Taiwan's Flower Industry:Putting Down Roots, Branching Out

The global trade in flowers has grown huge in recent years. Now worth roughly US$100 billion per year, it is sparking an international flower "war." Nations around the world are diving eagerly into the fray, and Taiwan, with a mild climate conducive to blooming flowers year round, is too well positioned to let such a golden opportunity pass it by.

Most of Taiwan's moth orchids are shipped abroad as seedlings. The "two plants in a pot" technique captured in the photo at right is Yu Pin Biological Technology's "secret weapon." The Floriculture Research Center (left) is the only place you're likely to see a greenhouse full of moth orchids in bloom.

Flowers make for a beautiful business, and are also a high-value horticultural product.

The flower industry is comprised of a number of subsectors, including cut flowers, potted plants (with soil as the medium), orchids (with peat moss as the medium), bulbs, seeds, and seedlings. Taiwan's flower industry generates about NT$12 billion in revenues (about 6.6% of total agricultural revenues) on just 13,109 hectares of land (about 1.8% of the island's agricultural land), giving it a very favorable value per unit area under cultivation.

Better still, Taiwan's flower industry is still growing. In fact, flower exports increased tenfold between 1995 and 2008. And during the East Asian financial crisis of 1997, the flower industry was one of only two Taiwanese industries to resist the downturn and post positive growth. (The other was bicycles.)

In 2009, the cabinet-level Council of Agriculture resolved to turn Taiwan into a major player in the global flower business, into a veritable flower power. The COA was particularly enthusiastic about orchids, which have been commercially produced in Taiwan for more than 20 years, have the highest value per unit area under cultivation of any Taiwanese agricultural product, and already account for 23.3% of Taiwanese flower industry revenues. Moth orchids were recognized as one of Taiwan's four premier farming exports as early as 2004 (along with mangos, high-mountain tea, and tilapia), and the COA has now doubled its 2014 production-value target to NT$5.3 billion from an earlier objective of NT$2.65 billion.

The Taiwan flower industry's explosive growth stems in large part from the active involvement of industry, government, and academia.

Research units at National Taiwan University, National Chung Hsing University, and National Chiayi University have thrown themselves into developing new varieties, while Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute research stations have worked with nearby flower growers to develop cultivation and preservation techniques.

TARI established the Floriculture Research Center in Gukeng, Yunlin County, in 2001 to study Taiwan's important export flowers. FRC director Hsieh Ting-fang says that the center focuses on research related to Taiwan's major export flowers-moth orchids (Phalaenopsis), Oncidium (spray orchids), Cymbidium (boat orchids), flamingo lilies (Anthurium), lisianthus (Eustoma), and gladioli (Gladiolus).

Taiwan grows so many flowers. Why has it brought so few to the international market?

First, moth orchids are the only flowers for which we control the germplasm, which provides an incentive to focus on them. Second, flowers for export have to be removed from the soil and shipped with their roots exposed to prevent the transmission of plant diseases. Only a few plants are capable to tolerating this kind of abuse. Third, freshness is crucial in the cut-flower market. One of the industry's major challenges is finding ways to keep flowers looking fresh longer.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Moth orchids, Taiwan's top flower export, are known as the queen of the orchids. Their elegant-looking flowers are shaped like the wings of a moth in flight and last for an amazing two to three months after they bloom. As a result, moth orchids have for the last two years topped the poinsettia as the world's top-selling potted plants.

According to the Netherlands Orchid Society, global sales of moth orchids amounted to some 200 million plants in 2007, over 60% of which (130 million) were produced in the Netherlands. While the Netherlands can export potted orchids to neighboring European Union nations, Taiwan is further removed from its markets and faces much higher shipping costs. Consequently, it has focused on the export of seedlings, of which it sells about 12 million per annum.

In 2007, Taiwan's domestic media reported that Taiwan had handed the "King of Moth Orchids" crown over to the Dutch.

Though Taiwan has in fact fallen behind in terms of both the volume and value of its moth orchid exports, quality and technique, not volume, represent the keys to this kingdom.

Chen Wen-huei, director of the Institute of Biotechnology at National University of Kaohsiung and Taiwan's preeminent orchid expert, says that the Dutch business model is large-scale commercial single-variety potted-plant exports. Given that a potted plant sells for five times as much as a seedling of the same variety, it's no wonder that Taiwan's revenues don't match up. But Taiwan is known for its outstanding high-mix, low-volume production, and surpasses the Dutch in terms of its technology and its mastery over the germplasm. "While overproduction has resulted in the failure of some Dutch companies," says Chen, "Taiwan's moth orchid exports continue to grow."

