Spring unveils floral feast for the eyes

Spring has arrived in Beijing and flowers are in full bloom. Over the past two weeks, I have been hopping on free bus rides — a privilege for senior citizens aged above 60 — to visit parks famous for flowering trees such as clove, magnolia, begonia, plum, cherry and peach.

But when I returned home, exhausted by the journeys to floral havens, I realized I need not have bothered to venture too far to see the blossoms. Right in my neighborhood there is an array of seasonal flowers blooming along the narrow path, inside my residential compound and reaching out from the street corners. While sifting through my photo albums of the past decades, I could see that China has become more colorful than ever before.

When I came to work in Beijing 45 years ago, the few flowers we saw in spring were peach, apricot and pear, planted in suburban orchards by farmers for their fruits. My son who was in second grade was asked to write a composition titled "Spring". He observed that willows and grass had begun to sprout, the ice was melting and tree branches were turning green. My poor boy did not have a single word about flowers in his masterpiece.

Back then, growing ornamental trees and plants was a luxury. Food was rationed and every inch of arable land was dedicated to growing grain or fruits to feed the hungry population. When I began learning English in the 1970s, I was puzzled by the Western custom of sending cakes and flowers as gifts. Cakes were good as gifts, but why would anybody give flowers? Could they be eaten?

Decades of development have transformed China's urban landscape. Millions of ornamental trees have been planted in cities and towns to beautify the environment, enabling citizens to live in colorful surroundings. China has blossomed into the world's largest flower-producing country.

Today, there are more than 220,000 flower farms and enterprises with a combined annual output value of 520 billion yuan ($76.16 billion). In 2024, Chinese producers exported flowers to more than 60 countries worth $516 million, an annual increase of 17.78 percent. When a man in London presents a bunch of roses to his beloved, beseeching her to marry him, those flowers will not carry only his affection but also the heartfelt wishes from rose growers in Yunnan province of Southwest China.

The floral industry has become a vital pillar in Yunnan and many other regions, thanks to the greenhouse technologies that allow flowers to bloom even in the cold of North China. The flower industry in China now employs more than five million farmers, offering them higher earnings than growing grain and traditional crops. In many places, flower cultivation has become a powerful tool for eliminating rural poverty.

China's large-scale flower cultivation took root in the mid-1980s in Yunnan. In the initial years, the industry was primarily export-oriented. But following wider acceptance by wealthier Chinese, both the market and the production scale have greatly expanded. Many Chinese families now decorate their homes with fresh flowers and gifting flowers has become a blossoming tradition.

While consumption has grown, the distribution channels have also changed. Flower shops, which once stood at almost all street corners, have now largely disappeared due to the convenience of online shopping. Today, one can receive fresh flowers within one or two days after placing the order online. For a mere one yuan, a rose or a lily can grace your home, which means by spending 20 yuan a week, you can fill your house with the fragrance of flowers.

To meet the needs of consumers, different varieties of flowers have been introduced from all over the world, while hundreds of botanists are working hard to breed new varieties. Modern technologies such as smart greenhouses and soilless cultivation have been widely adopted. A national development plan for the flower industry aims to increase the sales volume to 700 billion yuan by 2035.

For Chinese people, flowers are not only something to appreciate with their eyes and noses but also with their palates. Flower cakes with fillings of treated roses and other flowers have become a well-received specialty of Yunnan. Elsewhere, flower banquets are gaining popularity, featuring dishes that are not only decorated with blossoms but also use flowers as cooking ingredients.

I have tried some flower dishes and can confidently conclude that flowers are not only a feast for the eyes, but also for your palate.

The author is former deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily.

kangbing@chinadaily.com.cn