Date: 27 June - 20 July, 2014

Location: John Hope Gateway @ Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR, Scotland

Price: Free

 

 

The orchid has always had a unique place in ethnic Chinese culture. In addition to its wide diversity of intriguing shapes and fascinating color combinations, the flower has been extolled in the works of Chinese literati as a symbol of the moral excellence of a man or the beauty of a woman, and some types of orchids have long been used in Chinese herbal medicine. 

 

For many centuries, however, growing orchids was an activity limited to a small group of dedicated hobbyists. That situation persisted in Taiwan until around two decades ago, when the joint efforts of the government, researchers and farmers turned the old hobby into a big business. Taiwan is now the world's largest orchid exporter. In the past two years, Phalaenopsis has a breakthrough in sales of 8 million strains, the highest in Taiwan flower exports and ranked the first among other seedling exports worldwide. Although orchid planting covers only 4% of the overall Taiwan landscape, the sales covers 23 percent of the floral industry. In the international orchid market, Taiwan seizes 50 plus percent of Phalaenopsis seed sources and 40% of the core production technology. These contribute to the idea of ‘roots in Taiwan, blossoms worldwide’.