Oncidium's vibrancy and flamingo lilies' masses of color have made them popular with flower arrangers and turned them into Taiwan's top two cut-flower exports to Japan. The photo shows Qiu Ruizhen, who teaches flower arrangement.

Taiwan is a subtropical island with a mean annual temperature of 22.5oC, which makes it especially suited to growing moth orchids. In operation since the Japanese era, the Taiwanese moth orchid industry is very well developed and virtually all of the larger growers have automated and otherwise integrated technology into their operations.

Industry workers culture and cultivate plants in bacteria-free culture rooms, using agar and other substrates to grow seedlings in glass flasks. Once removed from the flasks, the seedlings are transported to computer-controlled greenhouses complete with fan ventilation and water walls. They are then introduced into RFID-tagged automated beds that are sprayed automatically, the objective being to reduce the likelihood of the plants being damaged when people move them. They remain here until they reach "large seedling" size, at which point they are boxed and exported. The plants spend the entire three years the process takes inside sealed greenhouses.

These orchid greenhouses give Taiwan's moth orchid industry its competitive edge.

In 2004, after a decade of discussion with Taiwan's orchid growers (assisted by the COA), the US agreed to open its market to imports of Taiwanese moth orchid seedlings in growth media, provided that the greenhouses producing them met certain standards. This unusual opportunity helped expand Taiwan's moth orchid exports to the US. Last year, the US surpassed Japan as Taiwan's largest market. In fact, Taiwanese moth orchid exports to the US now account for about 50% of that market and are worth about NT$1.3 billion.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Unlike moth orchids, Taiwan's other potted plant exports have to be removed from their growth media before export, then replanted at their destination. Because this process is expensive and increases the likelihood of damaging the plants, some growers prefer to export cut flowers. Freshness is crucial in the cut-flower market, and Taiwanese growers benefit greatly from being situated virtually next door to Japan, the world's second-largest cut-flower market.

Oncidium, Taiwan's top cut flowers for export, are also known as "dancing orchids." In full bloom, they produce a spike of fine, bright yellow flowers that look like women in long skirts dancing in the wind. The brilliantly colored flowers work well both potted and cut.

Oncidium are native to tropical Central and South America. Brought to Taiwan from Thailand and successfully test-cultivated here more than 20 years ago, they have become one of Taiwan's most important flowers. In fact, Oncidium replaced the chrysanthemum as Taiwan's biggest cut-flower export in 2002, and generated more than US$6 million in exports in 2009.

Huang Shuqin, a manager with Uni Topline Industrial Corporation, which specializes in exporting flowers to Japan, says that Taiwanese Oncidium account for 85% of the Japanese market, leading Japanese to joke that the flowers already have citizenship.

Taiwan's 300-plus Oncidium producers differ from its moth orchid producers in that the 22 million flowers the former export annually are virtually all of one variety (Gower Ramsey) and go to one market (Japan).

"This is our business niche," says Tseng Ming-jin, secretary-general of the Chinese Development Association of Oncidium Production and Marketing (CDAOPM). He says that the near uniformity of variety and market has allowed the industry to establish standard operating procedures for the entire production chain, from cultivation to customs clearance to the wholesaling of their product.

Oncidium producers also jointly lease sales offices and share packaging facilities. Once the orchids are harvested and cut, they are collectively graded, disinfected, preserved, and packaged, then packed in containers and shipped to Japan. This collaborative approach to production saves growers a tremendous amount of money.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

The biggest worry for the Taiwanese Oncidium industry is its dependence on a single flower and single market.

Tsai Tung-ming, a researcher with TARI's Floriculture Research Center, says that Taiwan has long cultivated the yellow Gower Ramsey variety exclusively. If market tastes shift, the flower could quickly lose its market standing to a new variety developed abroad, which would be disastrous for the local industry.

The recent scramble by growers to get their hands on a Gower Ramsey variant-Honey Angel-is a case in point. When the Japanese demanded a licensing fee of ¥5 (NT$1.5) per stem, growers didn't hesitate to pay.

