When the opportunity comes, how does the flower and tree industry deal with the challenge?

In recent years, China's flower and seedling industry has entered a period of transformation and adjustment. Under the new development opportunities, people in the industry should have a clear understanding of how to deal with the challenges. At the recent Summit Forum on Ecological Garden Construction and Seedling Industry held in Beijing, Zhang Qixiang, vice president of Beijing Forestry University and director of the ornamental Horticulture Committee of the Chinese Society of Horticulture, made an in-depth analysis of the development of China's flower and seedling industry, the new opportunities faced, the requirements of the new situation on the level of flowers and seedlings, and how to innovate and develop the industry. it provides references and suggestions for people in the industry.

Zhang Qixiang said that since the beginning of this century, China's flower and seedling industry has entered a period of rapid development, with a production area of about 1.3 million hectares in 2015. Since 2011, the industry has entered a period of adjustment, transformation and innovative development. In the transitional period, the flower and tree industry presents the characteristics of technological renewal, product upgrading, improving quality and efficiency, integration and reorganization, and the trend of adjustment is up and down, the development tends to slow down, the adjustment is obvious, and the overall stability. The production area of 1.3 million hectares of flowers and seedlings is currently the largest in the world.

Despite the rapid development, the problems exposed in the development process of the flower and tree industry are very serious, and solving these problems is a great challenge to the industrial transformation.

"there is a surplus in total quantity and prominent structural contradictions; homogenization is serious and low-level repetition; more than 40 species of trees account for more than 60% of the seedling area; lack of varieties with local characteristics; and most of the quality of seedlings is not high." Zhang Qixiang listed all kinds of problems in China's flower and tree industry one by one.

With the development of flower and tree industry, only 4-6 kinds of trees have become the backbone tree species in hundreds of cities in the Yangtze River Basin, Yellow River Basin, South China and Southwest China, and the city has gradually lost its plant landscape characteristics. Of the more than 120 commonly used flower border materials, more than 90% are imported from abroad. Five common grass flowers account for nearly 25% of the total annual and biennial flowers in China, and 90% of the main grass flower species are from abroad.

In the process of development, industrial innovation is obviously insufficient. According to Zhang Qixiang, the total number of new varieties and flowers is small, there is a lack of breakthrough varieties, there is still no major breakthrough in key technologies that are difficult to breed, technology is insufficient to support the industry, and less than 0.4% of flower enterprises are varietal, improved, standardized, and modern.

Zhang Qixiang reminded people in the industry that landscaping construction in the transitional period put forward higher requirements for the flower and tree industry. Landscaping once had the stage of luxurious construction and excessive design, but in recent years it has entered the stage of construction of economical landscape, so higher quality of seedlings is required. Great attention has been paid to the construction and improvement of urban ecological environment, and the demand for diversity of ecological seedlings is more urgent. The transformation from urban-rural dual structure to urban-rural integration, the acceleration of rural landscape construction and ecological construction, and the requirements for the quality of seedlings are improving. With the rapid development of personalized consumption, the consumption capacity of the public has been improved, and the demand for flowers and seedlings to serve families and individuals has been strengthened. There is an urgent demand for native plants, high adaptability, drought-resistant, water-saving and saline-alkali tolerant plants in various regions. The landscaping industry has a great demand for substrate seedlings, and higher requirements for container seedlings, full-crown seedlings and standardized seedlings. Diversification, characteristics, high quality; standardization, matrix, modern production technology; improved varieties, improved variety production, these have become the development direction of flower and seedling production in the transitional period.

In the new era, online auctions and Internet-based sales models are on the rise. For flower and seedling producers and operators, they also have to accept the new sales management model.

Then, under the new situation, how to innovate and develop China's flower and seedling industry?

"Flower and nursery stock enterprises should first take the initiative to find development directions and goals in the major national development strategy, and seize the opportunity." Zhang Qixiang thinks.

The national plan for the integrated and coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei involves two municipalities directly under the Central Government and 11 prefecture-level cities, and eco-environmental protection is one of the important principles. The Yangtze River Economic Belt covers 11 provinces (cities), including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. "Belt and Road Initiative" includes the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, focusing on 18 provinces (regions) in China.

These three strategies mean great opportunities for the flower and tree industry: the ecological environment and greening construction of more than 2 million square kilometers; the promotion of more than 200 urban landscapes; multi-road, multi-belt and multi-point ecological construction; and the improvement of the quality of human settlements in different regions. Therefore, trees and flowers tolerant to drought and salinity in the northern region, trees and flowers resistant to urban pollution, trees and flowers resistant to moisture and heat in the south, native plants, high-quality landscape flowers, diverse flowers and trees and products, there will be a huge demand.

"China's flower and seedling industry must take the road of characteristic development." Zhang Qixiang said. There are more than 7000 species of ornamental plants native to China, and the endemic elements of the flora are high. About 50% of the native plants are endemic to China and its neighboring regions, including about 15000-18000 endemic species. With so many plant resources, it is necessary to strengthen the research and development of characteristic flowers. The flower and seedling industry should pay attention to and strengthen the development of new flowers and seedlings, develop newly discovered species or genera, and develop wild and unapplied species.

Zhang Qixiang believes that the flower and seedling industry should innovate in theory, technology, varieties, products, brands, services, and so on.

For scientific research institutes, it is necessary to strengthen the basic research of flowers, focus on analyzing the molecular mechanism of the formation of important ornamental characters, and strengthen the ecological and physiological research of flowers to find a breakthrough for the research and development of new flowers.

For flower and seedling enterprises, it is necessary to strengthen the cultivation of new varieties of independent intellectual property rights, research and development of container seedling production technology and standardized products. In view of the serious shortage of urban water resources and the shortage of water for ecological greening, people from all walks of life in the industry can focus on developing drought-tolerant and saline-alkali-tolerant flowers, screening and directional cultivation of drought-tolerant ornamental plants, and collecting and screening efficient ecological restoration plants. In addition, flower and seedling enterprises can also pay more attention to the demand of three-dimensional greening for flower seedlings.

Flower and seedling enterprises can adjust in terms of flower diversity and product diversification, develop outdoor perennial flower seedlings such as fine flowering ground cover, long-flowering flowers, woody fruit plants, etc., ornamental conifers, fragrant flowers, indoor low-light flowers; health flowers; pot combinations; indoor decorative flowers, but also develop flower tourism.

In addition, the innovation and development of flowers and seedlings should also strengthen the research on core technology and common technology, strengthen the research and construction of industrial security system, and jointly innovate in politics, industry, learning, research, application and other aspects.