What interesting and interesting stories did Sirius bring back when he went to France for seven days?

Rose is not a weak medicine jar, but a fierce field man?!

Ou Yue liked to use grafted seedlings, not because they were excellent, but because she had no choice.

Rose maintenance headache endless red spider, as long as a small spider can be perfectly resolved?!

……

This morning, caught from Mei Ang business trip back, has been good time difference restart work mode "desperate wolf", we quickly conducted a 1h interview.

What I saw and heard in France for seven days, the density of information and the richness of nutrition, let me cover my excited heart while eagerly recording it and sharing it with every rose fan.

You ask me what is Mei Ang? It is a rose breeding company that affects the world)

Q: Uncle Wolf, what did you do when you walked around France for so long this time?

Uncle Wolf: I am working with Mayon Company. This time, I will discuss the details of the next step of cooperation. In addition, I will see how they are doing nursery and learn from their experience. By the way,"Little Sheep"(the sixth generation heir of Mayon Family-Matthias) led me to visit the garden center in France.

Q: We all know that the rose varieties produced by Mayon Company have outstanding disease resistance compared with Austin roses. Is this their main breeding goal?

Uncle Wolf: Meiang's garden rose is completely screened out without spraying pesticides. In their view, disease resistance is not a breeding goal, but becomes the basis of a variety; cut roses, because they are bred in greenhouses, are treated with a little pesticide.

Q: Are their nurseries bigger than ours? High degree of intensification?

Uncle Wolf: The core area of Meiang Company is not large. The company's headquarters are in Nice, with a research centre where new varieties are bred and pre-screened and tested;

There is also a research centre in Lyon, mainly for online sales and bare-rooted seedling sales, as well as for the production and development of products for garden centres; as long as it is in the testing area, it is not sprayed with pesticides. In addition, there are many production bases in other countries and regions.

Q: Did you see any great new varieties at Mayon this time?

Uncle Wolf: In rose breeding, there will be no big breakthrough in flower type and color without new original seed; now the new variety we cultivate is a very good variety that can be raised without spraying pesticide in pure natural state, which is a very valuable new variety.

For example, we all like to fry chicken vine rose, this time saw more than 100 varieties in the test field (they call it "rose area"), some leaves do not have a black spot.

I marked it so they knew it was our chosen variety and they would send it back home and test it in our nursery, and if it was still resistant to disease here, it would be a brand new variety.

Rose in "Rose Hell", no medicine, no fertilizer, still very good!

Q: So, after we bring these excellent varieties back to China for testing, we will meet you later?

Uncle Wolf: Yes. Then let me tell you a little bit about the cooperation with Mei Ang.

This year is the third year of our cooperation. In the first two years, we only signed a simple contract, but he was unwilling to introduce excellent varieties from China. This year, because of the increase in trust, he could give as much as he wanted. I seem to have hung more than 100 varieties ~

Yes, I witnessed your friendship ~

In their test nursery, there are thousands of varieties, but they have only code names, no names; you put labels on which you like, and later they send us these branches. We'll go ahead and test it. Just because a rose grows well in France doesn't mean it grows well here.

Before we can officially recommend these excellent varieties to everyone, we need to do the work: test, take the name, apply for a trademark patent, and then launch…The whole process takes two years.

If you like it, hang a label and you'll pick it up ~

Q: I feel that everyone will be very much looking forward to the more than 100 varieties you have chosen.

Uncle Wolf: Really? Then let's keep curious together, hahaha…For example, Mei Ang Company does not put more than 6 new varieties on the market every year, so the speed at which we put them on the market will not be particularly fast.

More than 100 varieties, to be honest, can be done for several years. Moreover, maybe I will choose more than 100 varieties next year, and then select a number of them the year after next, and then promote them 10 years later (Uncle Wolf, I only admire you for digging holes!)

Q: "No pesticide spraying", what guidance does it have for our next breeding?

Uncle Wolf (suddenly serious face (ω)): Now everyone is blindly pursuing the ornamental nature of the rose, and the care for it is too refined... Next, disease resistance will become a basis for our breeding, and then consider the beautiful flowers, good plant types, fragrance... these things.

Q: You just said you went to the garden center. Are there many people there? In the suburbs?

Uncle Wolf: It was Thursday when I went, which happened to be a working day. There were no people in the store, but there was no one more suitable for visiting, otherwise it would all look at the back of everyone's head. It is said that there are many people on weekends. Especially in this season, now is the home of all kinds of grass flowers.