In an effort to diversify Taiwan's Oncidium market, the CDAOPM attended exhibitions in Shanghai last year and Beijing this year. Though local growers have priced their flowers at just RMB3 per stem (including shipping) in an effort to open up the mainland market, Tseng says that ongoing problems with customs clearance and a 23% tariff mean they've yet to make any money at all.

Since transporting cut flowers to the US market via air freight is prohibitively expensive, growers have instead been hoping to implement the moth orchid model-winning the right to ship seedlings in growth media to the US. Medium is necessary because Oncidium don't recover as well as moth orchids from having their roots exposed, and therefore can't travel far.

Oncidium face another as yet unresolved issue-they all flower at about the same time.

Tseng says that while moth orchids are well understood and can be induced to flower when growers desire, the mechanisms that trigger flowering in Oncidium are still unclear. Most growers therefore choose to cultivate Oncidium in screen houses without heating equipment, with the result that most Oncidium bloom in the May-June and September-October periods. The resulting seasonal oversupply causes export prices to collapse from NT$40 per stem to just NT$1 per stem.

Five years ago, Tseng made the switch to greenhouse cultivation in spite of the costs. The use of heating systems enable him to induce flowering a little early-in March-April-which allows him to avoid the seasonal plunge in prices.

Because Oncidium fetches only half as much in the domestic market as it does in the Japanese, Taiwanese growers export more than 90% of their product. But Huang suggests that growers who find it too difficult to adjust Oncidium's flowering season could avoid the cutthroat pricing in the export market by expanding their domestic sales.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

A new star appeared on Taiwan's cut-flower scene in 2002, jostling with moth orchids and Oncidium for a share of the limelight. Since then, Taiwanese flamingo lily (Anthurium) exports have taken Japan by storm and likewise earned their Japanese "citizenship" by claiming a whopping 90% of that market.

Anthurium is a perennial herb native to Central and South America, and an atypical flower. Instead of petals, it has a brightly colored heart-shaped spathe (a large leaf) surrounding a central spadix. Popular with flower arrangers in Japan, it has become Taiwan's number-three flower for export and generated export revenues of nearly US$4 million in 2009.

"The flamingo lily's Mandarin name sounds a bit like the Taiwanese for 'give something good,' and the flower is often used to win someone's affections," says Lin Chin-shan, who presides over Kaohsiung's Green Flower Transportation and Sales Cooperative. He explains that where the petals of most flowers vary in hue, the entire spathe of Anthurium is of a single shade, clean and brightly colored, the color depending on the variety. Together, Anthurium's spathe, spadix, and gently parabolic flower stalks embody all three fundamentals of design: point, line, and plane.

Taiwan began cultivating flamingo lilies in the 1980s, and at one point suffered a complete crop failure brought on by golden nematodes.

Though Anthurium's tolerance of temperature variations makes it well suited to screen house cultivation, many producers prefer to grow it in W-shaped troughs containing soilless media (coconut shells, sawdust, rice husks, or florist foam) to prevent nematode damage. To further minimize the risk of pest damage, the majority of these growers do not admit visitors to screen houses growing flamingo lilies.

Unlike Oncidium, 90% of which is sold abroad, some 40-50% of the flamingo lily crop goes to the local market.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Japan is the largest market for Taiwan's flamingo lily exports. Growers airfreight their highest-grade, most expensive flamingo lilies there overnight, leaving consumers seven to 10 days to enjoy their flowers before they wither.

Since the COA's Tainan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station developed a preservative spray that greatly extends flamingo lilies' "vase life," growers have also been able to send them to Japan by sea, which takes four days, reducing their shipping costs from NT$10 per stem to just NT$6 per stem. This has proved a boon to growers, who have seen exponential increases in their export volume.

Lin Chin-shan, a 2007 recipient of the COA's Shennong Award, used to grow moth orchids and roses, but began growing flamingo lilies in 1997 in an effort to keep his business alive. He says that unlike moth orchids and poinsettias, which are greenhouse grown using standard practices, "Flamingo lily cultivation is labor intensive and not easily automated. Also, if you get pests, the damage is difficult to control. Big corporations and conglomerates aren't interested in the business, which allows small farmers to survive."

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

While Taiwan's army of small and medium-sized growers have been helping it gain market share, its research institutions, including its agricultural research and extension stations and the Floriculture Research Center, have been striving to provide growers with scientific data and assistance. Among these are more advanced techniques to delay flowering, which benefit growers' wallets and the environment by enabling growers to adjust the flowering season of their moth orchids in a more energy-efficient manner.

