Rose blooms paint the whole city in splendor: what Huaian locals should know about this city flower

Huaian in May

Roses in bloom are especially enchanting!

Huaian Rose Garden

Beijing South Road Rose Avenue

The history of Huaian roses

Xu Bin, a staff member of the Rose Studio at the Rose Garden, says that Huaian was once prosperous because of the canal and salt transport, and the cultivation of garden flowers and trees flourished along with it. During the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing Dynasty, roses were already being sown and cultivated in Huaian, and they reached their peak during the Xianfeng and Tongzhi reigns.

Liu Chuanchuo, a Huaian native of the late Qing Dynasty, wrote in his Rose Flower Manual: "Roses flourished in the early Tongzhi years, when they first began to be widely planted in the Huaian and Yangzhou area. Rare and exotic varieties were mostly grown from seed, and it is fitting that the floral records of those years did not include them."

Liu E's The Travels of Lao Can says: "Huaian roses were originally famous, with a great many varieties, about seventy or eighty named kinds, among which Blue Field Jade was the finest." Hence Chen Zhi's Study of Ornamental Trees verifies: the planting of roses began in Qingjiang and Huaian, Jiangsu.

Chronicle of major events in Huaian roses

In 1985, the Standing Committee of the Huaiyin Municipal People's Congress passed a resolution designating the rose as the city flower.

In 1987, the city's Rose Garden was established, with more than 700 rose varieties planted, making it one of the bases collecting and propagating the most rose varieties in the country.

From 1993 to 1994, well-known domestic rose experts appraised 1,025 modern and old roses at the Huaiyin City Rose Garden, identifying 20 varieties and 38 plants of old roses. Huaiyin became the city preserving relatively many old rose varieties in China at that time.

In May 1995, the Rose Garden was rated by the Chinese Rose Society as one of the nation's "eight major" rose centers.

In 2013, the Rose Garden upgrading and renovation project was completed, merging the Rose Garden with the former zoo, and in November it opened to the public free of charge.

Huaian roses win major awards repeatedly

In recent years, the city's Rose Garden has won many honors:

In 2015, the Rose Garden's entry in the 2015 China (Nanyang) Rose Show won the special prize for potted roses, the gold award for bonsai roses, and the silver award for potted roses;

In 2016, the Huaian exhibition garden "Reflections of Flowers on the Huai" built by the Rose Garden for the Beijing Intercontinental Rose Conference won the special prize, and its fine potted roses won gold and bronze awards;

In 2017, at the 9th China Flower Expo, the roses "Marco Polo" and "First Lady" submitted by the Rose Garden won silver and excellence awards respectively; in March 2017, the Culture Working Department of the Rose Branch of the China Flower Association was established at the Rose Garden.

How are roses cared for?

The roses in the Rose Garden bloom on schedule at the end of April each year, showing the public their astonishing beauty, and the process of nurturing that beauty often begins in the winter of the previous year.

Every year from December to January, the staff prune, fertilize and disease-proof the roses in the garden. Take simple pruning: for a rose plant, usually three or four of the thickest branches are kept, "no more than five branches at most, and pruning follows the principle of outward-facing buds. In addition, this is the time to fertilize the roses, generally by hole application of organic fertilizer combined with compound fertilizer."

In addition, every seven to ten days the roses must be sprayed with pesticide to prevent various pests and diseases. When the roses bloom abundantly from April to November, spent flowers must also be pruned diligently: "Besides the spent flowers, remove the three to four leaves below them, to ensure the flowers below can bloom beautifully."

How can ordinary residents care well for potted roses at home?

"Roses love light and need ventilation. When caring for them, whenever you see the soil in the pot turn white, water thoroughly."Xu Bin says fertilizer is indispensable for plants, and residents growing roses can make full use of "kitchen waste": "Potato peels, fish scales and vegetable leaves can all be used, but they must be diluted with water and fermented first." As for pests and diseases, Xu Bin suggests regularly using fungicide to "drench the roots," focusing on prevention.

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