Mao Xingdong, a Villager of Bin County and His "Flower Cause"

Over the past few days, Mao Xingdong, a villager of Damaojiatun, Toudao Village, Jingjian Township, Binxian County, has been busy: to receive farmers who have come to consult the cultivation of peony, to repair the tools of weeding and fertilization in the peony nursery, and to go to his flower base to take care of the ready peony seedlings.

Mao Xingdong checked the growth of Paeonia lactiflora in his flower base.

Most of the cultivated land in Jingjian township where Mao Xingdong is located is hilly and hilly, and local farmers make a living by growing dry crops such as corn, soybeans and sorghum. As the economic benefits of planting dryland crops such as corn have been getting lower and lower since last year, planting peony in cold regions cultivated by Mao Xingdong has become one of the options for local farmers to change their planting structure.

Mao Xingdong, 45, applied for a job as a host at a radio station after graduating from a university in Harbin in 1996. Mao Xingdong left after six years of work. Growing up in the countryside, Mao Xingdong had a special affection for land. Mao Xingdong knew that he could not go back to his parents' old path when he returned to his hometown to start a business. He must find another way, feeling that planting peony can change the fate of himself and his family.

Planting peony is easier said than done. Because it is located in the cold area, the peony in the customs can not be planted on a large scale in Binxian County. The wild peony in the mountains has a single variety and low yield. Mao Xingdong went to Luoyang, Wuhan and Jinan to study in Paeonia lactiflora. There, Mao Xingdong saw that the plants of Paeonia lactiflora can be used for urban greening, petals can be used to make scented tea and spices, seeds can be used to extract oil, and roots can also be used as medicine, and there is a great demand for peony in the market, which strengthens Mao Xingdong's confidence in planting peony in Bin County.

In order to grow peony on a large scale, varieties adapted to natural conditions such as local climate and soil must be planted, but there were no varieties at that time. "No, just cultivate it yourself." Mao Xingdong is full of tenacity and aggressiveness.

Since 2004, Mao Xingdong selected the local wild peony in Binxian County as the female parent, and then introduced the more ornamental peony from other provinces, and then let all kinds of peony cross naturally. In order to master the habits of all kinds of peony, Mao Xingdong, a layman, learned while doing, doing while learning. He bought a lot of books on the cultivation of peony, downloaded various materials about peony on the Internet, and consulted experts inside and outside the province. Gradually, Mao Xingdong became a "soil expert" in the cultivation of peony.

The newly planted peony takes five or six years to blossom, so there is only input but no output at the beginning of cultivation. In order to support the family and ensure the continuous investment in cultivating new varieties of peony, Mao Xingdong continued to work in Harbin, handing over the job of managing the nursery to his father and asking for leave to take care of it only during the critical period of peony growth.

April showers bring May flowers. Mao Xingdong's efforts have not been in vain. a few years later, he cultivated more than 200 varieties of cold-resistant peony, including eight colors of red, white, black, blue, pink, yellow, purple and complex colors, and the flower pattern also developed from the original single-petal type with poor ornamental to nine flower patterns such as crown, gold ring, hydrangea and Taige.

The road to success will not be plain sailing. Mao Xingdong's peony business was almost aborted by a change in 2010. One day in the autumn of that year, Mao Xingdong hired someone to raise 100 mu of plantable peony seedlings from a small nursery and prepare to transplant them to the flower base. When he came home for lunch, he was bitten by his dog. Because of the large wound, Mao Xingdong had to be hospitalized to stitch up the wound. It never rains but it pours. When Mao Xingdong was in the hospital for medical treatment, there was another accident at home. A hired villager drove Mao's farm car into a jeep passing through the village. Curing injuries and dealing with traffic accidents delayed the transplanting of peony seedlings and made 20,000 peony seedlings dry up and die. The loss of peony seedlings plus compensation for traffic accidents cost Mao Xingdong more than 200,000 yuan.

Mao Xingdong did not stop by the blow. At his insistence, the undead peony seedlings were transplanted into the flower base, and the planting area was only developed to 10 mu. In 2011, Mao Xingdong quit his job in Harbin to concentrate on managing his flower base.

An extremely cold weather in the winter of 2011 allowed Mao Xingdong's cold peony to pass a test. The extremely cold weather almost wiped out tens of thousands of peony in a plantation in the province, but none of the peony in Maojia peony garden was frozen to death. When a peony expert from the provincial botanical garden heard this, he specially visited the Mao family flower base and excitedly said to Mao Xingdong, "the peony you have cultivated has filled the gap in the large-scale planting of peony population in cold areas in China, especially in Heilongjiang Province."

Now, Mao Xingdong peony garden has reached 20 mu, there are more than 100000 peony, Mao Xingdong finally ushered in the harvest. Mao Xingdong sold his peony seedlings online, registered a WeChat business, opened a blog and set up a QQ sales group. Through the network, Mao Xingdong's peony seedlings have entered the markets of Hei, Jilin, Liao, Lu, Henan and other places. The year before last, a farmer from the Russian state of Amur made a special trip to Binxian County to purchase peony seedlings.

Mao Xingdong said: "I have a dream, that is, to lead the people of the whole village to become rich together. Peony flowers are not mine alone, but the common wealth of our Da Maojiatun." To this end, in the past two years, Mao Xingdong actively invited villagers, especially young people returning to their hometown, to study in his peony base, so as to drive them to join the cause of flowers.

Now, three villagers have tried to grow peony cultivated by Mao Xingdong in their own courtyard. Mao Xingdong also mobilized the villagers to set up a farmhouse to receive visitors to the village to enjoy the flowers. "in the future, I will lead the villagers of the whole village to turn Damaojiatun into a flower village and a tourist village." Speaking of the future, Mao Xingdong told reporters excitedly.