Tsai Wei-ting, a researcher with the Floriculture Research Center who just recently licensed out her patent for Tainung No. 1 Pixie, a small-blossomed moth orchid, says that moth orchids usually require sustained cool temperatures (15-18oC) and ample light to develop a flower stalk and blossom. Growers used to have to burn fuel to heat their greenhouses to above 30oC to delay flowering. It was a terribly wasteful process. Nowadays, growers use plant growth regulators, and adjust their plants' exposure to light and shade. By inhibiting the plant's ability to photosynthesize, they keep it "half starved," delaying flower stalk emergence and flowering.

The Floriculture Research Center has also built a "physiological test platform" for moth orchids which helps growers deliver better post-sales service.

Taiwan's moth orchid exporters utilize a "relay cultivation" model, which means that large seedlings are shipped to greenhouses abroad where other growers continue to cultivate the flowers and eventually induce flowering. However, because the model lacks a follow-up mechanism, Taiwan's growers don't know how well the seedlings grow and flower abroad. Lacking information, they can't improve on old varieties or develop new ones, and they can't effectively negotiate prices.

Tsai says that in the future, the center will test varieties for growers and offer recommendations on issues such as the appropriate temperature for flowering and which varieties are best suited to different export destinations. She hopes to quickly get a database up and running to better guide growers.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

A number of difficult issues remain to be resolved before the local flower industry can really take flight. These include the small size of the domestic market and the number of international rivals waiting in the wings.

Taiwan's flower market truly is very small. Estimated per-capita expenditures on flowers amount to just NT$850-950 per annum. As a result, the slightest overproduction or impediment to exports raises the specter of plummeting prices.

When growers in Kunming in mainland China's Yunnan Province shipped several containers of carnations to Taiwan via Thailand and Vietnam in 2008, the local market immediately collapsed. In the run-up to this year's Mothers' Day, exporters of cut flamingo lilies to the Japanese market found their goods bumped from the shipping schedule. (Since the opening up of direct flights across the Taiwan Strait, mainland Chinese exporters have begun making use of empty Taiwan-bound planes to fly cargo to Japan via Taiwan, a much cheaper option than direct flights.) Unable to ship their goods abroad, the Taiwanese exporters had to sell their product to the local market, causing local flower prices to plunge and growers to suffer.

Taiwan's flower growers must aggressively develop international markets beyond Japan. Lin thinks that they not only need to develop new markets but also to replace their current "swarm" approach to production with "planned production."

Julia Wu-Chiang, general manager of Foreport Enterprises, which imports varietals, says that her company limits the volume of flowers (such as baby's breath-Gypsophila) that it imports and licenses in an effort to avoid the kinds of spikes in supply that collapse prices and harm growers. "It's a win-win strategy that maintains market prices and protects growers' earnings."

Neither industry, nor government, nor academia worries overmuch about the industry's ability to handle tough competition.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Take, for example, the Netherlands' 2007 displacement of Taiwan as the world's top exporter of moth orchids. Chu Chien-young, a professor in the Department of Horticulture at National Chung Hsing University, says that we needn't fret over other people's ambitions. The global moth orchid market is growing at an exponential rate. Even if Taiwan's flower industry devoted all its land and capital to moth orchids, it could only grow its output by 20% per year. There's simply no way we could corner all of such a large market.

Hsieh Ting-fang points out that the Dutch market for moth orchids is limited to Europe, while Taiwan's primary markets are Japan and the US, and notes that even the US alone offers tremendous potential for growth. Moreover, the Dutch produce only one variety and their quality currently isn't high enough for them to be able to make a move into the US market. But the fact that one Dutch company, Floricultura, is building greenhouses in California should serve as a warning to the Taiwanese industry.

Taiwan not only has a quality advantage, it's also growing its moth orchid exports. For example, Yu Pin Biological Technology, Taiwan's largest grower, shipped 170 containers of seedlings to the US last year. At 20,000 seedlings to a container, the company exported a total of about 3.4 million plants worth NT$440 million. Company chair Chang Neng-i says that Yu Pin has been growing its exports by 30-40% per year and forecasts that the company will ship 220-250 containers this year.

