The story of Liu Zicheng, the flower-growing king of Lingwu

    In late autumn, the hundred flowers wither. Yet when you walk into the flower base of Ningxia Zicheng Flowers, Trees and Penjing Co., Ltd., founded by Liu Zicheng, the flower king of Dongta Town, Lingwu City, what you see instead is nearly a hundred varieties of Chinese rose in brilliant colors, each vying to outshine the others. Most astonishing of all, the miniature Chinese roses bred at the flower base are only the size of a coin, and in striking contrast, the "Overlord" type Chinese rose produces blooms the size of a washbasin. It is understood that on this half-mu nursery, the number of Chinese rose varieties alone reaches more than 100. Liu Zicheng says proudly: "Don't underestimate this half mu of land. Some of the Chinese rose varieties in here may exist only with me in the whole region. These are varieties I collected from all over the country over more than ten years."

More than ten years ago, Liu Zicheng went alone to the homes of villagers in Gansu, Xi'an and other places to buy Chinese rose and rose varieties. "Back then I relied entirely on walking. Every day I had to walk twenty or thirty kilometers of mountain road. Whenever I saw a unique Chinese rose variety at the gate of a villager's house, I would rush over and ask whether they would sell it." All the money he had on him was used to buy flowers, which he then cultivated in his own vegetable plot of more than 20 sq m. At the same time, he enrolled in the planting department of China Agricultural Correspondence University for formal study. Through the combined approach of "local experience" and "formal academic knowledge," Liu Zicheng's achievements in flower cultivation became increasingly evident.

Liu Zicheng also worked odd jobs while traveling to other cities to investigate and learn. After gaining this experience, Liu Zicheng, based on the growth habits of southern flowers, fermented his own farmyard manure at high temperature and placed it in pots as flower fertilizer, then used cutting techniques to cultivate southern Chinese roses, roses and other flowers for self-propagation and self-breeding, enhancing the ability of famous, special, superior and new southern flower and tree seedlings to grow and propagate in the north, and filling the gap in flower and tree seedling cultivation and breeding in Lingwu. After more than 20 years of dedicated research, Liu Zicheng used new scientific and technological achievements to introduce, breed and propagate more than 90 flower varieties including four-season chrysanthemum, dahlia, marigold, morning glory, Boston ivy and Chinese rose, greatly enriching the flower varieties on the northwest market, with sales reaching seedling markets and flower markets both inside and outside the region. As the head of the company, he has grown what began as a few dozen pots of flowers and a 20 sq m greenhouse at the start of his business into a flower industry that now has more than 1,200 mu of flower nursery bases, several hundred varieties, an annual propagation of 800,000 flower plants of various kinds, and a total output value of 2 million yuan, driving a wave of flower planting in Lingwu City and even across the whole region.