In China

[BrianMc]

I've been told by a French Nursery man that the E.grusonii market is dead beacause they are grown in fields in China and exported to Europe for next to nothing.

[ralphrmartin]

Colin Walker Wrote:
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> Never mind the weedy, invasive, alien cacti, wot
> about the native Chinese succulents - have you
> seen any of these?


Yes, I did see a member of the Crassulaceae (about 3cm across, rosette of leaves, starting to make a tall flower spike) on a rock face near the Great Wall, not too far from Beijing, but it was tantalisingly just too high up to get a good look at it.

[pijaya]

China didn't import these plants for sale otherwise the price wouldn't be that cheap. There are field grown mass production of cacti in souther China I beleive. I recall seeing hundreds of impressively large E. grusonii imported from China in Thailand. They are almost 2 feet diameter and cost only about 1500 baht (30 GBP). Most of these plants have been grafted when young and grown with buried stocks on field as if they are vegetables. They also mass produce crested Ariocarpus and such rare plants by grafting so the prices are very competative compare to plants from Europe, USA, or Japan.

[Kada]

they do grow them but they do also buy them for sale. there are growers here in taiwan that export to china for resale. the places in china buy them by the thousands DIRT cheap and resell them for more (usually still dirt cheap!). one fellow here was saying he put together an order of asterias crests for china and they only paid about $10-20 a pop for them

wish i could get them at that price!

[ralphrmartin]

Pijaya,

thanks for the explanation. Grafting could explain the lack of roots. Last year I was hear I also saw some nice Monadeniums as big as your fist for 30p, in a wholesale flower market! They would certainly need a warm climate.

[Colin Walker]

ralphrmartin Wrote:
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> Yes, I did see a member of the Crassulaceae (about
> 3cm across, rosette of leaves, starting to make a
> tall flower spike) on a rock face near the Great
> Wall, not too far from Beijing, but it was
> tantalisingly just too high up to get a good look
> at it.


Hi Ralph,

Keep looking, but I was teasing really 'cos there are very, very few native Chinese suucculents - pity considering it's such a vast country.

The only one I know about, grow and indeed have written about is Pilea peperomioides from Yunnan, but as you've hinted there are also some Crassulaceae.

Anyhow have a great trip.

[ralphrmartin]

Colin Walker Wrote:
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> Keep looking, but I was teasing really 'cos there
> are very, very few native Chinese suucculents -
> pity considering it's such a vast country.

But there's loads of weird root vegetables they eat here, and I'm sure some BCSS members would pot them up and call them caudiciforms!

[Colin Walker]

ralphrmartin Wrote:
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> But there's loads of weird root vegetables they
> eat here, and I'm sure some BCSS members would pot
> them up and call them caudiciforms!

Hi Ralph,

'tis fair enough to call anything with an underground succulent storage organ and aerial shoots a caudiciform. They should be growing these things for pleasure not for food.

[DaveW]

"I've been told by a French Nursery man that the E.grusonii market is dead because they are grown in fields in China and exported to Europe for next to nothing."

But not sold here for that Brian, so somebody is making a big profit unless it is transport costs?

DaveW

[IanW]

I never understood the E. grusonii option anyway. Sure it looks nice but lots of cactus do but aren't grown in that bulk to that size. It's not like it's even particularly hardy or a fast grower, so why did it become so prominent over say some of the lovely red spined Feros that also look great or Melocactus or Uebelmannia etc.? There's plenty out there that look as good as E. grusonii even to your average joe that doesn't know his different cactus inside out.

Surely it was obvious prices would plummet so why do all the nurseries put themselves in such a situation in the first place? It would seem good business sense if your competitor was growing fields and fields of E. grusonii not to go and do the same but to instead grow Feros or something instead!!!