"The market is huge," says Chang, who also chairs the Taiwan Floriculture Exports Association. "One company trying to control it all would be akin to a single individual attempting to ladle out all the water in a rushing river. Why fear competition?" Chang is confident, open to competition, and optimistic about the potential of the US market.

With the Taipei International Flora Expo set to open in November, six exhibition halls are nearing completion. The photo shows EXPO Hall, located in the Fine Arts Park on Zhongshan North Road, Taipei. The 1,200-seat hall will be the site of the Expo's opening and closing ceremonies, as well as of major performances.

Chang points out that sales of the number-one flower in the US, the poinsettia, reach 50 million plants every November-December. "How many [US] greenhouses does it take to handle all those plants?" asks Chang. "Is it economic to keep them idle outside of the poinsettia season? If some of those greenhouses were used to cultivate moth orchids, wouldn't that soak up all the seedlings we can produce here in Taiwan?"

Chang is promoting "two plants per pot cultivation" as the industry's "secret weapon."

As the name suggests, Chang's approach is to grow two moth orchids per pot. If each plant produces two flowering stalks, that means four stalks per pot. With twice the number of flowers, the plants are even more saleable. Chang says that makes the approach a "slam dunk" in the market.

Chang has also developed a "tall pot" that enables orchid leaves, which usually lie flat, to grow at a 45-degree angle. This angle, which doesn't affect photosynthesis, makes watering easier and inhibits the transmission of diseases. It also saves space in the pot, making it suitable for use with the "two plants per pot" technique.

Last year, technological breakthroughs helped Yu Pin produced some 8 million seedlings in 70 sterile laminar flow cabinets. This year, the company has added 10 more cabinets and expects to quadruple production to 30 million seedlings at a lower cost per unit.

Chang says that it costs Yu Pin less than NT$2 to produce a seedling. Energy and labor costs in the Netherlands and Germany are eight times higher than those in Taiwan. As a result, it costs NT$30 to produce seedlings there. Given this kind of advantage, why would Taiwan fear competition?

Global flower and potted plant production, ranked by market share (2008)/Source: AIPH

Chu Chien-young says that given the Netherlands' preference for single-variety cultivation and mass production, Taiwan will never be able to match its volume. But Taiwan is "absolutely unbeatable" in terms of variety and distinctiveness. What it needs to work on is conceptual innovation.

Chu offers an analogy: garment factories produce great quantities of clothing, but are imitators that are always rushing to keep up with the latest fashions. On the other hand, fashion designers never advertise their production capacity, and instead set standards for the masses. "Setting fashion, creating fashion is the way to the top!" he says.

Chu, known as a master of breeding new varieties, stresses that Taiwan's flower industry cannot simply pander to the market. "People want big flowers, so we grow big flowers. They want little flowers, so we produce little flowers. They want white flowers, so we devote everything to growing white flowers...." There's nothing forward looking about such an approach, which means that other nations can easily match it.

The flower export business may deal in beautiful ephemera, but the competition is in it for the long haul. As Chang says: "The race has only just begun, and Taiwan has the strength to push the pace."

Most of Taiwan's moth orchids are shipped abroad as seedlings. The "two plants in a pot" technique captured in the photo at right is Yu Pin Biological Technology's "secret weapon." The Floriculture Research Center (left) is the only place you're likely to see a greenhouse full of moth orchids in bloom.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

Lin Chin-shan (second from right), a 2007 recipient of the Council of Agriculture's Shennong Award, established Kaohsiung's Green Flower Transportation and Sales Cooperative eight years ago. Lin is an enthusiastic advocate for the flamingo lily growers of Neimen Township, Kaohsiung County.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

In late May of this year, the Taiwan Orchid Growers' Association attended the UK's RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the first time and came away with a silver medal for Taiwanese orchids. In the photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II takes in the flowers and remarks on the beauty of moth orchids with Katharine S.Y. Chang, Taiwan's representative in the United Kingdom.

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said that leaves fall in love and produce the flowers. Tang-Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote, "The clouds remind me of her raiment, the flowers of her face..." Whether moth orchids, hibiscus, or Japanese camellia, whether pale white or deepest red, the world of flowers is filled with wonder and romance. The photo shows the double-petaled NCHU No. 3, a Kalanchoe blossfeldiana variety bred in Taiwan.

To keep pest damage from getting out of control, flamingo lily growers often raise their plants in soilless media in screen houses, into which no visitors are allowed.