Q: What is the difference between French garden centers and our domestic garden centers?

Uncle Wolf: Think about it carefully. There are many different places.

Lyon has dozens of garden centers in the city. Because the people they face are different, the garden centers in the suburbs and the city center sell different products. For example, in the garden center of the suburbs, the plants are larger, trees, conifers, fruit trees will be more, and in the city center, fleshy, shade-tolerant plants will be more...

The garden center in the urban area will also integrate other formats, such as book bar, manicure, beauty, catering... You can buy some daily necessities (toothbrush, shampoo, etc.) while buying flowers, which is really integrating gardening into life.

Their garden center design will also be simpler and smarter. Sun-loving plants can be placed in glass houses, and plants such as green plants and ferns can be placed in indoor areas. Plants requiring water will also have shelves like tidal seedbeds for production, with watering valves, which are very convenient for watering.

Q: From your observation, what do you think French flower friends understand about gardening and gardens?

Uncle Wolf: For them, gardening is a way of life that they have been exposed to since childhood. They will buy flowers and plants from time to time to make their homes beautiful.

In Mei Ang's e-commerce department, 500,000 seedlings can be sold a year, while their customer service staff is only four.

"Little Sheep" said that their flower friends do not mind whether the rose seedlings are sold with buds, as long as the seedlings are healthy and not sick. As for the seedlings weaker and stronger, the requirements are not very high. In any case, roses have vitality. After raising them, they will be strong. I think it has a lot to do with the popularization of European horticultural culture.

Let me share with you an interesting story. This season isn't the time when red spiders flood, everyone has a headache. French roses also love to grow "small red", but their solution is not to say to fight drugs, but to launch a special spider to eat red spiders, put in a small pocket, look back you hang on the tree, solve the problem, no pesticides, very environmentally friendly.

Domestic this kind of small spider also somebody sells, but ate red spider commonly, it starved to death, next time you still have to buy again, the effect of such treatment is not good. How did France do it? After the spider ate the spider, they still had to feed the spider regularly. I think it's very interesting.

Q: I heard that you were a judge of the Rose Competition once. Is that true?

Uncle Wolf: Coincidentally. The thing is that the World Rose Association has a branch in Lyon, France, which awards rose breeders every year. I went to catch up with it this time, and then "Little Sheep" pulled me to be a judge. There are Austin's roses, Cordes's roses... all planted in a small park, about 200 kinds.

The selection criteria for fried chicken is simple, that is, whether you like this flower or not, whether you want to plant it in your yard. Yes, it is good; no, it is not good.

50 points for the basic score, according to the degree of your favorite to score, if the flower fragrance you particularly like, you can also add 10 points, because there is a special fragrance award selection. As long as the breed is outstanding in one aspect, it is likely to be retained.

Q: So the awards are so flexible and interesting. Thank you Uncle Wolf for sharing. Finally, can I sum up with you what is the biggest gain of this trip to France?

Uncle Wolf: I should really feel the love of the Mei Ang family for rose from the heart. They do everything from a single starting point: What do rose lovers really want? Build a beautiful rose garden, such a garden is not pesticide, healthy. Therefore, this family business for more than 100 years has not expanded blindly. They have been cultivating slowly: planting roses in the most natural way.

On the other hand, we sometimes set goals that are a bit narrow, blindly pursuing high-value rose varieties.

Next, there may be a series of changes in our scientific research route. The requirements for self will be stricter and more demanding, really for flower friends to consider, cultivate more rose varieties suitable for the local natural environment.

This trip to France also solved a question that had been in my heart for many years: Why does Europe always make grafted seedlings?

Before we always think grafted seedlings grow fast, grow well,"little sheep" said: if I can do cuttage, certainly do not graft.

Originally, most of Europe's soil is alkaline, and rose is like weak acid soil, to alkaline soil will grow poorly, yellowing, lack of nutrients, and even death. So they choose grafting, and the rootstock they usually choose is the dog rose, a plant native to this saline land.

At Meiang's test site, a variety will be grafted and cut at the same time. If the cuttings can grow and grow well, they will not consider grafting at all.

Therefore, grafting seedlings is actually their helpless move. Let's not divide it into "grafting party" and "cutting party"~

In fact, there are too many things, all let me feel deeply, there are many things to learn, can only work harder, and then a little more practical, slowly ~

Okay, that's it for this interview,

Is there anything you're interested in?

What's your little problem?

Please write it down in the message,

Let me pass a note to Uncle Wolf ~

END