes, back to her birthday plans.

When she was growing up, Chantalle was lucky enough to enjoy big parties and overseas trips growing up as her mother, veteran actress Lin Meijiao, “placed quite a bit of emphasis on birthday celebrations”.

These two years have been different, of course. While her birthday last year fell during Phase 1 of Singapore’s post-Circuit Breaker reopening, this year’s takes place during Phase 3 (Heightened Alert), so major bashes have to be put on the back-burner.

On the bright side, at least more people will be allowed to visit each household, so Chantalle, who took time off from work, told us that she’ll probably just spend the day relaxing at home with her mum before enjoying a simple dinner at night with a few close friends.

If it weren’t for the virus, Chantalle reckons that she would have been travelling just like she was on her two birthdays before COVID-19.

She considered booking a staycation, but it didn’t happen in the end as she found out that she would be filming The Heartland Hero.

And even after that’s done, it’s hard to say when her staycay plans can actually come to pass as she’ll be starting yet another production in July.

The busy bee certainly isn’t complaining, though.

“I’m just so happy to be back at work. I’ve been collecting a lot of plants at home and it was starting to get a bit too much,” she chuckled. “I got so into plants, you know!”

8days.sg sort of helped to spark her new green hobby, by the way. Well, sort of.

You see, after reading our article on Dennis Chew’s new pad, Chantalle and Meijiao decided to pay him a housewarming visit earlier this month. That’s when she got to check out his impressive collection of rare plants, which includes a S$400 Pink Princess.

The plant bug bit Chantalle hard — she went home from her first shopping trip to the nursery with 14 pots, and that number has since grown to over 20 ‘cos she “couldn’t stop” buying them.

She estimates that she has spent “a few hundred dollars” on plants and their various accessories.

While the new plant mum admitted that she still doesn’t really know how to take care of plants (“I just buy them and hope they don’t die”), she’s been putting in the effort to read up and learn, and recently bought a book to guide her.

She also gets help from Meijiao, who has always enjoyed gardening and keeps her own little plot of plants outside.

So far, Chantalle reported that her plants are doing okay with the exception of one particular leaf that kept on drooping. “I was so stressed out, like, I was wondering, ‘Are you a happy plant?’ Then I realised it was getting too much sunlight so I moved it indoors.”

Now that we know about Chantalle’s newfound love for plants, it’s no surprise that for her birthday, her gift requests are all related to plants.

“I never appreciated them until now,” she said. “In the past, my mum loved to go to nurseries but I found it so boring and couldn’t wait to get home ‘cos plants all looked the same to me. Now, I’ve started to memorise their names!”

Another one of Chantalle’s birthday wishes is to have more and better opportunities for her already-blossoming career.

“I’m very grateful to have productions lined up during this period and I just hope that I will get a good script and I’ll be able to perform it well. My priority has always been work and my career, so other than health and happiness, that is always something that I’ve included in my birthday wishes.”

Photos: Chantalle Ng, Chantalle Ng/Instagram, Dennis Chew/Instagram