A visit to Quiyi Huang is always exciting and a struggle to find his place on the outskirts of Beijing. Beijing is a very big city. With a registered population of almost 20 million people and millions of labourers doing contract work in the construction industry, its population easily exceeds 20 million. Now you still have to add the 140 million tourists that visit Beijing every year, which increase the number of people in Beijing at any given time to more than 30 million. That is more than half the population of South Africa, all in one city!
Over the years Huang and I exchanged many plants. He was also the first person in China to grow mirabilis successfully from seeds and I have given him good examples of miniata, nobilis, gardenii, caulescens, robusta etc. as well as a prized flowering size Ella van Zijl. These clivias flourish in his shadehouses and many of them surprised me to flower in less than a year after their arrival in Beijing. It is always interesting for me to see how the Chinese breeders hybridise their civia with the South African specie clivia and what the results look like.
The Quiyi family moved their clivia operation many years ago from the north east to Beijing, where the flower markets are. During the Spring Festival, which is the Chinese New Year, the demand for flowering clivia is very high. Many families buy flowering clivia to give to family or friends as a gift. A normal flowering size clivia fetch on average 250 RMB at the numerous flower markets. That time of the year not many plants are in flower, which means that clivia growers have very little competition. This is an ideal time for clivia breeders to get rid of their unwanted clivia to make space for the new seedlings. There is also an increasing demand for high quality clivia, which fetch 1000 RMB and upwards.
Quiyi Huang is famous for the leaf quality of his plants. He also take pride in the quality and the size of the flowers that cannot be easily found on Chinese clivia. They are huge to say the least. Some of his seedlings also produce yellow flowers as can be seen in the photos below. And then there is always something exceptional that will flower like the clivia that produces orange and yellow flowers on the same flower head.
Below are a series of photos. The first being taken on the way to Huang's shade house, the outside as well as inside his shade houses. The shade house linked to the family home is filled with his breeding and collector plants and all his medals and awards are displayed against one wall in the shade house. The other is filled with his selling plants where buyers can select plants without fear of having to put it back again once they heard the price!
Over the years Huang and I exchanged many plants. He was also the first person in China to grow mirabilis successfully from seeds and I have given him good examples of miniata, nobilis, gardenii, caulescens, robusta etc. as well as a prized flowering size Ella van Zijl. These clivias flourish in his shadehouses and many of them surprised me to flower in less than a year after their arrival in Beijing. It is always interesting for me to see how the Chinese breeders hybridise their civia with the South African specie clivia and what the results look like.
The Quiyi family moved their clivia operation many years ago from the north east to Beijing, where the flower markets are. During the Spring Festival, which is the Chinese New Year, the demand for flowering clivia is very high. Many families buy flowering clivia to give to family or friends as a gift. A normal flowering size clivia fetch on average 250 RMB at the numerous flower markets. That time of the year not many plants are in flower, which means that clivia growers have very little competition. This is an ideal time for clivia breeders to get rid of their unwanted clivia to make space for the new seedlings. There is also an increasing demand for high quality clivia, which fetch 1000 RMB and upwards.
Quiyi Huang is famous for the leaf quality of his plants. He also take pride in the quality and the size of the flowers that cannot be easily found on Chinese clivia. They are huge to say the least. Some of his seedlings also produce yellow flowers as can be seen in the photos below. And then there is always something exceptional that will flower like the clivia that produces orange and yellow flowers on the same flower head.
Below are a series of photos. The first being taken on the way to Huang's shade house, the outside as well as inside his shade houses. The shade house linked to the family home is filled with his breeding and collector plants and all his medals and awards are displayed against one wall in the shade house. The other is filled with his selling plants where buyers can select plants without fear of having to put it back again once they heard the price!
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