Floral sector blossoms as demand sprouts

Shandong flower firms cultivate varieties, venture into exports

The floral sector in Shandong province, a major agricultural base in China, has seen fast development in recent years thanks to efforts made in developing technologies to cultivate new varieties of seedlings that are able to produce flowers in rich colors and shapes, catering to consumers' various demands.

In Huanglou township of Qingzhou, a county-level city of Weifang, flower cultivation workshops line the streets. Among these, a butterfly orchid base stands out for its stunning display of plants of the same name.

In one of the base's greenhouses, butterfly orchids of different colors such as yellow, white, red and pink are in full bloom, emitting a faint fragrance.

Some of its workers were packaging single orchids into plastic containers heading for supermarkets. Some were arranging butterfly orchids of different colors into a wooden frame that would be added to a landscape.

Over the past 20 years, Shandong Lyusheng Butterfly Orchid Science and Technology Co Ltd, which owns the base, has independently developed more than 200 new varieties of butterfly orchids and can produce over 2 million seedlings every year.

These varieties cater to consumers' differing tastes, which has expanded the market for the company.

"Our flowers are sold in many provinces," said Wang Minzhi, chairman of the company.

"Instead of buying butterfly orchids from Shanghai, we now sell a lot of flowers to Shanghai," he added.

Qingzhou, which is home to 960,000 people, has 315 large and medium-sized flower producers like Lyusheng, said Zheng Dongpeng, deputy director of the Qingzhou flower industry development service center.

The county boasts more than 3,000 flower varieties, and the volume of trade generated from the floral-related sector reached 12.6 billion yuan ($1.76 billion) in 2022, according to statistics provided by the center.

The county also sees booming development in succulents. Succulent seedlings and plants account for 80 percent and 60 percent of the national market, respectively, said the center.

In Heze, a city known for its peonies, 100 million stems of fresh peonies have been sold this year, making the city the biggest fresh peony production base in China, according to Heze's peony Industry Development Service Center.