Father's Flower cultivation, the golden key to starting a business and getting rich
On a late-autumn morning, breathing in the fragrance of the soil and weaving through the mist, one can faintly see neat greenhouses arrayed in orderly rows... On the 14th, the reporter arrived at the Clivia cultivation base in Zhengtanghe Village, Ganquan Town, Qianshan District, which is currently the largest Clivia cultivation base in the country.
It was still early, yet every greenhouse was already bustling with activity - watering, pruning, shaping the flowers - and the busiest task of all was repotting thousands upon thousands of Clivia plants.
Grower Zhou Fusheng has two greenhouses, with about 60,000 Clivia plants. He told the reporter that Clivia needs repotting in spring and autumn, and now is exactly the autumn repotting season; everyone is busy, and when they cannot keep up they hire local villagers.
Repotting is also a skilled job. Some workers can only repot four or five hundred pots a day, while others can do over a thousand. Zhou Fusheng picked up a pot of Clivia and deftly demonstrated: first remove the original small pot, shake off the soil from the roots, carefully check whether the roots at the base are damaged, then place it in a larger pot, fill it with soil, and tidy the leaves; if any leaf has grown crooked, it also needs to be fixed in place with cardboard and clips, and finally the whole pot must be watered thoroughly. The whole process cannot take too long, and the movements must be even more careful, for fear of damaging the roots and leaves.
Zhou Fusheng said cheerfully that he is from Anshan and came specifically to contract Clivia greenhouses. He likes Clivia very much, and in recent years the value of Clivia has been rising steadily. A small seedling used to sell for at most 2 yuan, and now it can sell for at least 5 yuan. Top-grade seedlings, with leaves as wide as a palm, can sell for 200 yuan. His family has two greenhouses, and they will see returns by next Spring Festival; by preliminary calculation, annual net income can reach more than 100,000 yuan.
The growers at the Clivia cultivation base told the reporter that Anshan Clivia's reputation has long spread fragrance at home and abroad. At this Clivia cultivation base, the vast majority of contractors are from Anshan, and most of them are laid-off workers. It is precisely because they saw the future development prospects of Clivia that they moved their homes into the greenhouses, cultivating Clivia while enjoying a beautiful and pleasant rural life.
According to Wang Yongbao, president of the Anshan Clivia Association, the Clivia cultivation base in Ganquan Town covers an area of 1,000 mu, with 458 greenhouses. It was completed in early last year and has become the largest Clivia cultivation base in the country, a bellwether for the national Clivia market, and more than 300 growers have already settled in the park. At present, about 30,000 people in Anshan grow Clivia. These growers used to work separately, and only as Anshan's urbanization process continued to accelerate did they come together to form a combined force. In August 2010, Anshan Clivia was honored with a registration certificate for geographical indications of agricultural products issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, which means that, following Nanguo pear, Xiuyan slippery mushroom, Xiuyan cashmere goat, and Gengzhuang garlic, "Anshan Orchid" has also become a famous brand agricultural product of Anshan.
Even more noteworthy is that at the beginning of this year, Clivia, known for its elegant and dignified image as a modest gentleman, was given an affectionate name, "Father's Flower," and research and development on topics related to its deep processing has already begun. In the future, the Clivia cultivation base in Ganquan Town will become a center for new product cultivation, an information network center, an exhibition and sales center, and a center for sightseeing, tourism, leisure, and health preservation. Eating Clivia imperial cuisine, drinking Clivia pollen soup, and bathing in Clivia baths - "Clivia culture" will become another selling point for Anshan tourism. At the same time, Clivia, this sturdy "Father's Flower," will also become the "golden key" for more people to find employment, start businesses, and get rich.